D24: 福州→永泰

November 1, 2019

After retiring from the force, the statue of a traffic policeman found that he still felt a need to Serve the People so he took up a position as a scarecrow

My couchsurfing host is planning on leaving China before the end of the month and has lots of things to do before he leaves (particularly the selling of some of his nicer household goods) so, of course, I invited him to come with me to go back to the House for a "short visit". I specifically wanted to get a better picture of the Detective Black Cat poster (in part because I'm starting to get more than the occasional cup of coffee worth of sales at my RedBubble shop which is all edited up pictures of things I've seen on tour, and in part because it's really cool) and I knew if I went alone I very likely would end up spending the whole day there. Again.

As it was, it was a "short visit" only in terms of it not being a "long visit" which is to say it was "shorter" than yesterday's visit but it certainly wasn't fast.

And he didn't even get to see the secret room.

Of course, he lives local and he's also connected with the owner of the House so, depending on how much more socializing he wants to do with the guy in his last few weeks in country, he might end up going back again.

My host's trashy neighbors stole a shopping cart from the store and then locked it in the hallway next to the elevator

In this case, it's just old and in poor condition

These central doors to a house are only ever used for weddings and funerals

After we'd talked more about the history of the owner's family and the history of the House, and general Chinese politics ranging from the thugs that get used in forced relocations to the all pervasive belief that it's the upper leadership know what they are doing and are good and pure people and that it's only the local leadership who do wonky bad things, and gotten shown round to take pictures, and done some wandering through the maze by ourselves, it was time to make our apologies and say that we had other things to do today.

But, of course, it was lunch time now, so we had to go across the street to get local Fujian lunch before we left. Peanut butter noodles and the Fuzhou 'meatballs' that are minced fish stuffed with minced pork.

Knowing more or less that I'd get cash forced back into my hand, but insisting because of the principle of the thing, I sneakily scanned the AliPay QR code and paid for the meal. In this case, it was the restaurant owner who repaid me and not the owner of the House since, as it turns out, they've known each other since childhood and we weren't paying for the meal after all.

This room has been sealed by the Cangshan District Construction Bureau

The number of variations on peanut butter noodles that I've had since arriving in Fujian can be counted in the number of times I've had peanut butter noodles

The road out of town starts with a bunch of zigs and zags and wiggles to accommodate some roadworks that I still get caught up in at the very end because the GPS isn't so good at figuring out where you are when you are in little alleyways of small villages and I just bulled my way out until I found an exit.

During the time in the villages, there were a bunch of nice old buildings. Most of them were in pretty good shape too. A few looked like they were trying to fall down despite obviously still being in use but most were relatively maintained.

During the 19th century this part of China tended to go for multi-generational family compounds. Theoretically, other parts of China did too but I haven't even gotten to the tulou fortresses and I'm already regularly coming across buildings that dwarf anything I've seen elsewhere.

Once I get out on the main road, I'm basically on the main road until I end my day. Water to my left, hills to my right, I don't even get much in the way of shrines to consider stopping at as I go uphill so gradually that, most of the time, it's barely noticeable.

I'm not sure what I think about the entrances to construction sites requiring real name identity checks for the workers

This surveyor is maybe a little too overzealous in measuring the bridge

No real surprise but the bike shop that Mr. Q had come pick up my bike and deliver it back to me did more than just clean it and tighten any loose bolts. They also did something to my brakes that makes them grippier while also getting rid of this annoying noise on the front brake (that sounds just like a sticker I found and removed on day three but which isn't and which only seems to show up when I'm descending... fast...), and my shifting is now crisp and perfect.

Whatever is causing my shifting to slip is still causing it though as, by tomorrow, I will already be back to the granny equivalent refusing to stay in gear more than two or three revolutions of the pedals unless I physically hold the shift paddle in place (the handlebar bag does a great job of catching and holding it).

It's a really pretty ride and not just because I've barely got any climbing or because I spent the last three days without doing much traveling. However, because it's a main road going from Here to There, there just isn't a whole lot to see other than the pretty water and the pretty hills and the pretty mountains and the pretty sky.

愚公移山 or the Foolish Peasant Who Moved the Mountain is a proverb that got used (alot) by Mao in referring to how modern China could change by doing things a little bit at a time even when everyone else said it couldn't be done. It was often used in reference to big waterworks projects like this hydroelectric dam under construction here.

Images like this (from my phone) make the dual lens HDR kind of obvious but most of the time, even with the new Real Camera, when I've got a huge range of light conditions, the phone is doing it better.

Because I got such a late start to the day, I end up having a fair amount of distance ridden in the dark. Possibly as much as 10 kilometers though it's hard to say how much of that I would have had if I hadn't seen the greenway and decided to go ride on that instead of on the roads.

Like the greenway in Nanping (or all Chinese expressways), a decent portion of the greenway is a lightweight viaduct. From the sounds below me, the temperature shifts, and a general knowledge of the geographic shape of where I am, I know that I'm out over the water for a goodly portion of my night ride. Not that I can see the water, just that I know it's beneath me.

I get back on to the roads around the time I hit the streetlight zone after which I continue until I'm in the older section of Yongtai so that food and lodging will be less stress. Not no stress mind you, just less.

First, the big cluster of lodging that shows up on the maps turns out to be cheap places near the bus station and I'm not that desperate. The next batch of places I go to check out are all closed up and fenced off with construction fencing. The first place I walk into flat out refuses to even consider letting me stay and, as I haven't actually hit my third hotel according to the Three Hotel Rule, I move on to the next place and strike gold.

Even had an elevator if I'd wanted to bring my bike up to the room after I'd already unloaded my luggage and 'locked' my bike (removed the quick release pedals).

Sorry about the jitter and focus problems but if I stop biking the light turns off.

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,508 km (936 miles)

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