T-9: 海甸岛 → 国兴大道（双语）

September 7, 2024

I think my favorite thing about the camo heavy equipment is the big ass signs on all the vehicles saying "Must give precedence to civilian vehicles" 关于这个迷彩重型装备，我最喜欢的是它上面的大标语“军车礼让民车”。

Not that packing is ever fun, but it's substantially less fun when you haven't showered, don't have a breeze, fan, or a/c, and the only real light you have is what's coming in through the windows.

My grousing was put in perspective as nothing more than a minor nuisance once I got far enough into the city that I had reliable internet. Lots of people that I know experienced some degree of flooding, and four people had one or more windows in their apartment blow out (with one of those incidents resulting in a concussion, a broken collarbone, three cracked ribs, and a broken hip¹).

打包行李从来就不是件好玩的事，而当你没洗澡、没有微风、用不了风扇和空调，而且唯一的光源是从窗户透进来的光时，打包就更没意思了。

当我深入市区到有稳定网络的地方时，我才意识到自己的抱怨不过是件小烦心事罢了。我认识的很多人都遭受了某种程度的洪涝灾害，而且有四个人的公寓有一扇或多扇窗户被风刮破了（其中一起事故导致某个人脑震荡、锁骨骨折、三根肋骨断裂以及髋骨骨折¹）。

I'm pretty sure I'm extremely over packed and, even after the Gansu junket t-shirts and shorts get mailed home that I'll still have more mailing home to do, but I'm well pleased with my ability to get all that and two panniers, my fork bags, my handlebar bag, and most of the contents of the aforementioned bags into two suitcases.

我很确定自己带的东西多得离谱，就算把在甘肃媒体之旅期间穿的那些T恤和短裤都寄回家后，我可能还得再寄一些东西回去。不过，我还是挺满意自己的能力，我能把所有那些东西，还有两个驮包、前叉包、车把包以及上述包里的大部分物品都塞进了两个行李箱里。

Okay, two suitcases, a backpack, and a laptop bag 好吧，两个行李箱、一个背包和一个电脑包

After about two kilometers of walking, a guy in a car asked me where I was going, and since he mostly wasn't going anywhere at all other than to look at the damage, he offered me a ride.

I suppose I spent about an hour in the car with Mr. Tang. I wasn't² running my GPS tracker at the time and I didn't make a point of time stamping but I've also got some photos from shortly before I got in his car and some video³ of shortly after I got out of his car.

走了大约两公里后，一位开车的男士问我要去哪儿。他除了去查看灾情之外，也没什么要去的地方，所以他就让我搭了便车。

我估计和唐先生在车里待了大概一个小时。当时我没开GPS追踪器²，也没去记时间，不过我在上车前拍了一些照片，下车后又录了一些视频³。

Looking at the chaos, it's obvious that—notwithstanding the very true memes about locals not noticing that a typhoon is going on⁴—the memory of 2014's super typhoons has stuck. There's still, as to be expected, a fuckton of damage but preparations from cutting tree branches, blocking street-level picture windows, and sand bags to staging the People's Liberation Army and Blue Sky Rescue in advance and evacuating 410,000 people from low-lying areas⁵ mean that it's barely even a fraction as bad as it seems like it ought to be⁶.

看着这片混乱的景象。尽管那些关于当地人没留意台风来袭⁴的表情包所言不虚，但显然2014年超强台风的记忆依然留存着。不出所料，仍然有大量的破坏，但从修剪树枝、封临街的大玻璃窗、堆砌沙袋，到提前部署中国人民解放军和蓝天救援队，以及从低洼地区⁵疏散 41万人等各项准备工作来看，实际的受灾情况比这小部分可糟糕得太多了。

What isn't surprising is that some windmills fell over 一些发电风车被吹倒了，并不令人惊讶。

What's surprising is how many of them didn't fall over 令人惊讶的是竟然还有些没倒。

During my hour in his car, although there was some backtracking for blocked roads, we managed to go as much as 6 or 7 kilometers. But, we (and by "we" I mean "he") managed to cleverly head for the area near the offices of the provincial government, so I was able to get a room with both running water and a power supply good enough that their elevators and central air conditioning were working.

Shower, then a sharebike home to get booze and a birthday present for my friend Sarah, and a much longer than usual ride out to her place⁷ where those of us who could make it held a lovely potluck.

搭车期间，尽管因为道路受阻有时得原路返回，但我们还是设法开出了六七公里远。不过，我们（这里说的 “我们” 其实是指 “他”）机智地朝着省政府办公楼附近的区域驶去，因此我才能住进一个有自来水，电力供应充足能让电梯和中央空调正常运转的房间。

冲澡后，我骑个共享单车去给朋友莎拉拿酒和生日礼物。我们要去她的住所参加百乐餐，但是这段骑行比平常花的时间要长得多。

I hadn't previously realized that most of the city's power runs underground. This is a communications cable. 我之前都没意识到这座城市的大部分电力线路是铺设在地下的。这是一根通信电缆。

It's hard to tell but I think it's the light pole that knocked it out, not the tree 很难说清楚，但我觉得是路灯杆把它弄断的，而不是树。

¹ At the time it fell on her, she was mopping up water that had come in through the not yet broken picture window

² I use GPS Logger by Mendhak which is mostly the best gps tracker available for Android but which sometimes just stops working for no discernable reason and doesn't tell you that it's turned off.

¹ 窗户砸到她时，她正在清理从那扇还没破的大玻璃窗渗进来的水。

² 我用的是门GPS Logger by Mendhak的GPS追踪器app，它在安卓系统上算是最佳GPS追踪器了，但有时候会无缘无故关闭，而且也不提示你。

³ My new series: Checking in at a Hotel in China as a Foreigner after the May and July Announcements from the Central Government, which—if my assistant gets Instagram working—may soon be available on western social media as well

³ 我的新系列：在中国中央政府五月和七月发布相关通告之后，作为外国人在中国入住酒店的体验。如果我的助理能正常运营Instagram，这个系列可能很快也会出现在西方社交媒体上。

With a Very Safe Red Plastic Bag warning people not to hit it, it is currently propped up on a makeshift stand made out of the median strip barrier 一个很显眼的红色塑料袋，提醒人们不要碰到，这些线目前由道路隔离护栏临时搭成的架子支撑着。

Redneck engineering at it's finest 草台工程发挥最佳作

⁴ And recent transplants causing a big enough run on the grocery stores that Market Supervision and Control has to step in and make public announcements about the stability of the food supply

⁵ All the evacuees are actually from rural areas in coastal Wenchang, Qionghai, and Wanning, not Haikou.

⁴ 近期来的候鸟去食品杂货店疯狂扫货，以至于市场监管局不得不介入，发布食品供应稳定的通知。

⁵ 所有被疏散的人员实际上都是来自文昌、琼海、万宁的沿海农村地区，没有海口的。

⁶ I realize that the 2014 typhoon was accompanied by a super high tide and storm surge, but I really want to know how they managed to improve the drainage on a river delta island maybe two meters above sea level to the extent that there is no standing water. Some of these streets used to flood after every thunderstorm, for crying out loud!

⁶ 我意识到2014年威马逊台风伴有很高的潮水和风暴潮，但我真的想知道，在海甸岛这个河口三角洲那块，海拔或许只有两米，几乎没有积水，他们是怎么加强排水系统的。我的老天，要知道之前有些街道在每场暴风雨后都会发生洪涝。

Some guys chillaxing on a tree 几个人淡定地坐在树上。

⁷ The ride back to my hotel, in the dark, with most streetlights still out was, quite possibly, the most stressful hour I've ever spent on a bicycle

⁷在骑车回酒店的路上，乌漆嘛黑的，大部分的街灯都没亮，这很可能是我骑车时最倍感压力的一个小时。

Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 32 km (20 miles)

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T-9: 海甸岛 → 国兴大道 （双语）

T-9: 海甸岛 → 国兴大道（双语）