D34: 乌审旗 → 城川

May 19, 2021

Just outside the barbican gate of the Youzhou City Walls

The last time I took this road I came to a museum shortly before Chengchuan that looked like it might possibly be the most uninteresting thing ever. Being as it was a rather shiny looking thing in some decidedly unshiny countryside, I decided that the only reason there would be a Cow Breeding Museum out this way is if it was some kind of government boondoggle.

I don't remember if my decision to absolutely not go was based on the cost of the entry tickets or if I didn't even get close enough to discover that they had a cost.

Just past the Museum there's a set of City Walls that are missing the city. The limited bit of information online is basically the same as what's on the back of the marker stone so all I really know is the settlement seems to have first been recorded as a Specific Place existing for a Reason in the 9th century, the dimensions of the walls, and that artifacts unearthed here include Ming Dynasty coinage.

Inside the barbican of Youzhou City's South Gate

How or when it was abandoned and what happened to all the buildings is still a mystery.

The South Gate is closest to the road and at the edge of the winding path through the gate (in what is either called the enceinte or the barbican in English because my knowledge of fortifications isn't good enough to identify the difference and despite some people's lazy use of their native language 月城 and 瓮城 are not actually the same structure and the words can't be used interchangeably) there's a modern gravestone that was so very illegally out of place at a National Heritage Site that, the last time I was here, I looked up the names of the occupants and found that they were two Americans who had brought modern cow breeding to northern China.

Despite the sign, the livestock that I watched cross here were all goats

For this reason and this reason alone, I wanted very very much to find an opportunity when nearby to the area to actually go visit their Museum. Visiting their museum was literally the only thing on my agenda for the day. Making sure I had time enough to visit their museum is why—having already visited the big Mongolian styled Taoist temple and found it remarkably identical to my previous visit—I skipped the small temple with the Tibetan style stupa that's been my phone background for the past three years.

So, I was kind of pissed off when I got to the parking lot and had a guard stop me to tell me "the Museum is closed". There was even a notice posted to that effect.

"Because of Covid... worsening situation... appointment only..."

I love how fabulously warlike these murals are versus the normal ones

Also, the color palette is completely different from the south

And even though the statuary is the same modern concrete sculpt as often used elsewhere in China, these guys are practically only recognizable by their iconography

Except that the Notice, which also handled the closure of two other equally unlikely to be popular Patriotic Red Tourism sites, was dated December 2020 and what it really meant was "we never actually liked being open to the public anyways", "we only exist for the groups that come through on specific special tours", and "now that things are actively reopening, we've discovered that Covid is a great excuse for allowing us to not do things we don't want to do".

It was a disappointing highlight to an otherwise relatively uninteresting day that would have been weather shortened at both ends if it weren't already shortened by the relative lack of settlements large enough to have food and lodging.

City walls were still cool. And, since translating the article on the Walls of Zhengding, I actually knew what I was looking at as opposed to just guessing.

Standing on top of the Walls just to the west of the South Gate looking south towards the area enclosed by the barbican

A loop around Chengchuan found it just as thoroughly uninteresting as last time. The oversized buildings and too large plaza that belong to what looks like a huge complex of museum and school and patriotic education base and conference center are all still there but they don't look particularly active and the surrounding town isn't active enough to support the idea that they're being used.

I was going to stay at the place from last time and I thought I did a pretty good job of finding it and finding it closed only to come across a near identical courtyard two minutes later as I was heading for the far outskirts of town (the ruraller a place is, the less likely I am to experience hassles). A quick check of 2018's GPS track showed this to actually have been where I stayed.

Ducked inside moments before the heavens opened up in a giant deluge of rain to see a bunch of guys—none of whom were the hotel owner—just hanging around in the lobby area smoking and talking.

They told me to call the number on the Front Desk who, in turn, guided me through the pile of keycards just sitting next to the computer with every number I could decipher from the smeary handwriting being anything but one of the rooms he thought I should take.

"Pay by WeChat, I'll be back in about thirty minutes and I'll register you then."

But no one ever came by the room.

Strangest thing in my hotel room was the bathroom floor tiles

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 1,160 km (720 miles)

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