D12: 常山→广丰

October 17, 2019

Handicapped dude drove this tuk-tuk from Linxi in Shandong and is on his way to Sanya. He's livestreaming periodically and I think the QR code goes to his stream as well as to a donation link.

In the morning I go looking for the two bike shops that Changshan has. The Merida, which is the closer of the two, doesn't appear to actually exist but the Giant, which is still on my route, does. The owner/mechanic isn't very familiar with internally geared hubs other than as a concept but he has access to Shimano's instructions on how to adjust an Alfine-11, a generalized understanding of how mechanical things work, and the necessary skill with his hands to make things do what he wants them to do.

I kind of sort of mostly have the "understanding how things work" bit down. It's the getting things that I'm taking apart (or putting together) to do what I want them to do that I'm not so good at. Also, whatever it is exactly that he did (I tried watching but I couldn't tell) definitely required the use of a workstand.

The grinding noises and the clunk are gone!

A pagoda I didn't visit peeking up over a hill in Changshan

It is not acceptable to litter or discard of waste at random
It is not acceptable to damage public facilities
It is not acceptable to randomly post waybills or advertisements
It is not acceptable to store or stack goods anywhere you please
      It is not acceptable to just build things without a permit
      It is not acceptable to set up a stall anywhere you want
      It is not acceptable to park wherever you feel like
It is not acceptable to raise free range livestock
It is not acceptable to have economic activities which disturb public hygiene
It is not acceptable to spit saliva or phlegm on the ground

Rental escooters complete with really shoddy helmets on strings

I feel like no helmet at all would be an improvement

I won't notice until I'm on the road and have been on the road for a while but the phenomenon of a lone gear that doesn't engage (used to be the 10th gear, now I think it's the 4th) is back. I vaguely feel like this is something that is handled by adjusting the cable barrel up at the front of the bike but, as all the other things are working right now, I'm going to go with just avoiding that gear.

My choices for today are a long loopy road to the north that apparently has a 12km uphill (per bike shop guy and as bike shop guy not only made the noises go away but used to ride with people I know when he was at college in Haikou, I'm going to believe him) or the national road. Given the unsatisfactory amount of granny that I've got, and the promise that traffic on the national road will be light because of ongoing roadworks, I decide to take the national road.

It's one of those roads that's practically an expressway except for the remaining pedestrian crossings and occasional bits of town that just couldn't be routed around. With the upgrades, it'll be even closer to being an expressway. Given that they aren't getting rid of the level crossings (and therefore are keeping the speed limit), I don't see the point in the upgrades but that's obviously just me.

Stopping at a mostly pointless looking rest area garden type thing that doesn't have any parking or reason why people might stop I find a not very well put together exhibit on the history of a nearby village that brags about this village having once been a major stopping point and defended pass on the Ancient Changshan Road which leads me to Baidu Baike and the discovery that the road I am on has been a Road—in some form or another—for at least the past 1900 years.

A notable tree and some interesting wall paintings

Party Members Take the Lead in Professionalism

Party Members Take the Lead in Promoting the Knowledge of Laws

Party Members Take the Lead in Giving Generously

This wall painting has a wall painting in it. It's wallpainting inception.

This causes me to make a specific point of getting off the not actually an expressway whenever there's the slightest chance of being able to wiggle my way through the bits of old town and country road that run alongside it. I mean, I probably would have done that anyways. But now I was doing it with a purpose other than my usual being allergic to straight lines.

This turns out to be a good idea as not only do I run across some really cool stuff, I also end up avoiding some of the worst of the construction and dust.

An old building in one of the townlets I passed through, part brick and part mud plaster

Once upon a time, it had some really beautiful carvings

This rafter was probably a noblewoman or dancer of some sort

Pretty much all of the carvings have been obliterated

A plaque given with places to add stars for Patriotism, Knowledge of the Law, Family Planning, Volunteerism, Unitedism, New Style, Knowledge and Culture, Scientificism, Hygeine, and Wealth

兵民是胜利之本！Soldiers are the basis of victory. (A quote from Chairman Mao)

At Yushan County I turn off of the big road onto the S203 and head south towards Guangfeng. It being my first night in Jiangxi Province in a while, I'm not currently familiar with the registration software they use, and if I continued down the big road, I'd almost certainly end up in Shangrao City. Guangfeng, on the other hand, although it is now a District of Shangrao instead of the independent County that it used to be, is a smaller place and the rule is generally the smaller the place the smaller the hassle.

It's good to be on some shady windy roads now though they come with more hills as well. Now that I've got trees to shade me, the morning and early afternoon's bright sun has retreated behind clouds. I'm probably still getting toasted by the UV but I don't feel it the way I do when it's bright and sunny.

Protecting the safety of telecommunications provides safety and benefit for the people and the nation. Explains why you shouldn't steal telecommunications cable as well as a quote from the specific criminal statute as to what will happen if you get caught.

Alleviate Poverty and Jointly Build a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

Once I'm in Guangfeng, I make turns at random trying to find a restaurant that fits my mood before I realize that I'm doing that thing where I've gotten sufficiently hungry that I'm being spacey and I need to just pick something now and I stop at a place two doors down from the hotel where I will end up spending the night.

It was an unmemorable meal mostly because of the speed with which it disappeared.

The hotel is happy to let me behind the counter to figure out the registration thing on my own and everything mostly goes smoothly until we get to the part about uploading a picture of the hotel guest. Instead of buying a camera, they have a sign with two QR codes to scan in WeChat, one to take you to a mini-app that will use your phone's camera to take a picture of you, and one to identify the hotel you are checking in at. Of course, the applet doesn't support anything other than a Chinese ID card number.

I cheat the system by creating a jpg in Windows Paint with the text "系统不支持我" [The System Does Not Support Me] as my photo and upload that, then tell the hotel owner to take a photo of me holding my passport in her lobby because "the police will probably call you when they notice this" and they do, but they're okay with my 'solution'; they don't like the resolution of the photo and insist that it be taken again, but are otherwise okay with it.

The crosswalks in Guangfeng have LEDs embedded in them that blink in patterns

And, if you forgot to bring a phone charger with you, you can scan the QR code and rent this one that's already in the room.

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 828 km (514 miles)

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