D84: 天明 → 西乡 →石泉

July 14, 2021

If I didn't know this was from the 90s, the art would make me think 1950s futurism

Somehow my arrival in Tianming, my eating three meals in a restaurant in Tianming, my spending two nights in Tianming, my going grocery shopping in a large supermarket in Tianming, and my fixing a flat tire in Tianming all managed to go without anyone thinking my presence was anything that required anyone to say anything to anyone in Authority.

I wouldn't think it would be.

Except that....my eating breakfast in Tianming was sufficiently interesting that the town's Committee Secretary¹ showed up for reasons that fell somewhere between epidemic prevention work and gawking at the foreigner with healthy doses of "looking like he does something" and "alleviating boredom".

After that bit of not very exciting excitement was over and done with and everyone who had asked nicely to take a photo of or with me had done so, I got an iced bottle of Coke from the convenience store across the street and hit the road.

It wouldn't be long though before more excitement arrived on my plate.

Slowing down just long enough to decide that the masked question askers were going to be an annoying waste of my time on a very hot day and seeing that there wasn't any shade anywhere near where they parked, I had barely come to the stop required by the most minimum degree of politeness before I rode off again figuring that, if they actually had any authority to be annoying me, they had a car and could choose to catch up with me.

Less children, better childrearing; best to only have one child

Which is exactly what they did.

You see, Xixiang County is a Closed Area.

No Foreigners Allowed.

As best I can tell, this is a completely obsolete regulation dating back to when the Third Line Factories in the region were tasked with making defense materiel. However—despite the vast majority of Third Line Factories being such a bad idea that not only did they close within a decade of their opening, but no one even bothered to salvage equipment from them—this is still a super special place and foreigners can't possibly be allowed to see it.

Who knows what we might do when faced with the ability to take our own photos and video of things that are freely available on the Internet?

I suppose it's possible that some part of the county might have current military installations that have super secret things that can be accidentally seen by someone passing by on the public roads at times when the general public is allowed to be out and about². However, given how many of the commenters on my video about my not going to Xixiang had no clue that their own county is Closed, though, I'm rather doubtful that there is in fact anything beyond an outdated law that someone is too stupid or lazy to bother getting around to removing cause there's nothing sufficiently Famous in Xixiang that foreigners ought to be wanting to visit Xixiang.

The guys in the car wanted me to turn around and go back the way I came. So did the police and the plainclothesed woman pibbie³ who showed up perhaps eight or ten minutes later.

The military installations in Xixiang County are very well camouflaged. This one is pretending to be a rice paddy.

I did not want to turn around, go back the way I came, and make what would amount to a 120km detour to completely avoid their county and still get to the city that Tyra has mailed my camera to. In fact, I felt that if they wanted to be pushy about a clearly obsolete rule, they should apply to their leaders either for permission to allow me to cross per the regulations pertaining to Closed Areas or they should drive me.

Their argument was that the County is a bona fide Closed Area and that I shouldn't be here.

My argument was that there was zero public notice either on or off line and that they had clearly failed in their responsibilities by not making it possible for me to know prior to them catching up with me.

Their argument was that if I had called the Exit & Entry Administration for Hanzhong City in advance, I would have been told not to come.

My argument was that this was a ridiculous thing to expect of anyone more than 40 years after Reform and Opening Up began and why would I ever assume the possibility that I would get any answer other than "why are you wasting our time with this phone call?"

The air conditioning in the back of the police car was very nice but the officers really drove much too fast. I can only presume that, although marked cop cars still have to pay expressway tolls, they don't get speeding tickets.

You didn't think I'd let the police win an argument with me, did you?

Back on the road at the edge of the County, I reassembled my bike and gear, made myself some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches⁴, and put together a quick video apologizing to all the people who had sent me "Welcome to Xixiang" and "hope to see you in Xixiang" messages over the past couple of days.

The ride from there to Shiquan was uneventful if overly hot (actual high of 39℃ with a humid "feels like" temp of 49℃). Upon my arrival, I was less of a social butterfly than I felt like I ought to have been with the very nice bike shop I stopped in at which I blame on the heat.

As local governments navigate new decrees on protecting cultural heritage, it's becoming increasingly common to see older buildings that were marked 拆 (to be demolished) that haven't been

Nice, mostly downhill riding, but it's so damn hot

They recommended me a homestay hotel in a nearby apartment building as owned by a cyclist and willing to give good prices to tourers but, when I got there, the 11 year old sitting at the Front Desk playing games on a phone told me that they had no vacancies.

From there I booked in at a hotel that I was sure was going to give me lots of trouble as ELong wouldn't accept my English name as an acceptable name and Feizhu's confirmation notice stated that the room I'd just successfully paid for was 限內宾 (domestic only). However, upon arrival, they not only had zero problem with my being not Chinese, they already knew exactly what to do with a foreigner and a passport.

The room might be the size of what you'd find in Hong Kong

But they made up for that in overly large hallways and random sculptures

¹ Highest ranking CPC official in town

² Separate from being known for having fences and "keep out" signs, places with actual secret things that want to be kept secret tend to do things like publicly tell the public they aren't allowed outside on the day of a rocket launch.

³ In case you've forgotten, this is my deliberately insouciant nickname for Public Security Bureau officers

⁴ Welll..... peanut butter and fruit roll up sandwiches cause I couldn't find jelly.

Former roadside convenience store and long distance telephone bar. The sign on the wall is pre-2000

Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 3,017 km (1,874 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	4
Comment on this entry	Comment	0