Where did the idea start of completing a solo bicycle tour somewhere in China, preferably away from the big cities and all English speakers. Well it was simple really, I went into China for the first time in 1984, Trudi and I took a day trip/tour into Guangdong province from Macau while on our honeymoon.
We found the shops sparsely stocked. The photo above is Trudi outside the souvenir shop at Dr Sun Yat Sen's residence. 8/5/1984. They had Coco-Cola though.
We were taken to a kindergarten and the children kindly put on a dancing show for us :-) This is Xiangzhou.
This is me at a market in Xiangzhou. I don't think the food handling laws have changed much, but there was a very depressed feel about the stalls and shops compared to now. Very little advertising and not commercial at all and nothing remotely aimed at tourists.
We went back for a much longer self guided tour in 2009 on our 25th wedding anniversary. We both loved these trips and were amazed at the difference we saw.
One morning in Guangzhou during our 2009 trip, we eagerly went to a restaurant for a yum cha breakfast, but found it worked differently to Melbourne, Australia. We were given a piece of paper covered in Chinese writing and a pencil so we could tick our choices. There were no trolleys and not many dishes on nearby tables we could point at. After waiting far to long and only getting some tea, we left bitterly disappointed. I think this started the spark that it would be good to know some basic Mandarin for ordering dishes.
This photo was taken in 2009 at Chen Family Temple, Guangzhou. We are with many Chinese people because surprisingly even in the big international city of Guangzhou, Trudi and I were very often asked for our photo please! I don't know if it was my hairy legs or Trudi's blond hair. It will be interesting to see if things have changed when we go back Christmas 2014 for our 30th Wedding anniversary celebration trip. It may be interesting because this time we are taking our children and their partners, so 6 Westerns in one place...
Since 2009 I have been trying to learn Mandarin off and on going to evening classes. My Mandarin is terrible and I have forgotten most of what I have learned, but there is a sort of slow improvement and if you can say any words of Mandarin while in an isolated part of China, it is very well appreciated by the locals and makes the trip immensely more enjoyable. This was the start of my fascination with Chinese culture, people, laws, and policies.
I also have a passion for cycling, it is a wonderful method of transport, great for fitness, no pollution/green house gases and reduced congestion on the roads. I occasionally go on bicycle tours with MBTC, and completed a thoroughly enjoyable week long cycle tour around Kangaroo Island with the club a number of years ago.
So this started a dream of cycling around China one day, in a group or solo.
Trudi and I also went to Beijing in 2013, I did a weeks Mandarin training and Trudi came for the second week for sightseeing. I stayed with a host family for the first week and the course provided the use of a bicycle during my weeks training. After being shown the way from my host's apartment to the course location via a very crowded bus, I jumped at the chance to use the bicycle everyday and did not take another bus until my last day when I had to return the bicycle.
This is a short video I took while riding home to my Beijing homestay. It start at the largest intersection and finishes near my home stay. It shows the relative calm easy section, I wish I had videoed the really crazy part. Early morning in front of the CCTV building, riding with my host. Because I had the use of a bicycle, very early each morning my host took me on long bike rides to various parks where he taught Tai Chi, this added greatly to my enjoyment of the trip and allowed me to travel and interact with my host in a deeper and more enjoyable way then otherwise. Cycling with thousands of Chinese in the crazy crazy Beijing traffic was one of the most enjoyable bike rides I have ever completed. I was also incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to participate in the first Beijing Vintage ride (modeled after the British Tweed rides). This ride was held on my free Saturday mid trip while I was waiting for Trudi to fly in that night. This Beijing experience convinced me that not only was it possible to consider cycling in China, but that it would be wonderful and I should just make my plan to go, no more language practise is required, put my dream into action, just do it! One of the Vintage organiser, Shannon Bufton, is from Melbourne, I hired (or so I thought, but actually had bought it for $15, including jacket, pants, shoes and cap) my mao suit from Shannon and gathered outside his bike shop with other expats before heading off to the start of the ride at Worker’s Gymnasium west gate. It was great getting the chance to chat to expats to understand their desire to live and work in Beijing. The locals dressed wonderfully in old English styles, and some went to great lengths with their hair etc. They had incredible touches, watches, old polaroid cameras etc, I think they must have been planning and preparing for the ride for months!
