D32：龙州→红墩界

May 17, 2021

Since I've been writing the majority of my entries on my phone, I'm going to try something new where any picture that I'm pretty sure I'll want to share here gets a version taken on my phone

Being at the edge of one of the parks meant not having breakfast available to me unless I made it myself. The current "bag o goodies" for flavoring up my instant oatmeal is dried cranberries, raisins, sliced freeze dried dates, walnuts, toasted almond crumbles, almond powder, and powdered whole milk which, along with my morning coffee, made it a very delicious breakfast indeed.

On the phone last night with Mike I was wondering why, with ubiquity of boiling water in China, it took me until last year to even think to have instant food in my luggage and I think I've actually figured out why. Although a million varieties of hot cereals that are mostly variations on sugar existed, instant oatmeal wasn't a common supermarket item. In fact, there's been a few times where I've accidentally refreshed my supply with quick cook oats instead.

Lot of pretty purple flowers this morning

Doing that isn't too much of a disaster as you can always soak the oats overnight, drain them in the morning, and then add boiling water. Or, you could even be clever and bring a cookpot (that isn't a coffee maker) with you.

Ate breakfast, packed up, and logged my puffs on the asthma inhalers (2 blue followed by 2 orange¹). Especially since this jump from sea level to 1,300m is such a good opportunity to collect data, I'm really annoyed that my original pulse oximeter chose the day before leaving to break and almost but not quite as annoyed that I sent the new one to my default shipping address rather than where I planned to be.

I don't have a good way to describe the way breathing felt today. Uncomfortable isn't the right word but, if I were limited to a single word, it's the best. I was aware of my lungs in a way similar to how, now that I've mentioned it, you are now aware of your tongue touching your teeth. With deep breaths, it felt kind of like that burning aching cold sensation when you first walk outside in the deep of winter only without the burning or the cold or the pain; and, for long stretches of time, the air I exhaled tasted like coughing².

In short, if it weren't for the fact that I wasn't wheezing, had energy enough to pedal up hills I know I should be walking, and (according to my GPS logger) had a substantially faster average moving speed, I'd have otherwise said that I felt worse than yesterday. Given that all the empirical data seems to indicate that I'm actually performing better though, I'll keep with logging my condition and taking the asthma medicine as indicated.

Today's highlights included the Ming Great Wall seen at a distance as it snaked across a ridgeline in front of me; something labeled as Ming which I'm pretty sure was either Sui or Han; a Guanyin temple with some marvellous wall paintings (all of which were photographed on solely on my camera); lunch in a tent that half served a road construction crew, half served a nearby refinery, and which probably gave me diarrhea; grasslands on the verge of being desert; a new Safe Use of Electricity sign for my propaganda collection; all kinds of interestingly shaped military vehicles; two neolithic sites (nothing visible beyond the marker stones that something was excavated here); my first bowl of Mongolian yoghurt; and the restaurant/hotel owner trying to convince me that instead of paying for my meal I should sleep with him.

In short, it was a good start to returning to the life of Being on Tour.

Ming Great Wall visible about halfway up the slope

Look for the line across the ridge to see the Ming Wall

The area where I start my day is a pretty featureless plain notable only for all the different kinds of pretty purple flowers blooming by the roadside. Hemmed in by mountains and protected by deep gorges, you know, even without yesterday's fort, the Qingping fort that I've decided I'm not going to try to visit after all, or much in the way of other Impressive Buildings or monuments, that this has probably been a grain growing region for a long long long time.

The line between dry grasslands and damp desert is a blurry one and while (even in places which aren't part of an "anti-desertification trial area") the grasslands immediately to the north of here still have all kinds of plants, they are more than halfway to not being grasslands anymore.

In some places, there are even drifts of sand forming little mini-dunes.

Question for the etymologists, which came first the "baby crib" or the "corn crib"?

But that's all after I leave the plain, cross the gorge that's since become a reservoir, and climb the big hill. On the plain it's fields that mostly have only just started their Spring growth and a mix of buildings ranging from freestanding yaodong to the white tiled "late Communist ugly" style of Chinese farmhouse seen all over the country to the no less unattractive two and three story "homestays" (like I stayed in last night).

If there's the slightest hint of anything commercial going on its a (not open at breakfast time) restaurant for large groups of tourists or a (only open in peak season) hotel for tourists. Noodle shops and countryside convenience stores and tractor repair and all those other things that you'd expect to find in a rural community (and which must, on some level, still exist somewhere as farming is still going on) are missing.

They just aren't profitable enough when, instead, you could offer tours to one of the nearby redrock parks.

Possibly late 19th century freestanding yaodong type building

I'm fascinated by the constructed yaodong. We didn't have a convenient hill to dig into so we built a hill and dug into it.

The pictures from the extra special super developed areas of redrock are cool enough but, after I've biked through the surrounding Amazing Scenery, even if it isn't as amazing as the official Amazing Scenery, I just don't see the point in paying for the privilege to walk around and look at the scenery.

It's enough to look out across the valley at a bunch of people climbing on stuff that I notice, since I was here in 2018, no longer has signs at the trailheads warning everyone that the redrock is fragile and that visitors should only go to Approved Areas.

I'm much more interested in recently constructed roadside shrines and what the massive increases in traditional religious expression everywhere I look says about the culture.

Not enough money for statues but words "this is a statue of so-and-so" are good enough

When I get to the section of Wall where it crosses the road, I notice the remains of a small fortified settlement that I hadn't seen when I came the other direction three years ago. It's perhaps three or four times the size of a farmhouse compound and I find myself wondering what they built the buildings out of as, just like yesterday's fort, only the exterior walls remain.

The sign says that this, like yesterday, is Ming (1400s) but it's substantially more weathered than yesterday and there's supposed to be both Han and Sui Walls in the area. I realize it's cocky of me to assume that I know better than whomever it was from the local Bureau of Antiquities put up this sign but even though I'm not entirely sure where it went I also saw something in the distance an hour earlier that looked just like yesterday's Ming³.

Also, in China, lazy mistakes caused by not checking the obvious are one of the most common kinds of error.

Sign said "Ming". I don't think it's that new.

I thought the GPS was supposed to take me east a bit before going north but when it decides to prompt me onto the west then north route, I can't be bothered to force it to take me the original way. West was supposed to be a bigger road anyways.

Might still be. I ended up getting taken on the little back ways shortcuts that usually don't happen unless I'm specifically telling it to do so. Hardly a vehicle to be seen and the few vehicles that see me are as surprised as I am.

When I finally have an opportunity to stop for a break and a meal, I immediately do so. The lack of running water for people to wash their hands probably explains why I had an upset stomach come evening.

After some unwise riding at the noonday peak which I'm feeling in the form of a mild sunburn, I shortly achieved a more main road (by which I mean there were lanes) and then left the desert areas altogether for fields just starting to show growth and coppiced roadside trees that must have been cut this way for a reason (sorry, didn't get any phone pictures of this) but which I've only ever seen cut this way in this part of China.

The old roads which often ran at a near parallel to whatever I was on also had thickly coppiced trees so whyever they've been doing this, they've been doing it for a long time.

The official town of Hongdunjie is about 7km to the north of a village with an unusually large number of hotels (both on Maps and i reality). I chose to go to Hongdunjie proper though not thinking that the Chinese government often does things like pick a nearby deserted area for putting up New Government Buildings.

I now know to climb through the brush and read the backs of signs like this.

Not sure what museum I might go to if I wanted to see the stuff that was pulled out of the ground here.

This means that, when I arrive at Hongdunjie, I'm in a bit of a pickle as very little is occupied and even less of that open. I manage to find a singular place that has lodging (and which fortunately also has food).

I'm faced with my usual dilemma of ordering something I want to eat versus something I think I can finish eating and there aren't enough other customers around for me to try appealing to the cook's ego regarding making me a little extra of whatever is being made for other people so I can try all the yummies.

End up getting a fried potato and meat dish which is so massive that I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it even with a cyclist appetite. I'm about halfway through it when I notice Mongolian yoghurt on the menu and, although the last few bites are straining things, my stomach turns out to be bigger than my eyes.

While I'm finishing up all the rest of the not very many customers and the waitress disappear and the guy who appears to be both owner and cook comes out to talk to me. He'd seen me making a video about "OMG Mongolian Yoghurt om nom nom mom" and wanted to know if I was livestreaming or something like that.

"Nah, foreigners aren't allowed to livestream in China," I answer.

"But I've seen lots of foreigners livestreaming." He responds. Which is true. There are quite a few who livestream and they all either have a Chinese green card or they are in a position where they don't care if their Douyin account is locked.

"Yes, but it's still illegal and my company does work for the government. The tiny bit of money I could make that way isn't worth the money I'd lose from publicly breaking a law they know I know about."

Before using electricity, apply to have an electrician make the installation

We talk a bit more. I'm mostly honest. I mostly don't exaggerate. I mostly don't need to. My résumé is full of very impressive sounding stuff (some of which is even impressive).

Mike becomes a husband instead of a boyfriend. Little things like that.

While we're chatting, long after I've mentioned that I can work anywhere I've got my laptop, long after I've mentioned that I've actually got work I'm planning on doing tonight, long after he's seen the two smartphones and the DSLR on the table, I get a message from LargeMediaClient asking if it's possible for the thing they gave me 30 minutes earlier to be handed back in in the next hour.

When changing lightbulbs, pay attention: wet hands shouldn't touch electrical equipment

"Shit, I've got to go. What's the total for dinner and the meal?"

"You can have it for free if you spend the night with me."

It's so out of left field that I'm shocked more than angry or creeped out. Those come later when the polite "no" is met with him demanding a reason more than just "no" and then not accepting "I'm married" because I've already told him my husband is in the US.

And he acts offended that I get angry at him because "no means no means you never had a chance of yes, you already said the room was 50, what's the total bill?"

Make sure your metal clothesline is kept a safe distance from power lines

Once I'm in the room with the door locked and my bike blocking it sufficiently that anyone trying to get in would have a hard time, then I take the opportunity to also be offended by the offer.

Even assuming that every word out of my mouth regarding income had been a complete lie, I had an office worker's monthly salary worth of electronics sitting on the table and he offered to comp me 50y worth of food plus not have to pay for my room if I "had some fun" with him.

Separate from his failing the litmus test of "I may not have morals but I do have standards", if someone is going to offer to pay for it, it's just kind of insulting to be offered that little.

Electric wires above the roofs of building must be at least 2.45m higher than the roof

¹ It's a limited sample size of only a handful of countries but it seems as though most if not all pharmaceutical companies have cooperatively decided that this potentially lifesaving medication which is capable of being administered by laymen should have identical packaging. Tall blue inhalers always have the tall blue medicine and short orange ones have the short orange medicine.

² This is completely separate from the fact that the evening puffs prompted a coughing fit and my expelling a bunch of stuff from my lungs.

³ A look at the map would seem to indicate that I'm wrong and it is Ming, that whatever I saw on the left side of the road was watchtowers and not the main body of the wall, and that the very obvious line of Wall marching off in the distance on the right side was something else altogether.

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,064 km (661 miles)

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