In 2005, after a bus from Guangzhou [广州] to Jiangmen [江门] (because, yuck, cities) and biking from Jiangmen to Chishui [赤水] in one day, I biked from Chishui to Jinji to Enping [恩平] and I got on a bus to Yangjiang [阳江] because it was too damn cold. In Yangjiang, feeling like I certainly would have been able to bike there from Chishui in one day, I felt bad about taking the bus and decided to take another bus--to Maoming--as that would hopefully get me south enough to get away from the weather.

In 2013, I biked out of Guangzhou and determined that 2005 me was smarter than I gave myself credit for being: yuck, cities. That trip, it took me three whole days to get to Chishui and, since I was biking, I didn't go to Jiangmen at all. Then, after I was in Chishui, the eejits with a rush job (who I would never do work for again because their inability to figure out scheduling) led to my having to abandon the trip and take a bus back to Haikou (funnily enough, by way of Jiangmen).

This time, I'm pleased to say, I passed through Chishui on my own two wheels, left Chishui on my own two wheels, and I stayed on my own two wheels after Chishui. Some work did happen, but no buses!

The Enping to Yangjiang corridor seems to have a lot of roads, including an expressway. So, while I know I basically have to go through Yangjiang at some point on my way to Hainan, I decided that I would head down to the coast and take a ferry across the Zhenhaigang Bay [镇海港] as it gave me my best opportunity to stay on small roads for as long as possible before the inevitable "being forced on to big roads".

When I was planning this route, I intended to go south from Chishui to the town of Shenjing [深井] (which I ought to mention translates as Deep Well) but that had been looking decidedly farm-road-ish and after my experience with an actual numbered route turning into a cow path, I wasn't sure I was too trusting of farm roads in this part of Guangdong. As a result, I ended up in Jinji (means "Gold Chicken" by the way) and, in theory, could have easily skipped the ferry altogether.

But, I'm me and I don't like straight lines. Also, I'm me and I don't like riding after dark (even with a headlight). So, even though going down to the ferry would easily add a dozen kilometers of distance, it hit the sweet spot in number of places with lodging that came one after another at reasonable intervals so if I was delayed by a flat tire or a sudden attack of Ming Dynasty buildings, I would definitely find somewhere to stay.

I seem to have gotten past the places with Ming Buildings. Not that there're a whole lot of those. China is a great believer in completely knocking stuff down and rebuilding it from scratch so getting much of anything older than the mid 19th century is pretty rare anywhere; and even rarer in a place that had a lot of commerce in the mid 19th century.

I'm out of factory land and back into rural countryside of the sort where if I'd been blindfolded and dropped off here without the luxury of seeing how I got here, I wouldn't believe this is part of the Pearl River Delta. The occasional village still has a diaolou or other defensive structure but those are mostly gone too. To have a diaolou in the first place (whether a single family, multi-family, or whole village type), the village had to both have enough worth stealing and have the funds (either internally or from family abroad) to build one. Looking around, it's safe to say, this is not somewhere where they had much lying about.

I imagine this was probably one of those parts of Guangdong where, despite abundant resources for rice crops and vegetables, there were few families who didn't know what it was like to occasionally go hungry. It feels poor. Even now, with scattered modern buildings (though few truly new ones) it still feels poorer than some truly impoverished places I've been in central China where all the kids are currently sending money home from their factory jobs in the Pearl River Delta.

Shenjing, when I get there, confirms that stopping in Jinji was the right choice. A hotel or two may exist in the mapping software but if they exist in reality I don't see them. The shophouses are particularly decrepit, the shopping center looks like it might have been shiny new in 1987 (bathroom tile exterior and orange chinoise accents), and the only restaurant I can find open to get a not actually all that late lunch is so far along in the telephone game of being a counterfeit copycat version of a copy of a KFC that it may as well be it's own thing.

But the sky is a brilliant blue, the weather has warmed up, I have the mythical occurrence whispered about by cyclists that is known of as a "tailwind", and somehow despite mountains constantly looming on my horizon whichever direction I am facing, the road remains flat flat flat.

I'm none too thrilled with the roadworks when I get to them but they do a sufficiently good job of making the road an impassable mess that everyone is being gosh darn polite about letting other drivers pass and pulling to the side and not honking at cyclists who are currently in front of them with no place to go.

The wait for the ferry kills most of the rest of my daylight, but, in return, as I cross the bay, it gives me an incredible magic hour sunset over those distant mountains that only exist on the horizon.

Hotels in Beidou (and why is something at the south end of a bay named "north slope"?) are plentiful for the size of the town but they all either like to have second floor front desks or are quite spendy for the location. The one I end up at answers the phone to tell me that yes they have heat in the rooms but when I get upstairs and check in and pay and try to use the heat, and point out that the "heat" function on the remote control is not making any hot, he claims to have thought that I asked about hot water. 

Because, um, yeah, it's 2019, and it's not like there still exist hotels in China that don't have hot water. (Well, there do. But I have to work very hard to find them. And they don't cost 80y a night.) Besides which, the words 暖气 and 热水 don't even sound the same...