February 11, 2016
Wujingzhen via S 325, S342, X369 and S323
lunch in Xinfeng
It's a real pain-in-the-ass shame I missed that shortcut. Riding to Xinfeng on the S325 doesn’t have a lot going for it: around 40 aggravating kilometres on a shoulder-less, busy road. This is what a lot of journals have - grinding out distances to get to point B from point A.
The plus factors are it's basically flat and the weather is pretty decent again. However, there's nothing to stop and savor - the architecture is drab, the countryside boring and so it's simply a matter of counting down the kilometres and kind of wishing my life away. It’s just not what I tour for.
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There doesn’t appear to be any of the concrete structures left, but the Nationalists’ second row of blockhouses used to lay just outside of Xinfeng. They could have saved the bother, because it's said that there was virtually no fighting.
That's because the Reds had struck a deal with the local warlord, a pragmatic business-minded man and not someone inclined to fight the KMT’s battle on its behalf, who opted to let columns of Reds enter the top part of Guangdong on the proviso they left quickly. They did in fact soon veer west and enter Hunan province. My plan is to do the same. But first I need something to eat.
Some friendly guys (China is full of them) drive their car to a place in central Xinfeng after I ask them for directions, kindly escorting me to a restaurant which serves coffee and ‘foreign’ food. So, once there I order steak and a cup of Blue Mountain. It's quite an early lunch, basically because I’d hit the road before 8.30.
By 12.30 I'm ready to get back on the bike. Then I see the place next door also serves coffee, so that delays me a little while longer.
Another act of kindness is when a guy in Xinfeng who I ask the whereabouts of X369 rides his scooter slowly to its starting point, which happens to be just a few blocks away. This minor road is a much better experience than the morning’s, and it gets better after a few kilometres, when the traffic dissipates.
I stop just a few times to get my bearings, as I want to find a small road that goes west and eventually meets the bigger S342. Let's just say it’ll remain a mystery where I actually ride, but eventually I get to a small crossroads which marks the small town of Jiudu.
Information on accommodation differs the few times I stop to ask people. Each of these encounters, as nice as they are, takes over 20 minutes because they consult their smart phones and dictionary apps and then GPS, and then back to the dictionary... but the gist is there are guesthouses along the way.
That's especially good news, as the sky has gone a bit grim and at one point small spots of rain dot the concrete surface of whatever road it is I am on. Then it dawns on me that they'll be directing me back to Xinfeng. This is where my brain gets a bit fried. Anyway, after an hour of confusion, the S325 duly appears and my front wheel turns west and my speed picks up.
One man says there was a guesthouse 3km away, but two kilometers later a second guy reckons it's another 10. After cycling 12km, a third man confidently states it's another three. This is not what I need to hear after a 100km day, with the sun now vanishing fast.
But all is well that ends well, and for the third time today, a man in the dusty town of Wujingzhen escorts me to a ‘business’ hotel, where the young man behind the desk quotes a room rate of 170rmb. It's too much hassle to haggle, as I'm going any further.
Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 612 km (380 miles)
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