Having, by now, taken all three of the routes that enter Tianshui from the north, I'm going to have to say that the flat one is the winner. Not because it's decidedly lacking in a hill so steep for so long that walking the bike becomes a chore, but because the scenery is just that much prettier on the flat road.

With the flat road you've got the constant prettiness of the tall mountains surrounding you without actually having to go up them very much. Obviously, if you are the sort of person who refuses to ride through tunnels when an older route still exists, you'll still get a bit of climbing, but mostly it's just super flat and in many places at the city end of things you even get bike lanes.

With either the road I took this time or the one I took the first time, you have a slog up followed by an uncomfortably fast down on roads that just don't want you to be going that fast without a car surrounding you.

I've also ended up on the completely wrong side of the city from any of the screen repair places Tyra found for me. I'm not up for a 34km round trip to get my screen fixed when, other than some artifacts when taking video with the selfie cam, the cracks seem to mostly just be cosmetic.

My first stop in Tianshui is the post office to pick up a package that no courier company would take but which Tyra eventually managed to send me Poste Restante¹ via the actual post. It has the spacer for my inhalers, dried cranberries, walnuts, cheese, and a replacement part for my coffee grinder. It does not have oatmeal raisin cookies. I jokingly give her shit about this but I wasn't explicit in my request that every time I get something mailed to me with her help it include the cookies from the American Bakery so it's kind of my own fault.

After that I head to the bike shop that disappointed me in 2012 to be equally disappointed. They're probably right about my front brake pads needing replacement as, despite them being barely 1500km old, there's been a lot of hills. However, they are the cause of the horrific brake squeal returning and the Wrench (who appears to be a manager if not an owner) is as derisive of my "low spec" bike that's "not suitable for touring" as I vaguely recall from 9 years ago when my custom built for touring rig² was merely exceptionally expensive rather than absurdly so.

I have a frustrating inability to stay properly shifted when changing into the big gear on the Patterson drive and even though it's something maddeningly simple, it's currently working fine on the granny so I've been leaving it alone until I can get a professional to look at it. Although I get replacement brake pads and buy a better pump from this guy, I decide that he's not professional enough for me to ask him to make any tweaks to complicated things.

I'm expecting lodging issues in Tianshui and I get them. The Zaojiao Police Station which was theoretically my destination last year solely because I wanted to annoy them is a further five kilometres uphill (albeit not very steeply) from the hotel I should be staying in if my real goal is, in fact, visiting Bingling Temple and not "annoying the police" and, as I really do want to visit the temple, I figure I may as well make tonight one of those nights where the police come to me.

This starts off moderately well with the hotel owner having "swiped me on TikTok just yesterday" and being very willing to have me as a guest. It's just that things persistently stall until 90 minutes in when I get sufficiently pissed off and call 110 to gripe that the police aren't doing their job.

That not only gets a fast response in the form of officers on the scene, it also gets me a call a few days later asking me to evaluate the police³.

I was actually able to get a recording of the whole encounter this time (phone on the table so it wasn't super obvious) and, for all my big talk, I'm actually kind of surprised that the data backs me up in them going from "absolutely no, you are wrong, it's illegal" to "we'll accept the form you already prepared" in under ten minutes.

At 138y/night, it's one of the most expensive rooms I've paid for all trip and while I hardly think it's worth that much (138 in Hainan would be much better) the previous night's 60 to not even have plumbing tells me that it's about right for hotel prices around here.

¹ A once common method of sending mail or packages either to a person without a fixed address or who didn't live somewhere with delivery

² In that year it was a Panasonic take-apart touring free, steel, with 700c wheels, a Brooks saddle, and mountain bike gearing. This time it's an LKLM 318 series steel touring frame with a Rohloff. 

³ Including such questions as to whether or not they were properly attired, I'm beginning to think that my previous methods of successfully achieving lodging didn't generate nearly enough paperwork and that if I want more people to benefit from my being a pain in the ass, I should strive to create paper trails.