China bicycle tour 2001
Copyright 2002: René Maassen
rene_maassen@zonnet.nl
Nederlandse (Dutch) versie
Press F11 for full screen
 |
 1). At June 10th 2001 we arrive in Tianjin by boat from Japan. We want to go as fast as possible to Mongolia (that is a summer-only destination).  2). China is a huge country. Mongolia is already 3 times as large as France! (France is the size of Texas). We have a double entry visum for China for 2 months at a time.  3). At June 10th we sail into Tianjin port. This is a grim city full with coal smog and dust. The whole city is covered with a 5 mm thick coal dust layer. That is in line with the populair prejudges about China. Customs however, are very friendly and helpful. The import of our bicycles is problem free. We are in China now for the first time in our lives, and without problems. That is NOT in line with populair critical and negative prejudges about China! So far so good!  4). 2001/06/11. A street in Tianjin. The streets are quiet. Many people ride bicycles, "people's transportation" in China. We ride to the bus station and take a bus to Beijing.  5).2001/06/11. Northern main street at "The Square of Heavenly Peace" in Beijing. In the background is the main gate to the "Forbidden City". From that balcony Mao proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China on October 1th 1949. We arrange a train ticket to UB (Mongolia) for tomorrow. We are bicycling through Beijing, that makes good fun! Despite the fast growth of the number of cars in recent years, China is still a country where bicycles are very large in numbers.  6). 2001/06/11 Beijing. The southern gate to "The Square of Heavenly Peace".  7). 2001/06/11 Beijing. An outside part of "The Forbidden City".  8). 2001/06/12 Beijing. The train to Moscow goes via Ulaan Bator. We are well on time. The main conductor does NOT takes us on the train: he refuses to take our bicycles. The train leaves without us.  9). 2001/06/13 Beijing. All negative prejudices about Chinese are wrong again. With the help of many friendly Chinese, it is arranged for us to go with this train. Our bikes travel with us, now as checked luggage. The lady from the (former) Chinese state travel agency CITS has fought like a bear for us to make this possible. Shi-Shi. Mafan niele! ("Thank you very much, sorry for all the trouble I have caused you": A very powerful Chinese expression).  10). 2001/06/13. In the train to UB. China's development shows extreme contrast. This picture was taken from the left window........  11). This picture was taken a few seconds later from the right window....... Millions of Chinese live in brick houses without paved roads.  12). The train rides a long stretch next to "The Great Chinese Wall". This man made structure is visible from the moon with the bare eye. This is a persistant fairy tale that all people copy from all people, but it's NOT true. Another persistant prejudges back to the moon. That leaves us with all the other persistant fony fairy tales that are cr@! too: Salt use, salmonella in eggs, cholesterol in eggs, shampoo's with vitamines, influenza caused by draft, vitamine C as influenza cure, nutricious value of butter, vitamines in potatoe's etc. Sorry, I couldn't help myself not mentioning this. The train rolls on along The Wall".  13). The Great Chinese Wall. It helps if you are a skilled mountaineer to climb this wall: it's so darned steep! On this section the wall looks like new. It IS new. This part was thorn down some 30 years ago as cheap construction materials for militairy barracks. Later the Chinese felt sorry about that (top tourist attraction gone) and rebuild it from scratch. The air quality doesn't look hazy: it IS hazy. The level of dust-particles-per-unit (air quality) in north-east China is the eightfold (!) of the WHO maximum. Photo by John Scane. Here stops the first part of our China trip (we where here only 4 days). You can click yourself to Mongolia from here. After a stay of 2 months in Mongolia, we returned to China. Part II of China follows here. From August 6th 2001 till November 7th 2001, so 3 months this time. Because I have made a technical mistake, the following pictures are in smaller size (the large size ones where lost). They are still interesting, anyway. Have fun! 14). 2001/08/06. We return to China, from Ulan Bator. With the train to the border and then by Chinese sleeping bus to Beijing.  15). 2001/08/06, Beijing. Rene and Jolanda at Tianamin Square (Square of heavenly peace). Behind us is the entrance gate to the forbidden city, that we are about to visit.  16). Above the main gate to the 'forbidden city' is the picture of Mao displayed, whose herritage rules over China after several 'market reforms' that I would have loved to hear his opinion about.  17). Detail from one of the many entrance doors.  18). One of the many squares inside the 'forbidden city'. It is indeed a complete city. It is grand and beautiful. 'The people' where not alowed to come here, hence the name at the times of the Chinese imperial court. The last (Qing) emperor was kicked out in 1911 by the republicans, that soon where kicked out of the Forbidden city by the military to reign there themselves. A period of chaos and deterioration followed where warlords ruled the country till Mao took Beijing in 1949 after his long march and proclaimed 'The Peoples Republic of China' from the entrance gate to here on October 1th 1949. Only after the 'reforms' of the last ten years, the economic growth of China showed spectaculair growth.  19). Waterbowl, that was used for stopping fires.  20). The next square, one of the many, in this enormous forbidden city.  21). Alley, it is nice to roam here. Everything is well maintained.  22). We leave the Forbidden city through these enormous doors that stayed closed for centuries for terrestial mortals like us.  23). You are in Peking, and ask yourself; "what shall I eat tonight?". Peking Duck ofcourse! Such nice fat 'n tasty duck tastes great! It is eaten with a kind of pancakes and thick soya sauce. The preparation is a complex mixture of boiling, marinade, smoking, and roasting. The soft meat is then cut from the bones and served. A soup is coocked from the the bones, and is served at the end of the dinner (chinese always eat their soup at the end of the dinner.) Houh-zheh! "Delicious!".  24). The Square of heavenly peace (Tianamin) is sometimes called the largest square in the world, but I don't like that sort of claims, so I won't use it. It is indeed very large, this picture just shows a part of it. It is not my idea of "Heavenly Peace, but at least it is car-free. It is even illegal to take your cicycle on the square!  25). On August 9th there are 2 seats available on the nighttrain (50 hours) to Chengdu. Our visa allows us only 2 months in China. Southern China is more interesting to bicycle than Northern China. In Chengdu we want to bike to Lhasa in Tibet and then to Kathmandu in Nepal.  26). Chengdu is the capital of the province Sichuan (si=4 chuan=rivier: The province of the 4 [large] rivers). It's also here where the last wild panda-bears are surviving. We visit the "multiplication project". Here as many a possible panda's are bred, to be released in the [far] future.  27). What a quite and lazy animals these are! They eat bamboe and rest the rest of the day. Hopefully the Chinese government succeeds to save these animals for extinction, because they are too quite to let that happen!  28). In Chengdu it is time for a hair cut again. The costs: 5 RMB (0,65 Euro).  29). From the police in Chengdu, we hear that the road to Tibet from here is NOT open to [western] bicyclists. Therefore we adapt our plan; now we'll ride to Bangkok in Thailand (later we decide to continue to Singapore). Here we've just left Chengdu, on our way to Kunming. The road here is good and quiet. Chinese carry all sorts of things on their bicycles.  30). This Chinese makes bamboe chairs: a beautifull product! With the flame from a gasoline stove the bamboe is bent.  31). 2001/08/17. In Lehshan is the largest sitting Boeddha in the world (again such a claim). It is indeed very large. It is a miracle that this statue survived the cultural revolution.  32). "Oh, look at the size of those ears!"  33). The Lehshan Boeddha, seen from the river. (Photo by Jiangping).  34). 2001/08/17, Lehshan. Bridge over a secundairy river.  35). 2001/08/18, Lehshan. View on the street, from an eatery.  36). 2001/08/18. Dan-Dan is a Chinese girl, that addresses us in English (how brave !) She invites us to her parents farm to eat and to sleep. We kindly accept that offer. Dan-Dan's parents are both teacher (Chinese). Dan-Dan does all the translating. We eat Chinese, with that great Chinese taste (in China, we eat Chinese 3 times per day: Houh-zheh!: "Delicious"!.  37). 2001/08/19. In Muchuan (Mu=a name, Chuan=river) I search for mudguards for our bikes. I ask help from a Chinese schoolboy, that is glad to help us. But the shops here only sell Chinese steel mudguards, not the plastic ones that I want. A few hours later, that boy, Jiangping is his name, has tracked down our hotel and takes me to a photograph shop. He wants to correspond with us in English, what he faithfully does till today! Thanks for the friendship Jiangping! What an entrepaneural people these Chinese are!  38). Jiangping is on his school in a special "drill"-class, where many extra hours are made for the best students. They study more than 12 hours per day! If Jiangping scores enough points this summer, he will be admitted to a good university. As most Chinese children, Jiangping lives in the school complex and seldom goes home. There are often more than 60 students in one class room! Stop the press September 10th 2002: Jiangping did qualify for university, but not the high level university he had hoped for. He will now redo his has class in a different (better) highschool, to make a new entry-examinations next year. How persistent!  39). 2001/08/20. We leave the main road. Now it gets interesting! Now we discover the 'old' China. Along the main roads and in the city's that disappears at an enourmous speed, but here there is plenty of 'old-China' to be discovered. Westerens never make it to here, and the Chinese are very suprised to see us here on our bicycles! At first, many Chinese are somewhat shy, but after we've spoken a few words of Chinese, they 'loosen' slowly (Chinese defrost slowly).  40). The road turns to stones and mudd, but we don't care. It is pretty and nice here! We are riding through China and find our way on our own (almost nobody here speaks English or Dutch). What an adventure, bicycling through China on back country roads!  41). 2001/08/20. The people at this farm peel the corn and let it dry in the sun. We try it too, but that is not so easy. We have a better understanding of bicycling.  42). 2001/08/21. There are 1,3 billion Chinese, that all eat noodles. That takes a lot of noodles production capacity. Most towns have at least one factory, often on a homely basis. Here, noodles are air-dryed.  43). The bike tour continues. The Sichuan landscape is full with high and steep mountains.  44). It is sticky hot and without wind. Apart from that, it is pretty riding here.  45). These sweet girls have guided us to the Internet shop. They insisted on being photographed. (we have a paper that says in Chinese "Where do I find an Internet Shop?". That works good!).  46).2001/08/26. The roads get worse. It rains almost daily too now. The heat is over, but now our greatest challange is the mud (to avoid it). We ride up to 2.600 meters (8,600 feet). These man walk down withs beds on their neck. It is sunday, and in the town down the hill it is market. The hill people make furniture and baskets, that they hope to sell in town.  47). Many Chinese carry their load with a balance pole. This woman too. She doesn't understand why we want to make this picture, but says it's OK.  48). 2001/08/27. Almost all Chinese have electricity. Here we pass a valley where one of the numerous minority's in southern China lives. They live in clay huts and have no electricity in this valley. Unfortunately, they are shy and afraid for us, white giants.  49). These Sichuan mountains are so darned steep and high! We have to cross so many mountain passes at more than 2.500 meters (8,300 feet) and so many rivers at just 500 meters (1,650 feet).  50). 2001/08/29. We have arrived in Zhaotong, in the province Yunnan. Zhaotong still has many nice old streets, with shadow giving trees at the sides. Outside the town, there is a blacktop road again.  51). We often eat Boo-zhie for breakfast. These are steamed little breads filled with meat and veggie's. Originally this is a dish form northern China (wheat grows in the north, rice in the south of China). But today rice and wheat can be bought troughout China. Boo-zhie's are delicious and cheap "people's food": that includes us!  52). Our Boo-zhie shop, seen from the street.  53). A tower of Boo-zhie-pans above the steam bath (a dish filled with water above an oil drum filled with coal).  54). Many Chinese households hold pigs. These eat all kitchen and garden waste. When the beast is full, it finds itself eaten.  55). 2001/09/03. We have left the main road again. Now there is no mud anymore, but.......childheads! (small square stone blocks to make a road. That is called in Dutch "a childheads road" because it feels like riding over childrens skuls). This must be the longest childheads road in world (sorry for that claim), because it lasts 300 kilometer (187 miles). There is a pass too at 2.900 meters (9,600 feet). It rains a lot and the mud on the 'road' makes it very slippery.  56). Take a seat in the shit street. An average Chinese public toilet in the country side.  57). 2001/09/05. Farmers use horse carts to bring their potatoes to a collection point.  58). 2001/09/05. The girl from our hotel cleans vegetables for the restaurant.  59). Zoom in on that sweet face.  60). This couple rides their universal Chinese vehicle with Diesel Engine along all villages to sell their (home made?) baskets.  61). 2001/09/09. We arrive in Kunming, the capital of the most Southern province Yunnan. (Yun=clouds, nan=South: South of the clouds). It is indeed sunny and dry most of the time here. The banana salesman passes us on his tricycle. There are many freight tricycles in China (The People's pickup truck).  62). In Kunming the last old streets disappear with high speed too. Everything that is old, must go. This photo shows the contrast between old and new China.  63). Old China.  64). New China. Ofcourse the Chinese may have their (spectaculair) hard earned progress. But why must everything that is not new, be destroyed? This photo was taken on September 11th, the day of......... We get (buy) our visa for Laos and Thailand. For the rest everything is business as usual. Via the Internet we read in the Netherlands newspapers about the unlikely news.  65). 2001/09/15. Still in Kunming. Every night we eat at this eatery in an alley close to our hotel. By our opinion, this is the best eatery of China. The taste is great, the folks are friendly and cheerful (like most Yunnan-Chinese). It's cheap too. You may choose yourself from the buffet: 2 spoons meat, 3 spoons veggie's: 3 RMB (0,40 Euro) 3 spoons meat, 3 spoons veggie's: 4 RMB (0,50 Euro) 4 spoons meat, 3 spoons veggie's: 5 RMB (0,65 Euro) Watch the price table, so you can read it yourself. Prices include a plate of rice.  66). 2001/09/18. On the road again, now via Simao to Jinghong in the deep south. Most roads are quiet, except close to a town or factory.  67). 2001/09/19. The rice is being harvested, most of it by hand.  68). 2001/09/19. This woman dry's her rice on the concrete floor before this series of empty garages. The "micro businesses complexes" are being build all over China, but many are still empty.  69). 2001/09/20. It's nice and sunny now on most days, with a local heavy rain shower.  70). A water buffalo mother with child passes us.  71). 2001/10/02. We've past Simao, and got a visum extension (14 Euro per person). Now we have a lot of time for Xishuangbanna: this southern most corner of China, where many minorities live. All Chinese love to eat duck. Here a duck herdsman passes us. Have you ever heared 300 pair of duck feet? It's quite a noise!  72). Many rubber trees grow in southern China. Those result in a sometimes monotomous landscape, but are of high economical value. The latex gum that is retrieved from those trees, is bought by mobile buyers. Other farmers coagulate the latex and sell the dryed material as base product for rubber. Here 60 kilo rubber passes us.  73). Many rules from Beijing are implemented quite loose for the minorities. As the only Chinese, these people where allowed to practise their religion in communistic China. During the cultural revolution, some remote prayer houses have escaped destruction. Most minorities here are Boeddhist. This is a beautiful old Boeddhist temple.  74). 2001/10/12. This is a reclining Boeddha at one of the temples.  75). 2001/10/14. Market in Menghun. A few ducks change hands.  76). This woman in Menghun sells BBQ-ed meat.  77). These baby pigs wait for a new owner.  78). This woman has just bought a baby pig. Watch the special baby-pig-bag!  79). The weakly market is a colourful spectacle. All minorities come from their hill villages to town.  80). Most people hope to sell some of their vegetables and spices and earn some cash.  81). 2001/10/15. On our circle through Xishuangbanna we have reached the southwest corner of China. This is the border river with Myanmar (the country that was named Birma in the past). We are NOT allowed to enter Myanmar by bicycle.  82). We ride back to Jinghong, to rest there a few days. Then we want to ride to Laos. The largest minority here are the Dai, that live in this sort houses.  83). 2001/10/21. Market in Damenlong.  84). A strange situation. Young Boeddhist monks play Counterstrike. Disciples of the most peaceful religion (culture) that has generated [almost] no violence, play the most violent (?) computer game and shoot people by the dozens. The 'buildings' here, might have survived the cultural revolution, most senior Boeddhist monks didn't. These boys are a sort of 'orphans'. Recently, many parents have started again sending their sons to a monastery for a while (an old custom). But there are hardly any senior monks to teach Boedhha's leasons [we have seen none]. Hopefully the Chinese get this right soon.  85). On the streets everything is calm. These kids wave us goodbye.  86). 2001/10/27. Safe back in Jinghong. Here we say goodbye to our bicycling friends Timo and Petra, also from the Netherlands. We manage to buy a used travel book and descide to ride as far as Singapore.
|
|
Rene en Jolanda Maassen prive pagina's.
Fietsreizen en fietsen op de fiets door IJsland, USA, Amerika, Japan, China,
Mongolie, Mongolië, Laos, Thailand, Singapore. Rene,Jolanda,Maassen,fietsreizen,fietsen,fiets,fietsvakantie,wereldfietser,
fietsreiziger,foto,fotoboek,reisfotoboek,IJsland,USA,Amerika,Japan,China,Mongolie,Mongolië,Laos,Thailand,Singapore.
Bicycle bycycle tour coast to coast cross USA bikes cycling world bicyle
tour. Orlando Florida Pensacola Dollar Louisiana New Orleans Texas Hylton
Arizona Tombstone Saguaro cactus The Rim Strawberry Payson Grand Canyon
California Californie Californië Bad Water Death Valley Emigrant Pass
Pacific San Francisco Tokyo Tokio Yen reizende zon Mt. Fuji Fuji-san Toba
Kinosaki Honshu Skikoku Matsuyama Kochi Osaka Kobe onsen China Tianjin
Peking Beijing trein Verboden stad Peking eend mongolie UB Ulan Batar Ulaan
Bator steppen gher Togruk ghers paarden kamelen koeien geiten schapen gras
Kharhorin Tsetserleg Bayankhongor kaas airmag gefermenteerd paardenmelk
yoghurt zuivel bortz gedroogd vlees Trans Siberië express expres trein
Moskou bus fiets RMB volksgeld Volksrepubliek China Chengdu Sishuan Lehsan
Leshan Boeddha Kunming Yunnan Zuiden van de wolken Xishuangbanna Jinghong
Mengla ananas pommelon banaan passievrucht tropisch bamboe Panda beer Pandabeer
Laos Boten Udom Xai Muang Xai Boeddhistisch klooster tempel monnik oranje
wit schilderingen bedelen bedelnap Mekong rivier Luang Prabang UNESCO werelderfgoedlijst
boot Pakbeng Huay Xai Kip Kippen Thailand Chiang Kong Chiang Rai Chiang
Mai Lamphun olifanten Pai trek raften bamboe raft vlot Kampheng Phet Old
Sukhothai Ayuthaya Bangkok lucky Boeddha Phetburi Ranong Istmus of Kra
Krabi Trang Maleisie Penang VOC fort forten Melakka Malacca Singapore Lee
Kuan Yew Tijgerbalsum Haw Par villa coast park. IJsland Seydisfjordur Husavik
Myvatn middernachtzon middernachtszon 24 uur dag licht Westfjorden Isafjordur
Latrabjarg Reykjavik Hekla Kjolur Landmannalaugar Sprengisandur zwarte
woestijn lavazand vulkaan Askja zwemmen zwavel Vatnajokul Vatnajokull James
Bond "A view to a kill" Jokulsarlon Kverkfjoll zuidkust vissen
kabeljouw veerboot Faroer Faroër eilanden Thorshaven.