D8: 王庄堡 →砂河（双语）

September 26, 2024

A beacon tower next to the walled town of Pingxingguan (about 3km downhill from the pass) 平型关围城（从关隘往下坡走约 3 公里处）旁的一座烽火台

It's a really good thing that I didn't try to make it to Pingxiangguan yesterday. Even if I hadn't gotten the flat tires, the amount of time it took me to get started means that it would have still ended up being a dodgy proposition.

还好我昨天没赶到平型关。就算没遇上爆胎，我出发时耗费的那些时间也意味着，这次的行程将会难以预料。

Today was a lot colder and grayer than yesterday, so (if I had done it yesterday instead of today) the descent from the Pingxing Pass Great Wall wouldn't have been quite so miserable. But, even bearing in mind that I didn't end up going in to the still walled town of Pingxingguan, it very much did not look like the sort of place that was apt to have open hotels of any stripe.

今天比昨天冷多了，天色也更灰暗，所以（要是昨天而非今天到的话）从平型关长城下来的这段路，想必不会这么难受。不过，即便没进那座仍有城墙环绕的平型关镇，单看它的样子，也实在不像是会有旅店还在营业的地方。

It will come as a great surprise to people that know me in my normal life, but when I'm biking—unless I'm doing the "Vulcan Healing Trance" thing where I sleep 14 hours in a row—I'm often up at 6am. On my previous fall excursions, this was particularly frustrating as there was no way in hell I was leaving bedlandia until the sun had warmed the world somewhat.

Nowadays, I've at least got video editing or Dr. M's book to work on.

了解我日常生活的人要是知道了，肯定会大吃一惊，因为骑车的时候，除非我进入 “治愈冥想” 模式，一口气睡上 14 个小时，不然我通常早上 6 点就起床了。之前秋天出游的时候，这可太折磨人了，因为在太阳稍微让大地变暖之前，我压根就不想从被窝里出来。

现在，起码我还能剪辑视频，或是翻译 M 博士的书。

On this day, I was fed, dressed, and out the door by 7:30 with the thought that, having had oatmeal with sweet milk powder for dinner the night before, I'd have a proper breakfast somewhere on the road.

今天，我7 点半就吃完饭、收拾妥当出门了，想着昨晚吃的是加了甜奶粉的燕麦片，路上得找个地方好好吃顿早餐。

No proper breakfast was found.

The trucker restaurants I'd passed on the way up to Wangzhuangpu were all lunch and dinner places, and what little I saw of the town was no more lively than it had been the night before when I'd decided to eat oatmeal in the room along with some fruit from a nearby shop, and one each of a selection of "I also don't like this one" local candies.

结果没找到像样的早餐。

去王庄堡路上经过的那些卡车司机餐厅，全是供应午餐和晚餐的。这小镇看着没比昨晚热闹多少，昨晚我决定在房间里吃燕麦片，还吃了些从附近商店买的水果，还买了几种当地糖果，每种吃了一颗确定，“这也不太喜欢”。

Then, once I was on the Rainbow Road¹, although I would pass through numerous small villages and townlets that obviously had people (as evidenced by chimney smoke or old folks getting their morning sun), they weren't the kind of villages were people pay for food cooked by other people.

之后上了 “彩虹路¹” ，虽说一路上会经过不少小村庄，明显有人居住（从烟囱冒烟或是老人晒太阳就能看出来），但这些村子里似乎没有那种对外营业的饭馆。

Old village that's been turned into a resort 被改造成度假村的老村庄

Very safe way of towing another vehicle 非常非常安全的拖车法

The first time I came to something obviously restaurant-y was a former small town turned giant holiday complex² just downhill from the first of many sites related to the Battle of Pingxing Pass³. Nothing looked open and nothing looked like—had it been open—it would have the ability or desire to cook food for just one person.

The next time was a handful of stalls outside a tourist temple and, although they all clearly had food, they also didn't have walls and I thought (incorrectly) that if I kept going I would find someplace with both food and walls.

首次遇到明显像餐馆的地方，是在第一个平型关战役相关遗址³下坡处，一座由小镇改造成的大型度假综合体² 。没一家看着是开门营业的，而且就算开着门，看样子也没能力或者没意愿给我一个散客做饭。

再往后，是一座为旅游升级的寺庙外的几个小吃摊，虽说都有食物，但摊位没围挡。我还误以为（事实证明我错了）再往前走能找到实体饭店。

Not too long after that, I got to what AMap helpfully told me was a dirt road that I shouldn't be on. Perfectly paved and with no problems at all, there was a "Road Closed Ahead" checkpoint of some sort maybe a kilometer or two after the nonexistent transition from pavement to dirt but all they did when they saw me coming was move the cones out of my way and wave me through, so I kept going.

没过多久，高德地图贴心提示我走上了一条不该走的土路。其实路面铺得好好的，一点问题没有，在本应从柏油路变成土路的地方过去大概一两公里，有个类似 “前方道路封闭” 的检查点，但他们看到我过来，只是把路锥挪开，挥手让我过去，我就接着往前走了。

Temple which I should have stopped outside for food 本该停下来吃饭的寺庙

Modern Great Wall style tower at the turnoff to a village 通往村子岔路口处的现代长城风格塔楼

At the Battle of Pingxingguan Pass site 平型关大捷遗址处

I guess the climb was about 5km. It wouldn't be too hard for me to figure out. That's what GPS data is for. I just haven't bothered to check.

I'm pleased to say that, although I stopped frequently (for everything from checking phone messages and taking photos to correcting headlines), the only time prior to the actually unpaved section of actually dirt road finally showing up that I got off and walked the bike was when I really needed to type a response and I was combining the two actions.

我估摸着爬坡大概有 5 公里，查一下 GPS 数据就能确定，只是我还懒得去看。

虽说一路上我频繁停下来（看手机消息、拍照、改标题，啥事儿都有），但在真正遇到土路之前，我只有一次下车推着车走，那是因为我急需回复消息，就边推车边打字。

They are building a tunnel. I don't know if it doesn't go through yet, or if the viaduct after the tunnel isn't surfaced yet, or if they just prefer to try to keep people out of their construction site⁴. In any case, that plus the beautiful new asphalt after the Pingxing Pass Great Wall told me why someone had marked the road closed on the GPS.

他们正在修一条隧道。不知道是还没打通，还是隧道后的高架桥还没铺路面，又或者只是想把人挡在施工场地⁴外。不管怎样，加上平型关长城之后那段崭新漂亮的柏油路，我算是明白为啥 GPS 显示这条路封闭了。

The official start of the "closed" "dirt road" “封闭”“土路” 的正式起点

If you've seen one Ming Dynasty Great Wall Pass on a cold gray day where you haven't eaten anything but pannier snacks, you've seen them all. Or at least that's what I told myself when I decided not to go climbing on things in search of mountain vistas obscured by low hanging clouds.

要是在这么个寒冷灰暗的日子，你只吃了驮包里的零食，看过一座明朝长城关隘，那其他的也就大同小异了。至少当我决定不再费力爬上高处，去欣赏低垂云层遮蔽的山间景色时，我是这么跟自己说的。

So. Cold. Going. Downhill.

And then going downhill.

And then still going downhill.

The aforementioned walled fort town that would have been my attempted destination for yesterday barely even had any chimney smoke rising up from inside, so it was stop for a quick photo of a beacon tower and to put on an extra jersey and keep going.

好冷啊，一路下坡。

一直下坡，

没完没了地下坡。

昨天本打算去的那座有城墙环绕的堡垒小镇，那会儿里面几乎都没烟囱冒烟。于是我停下来，迅速拍了张烽火台的照片，又多穿了一件骑行服，接着赶路。

I guess there must be a road there 那儿肯定有条路

Cause I can't think of any other reason for there to be a Yield sign 理由：有个让行标志

Pingxingguan Pass in the distance 眺望平型关关隘

Widened within the past decade to accommodate the death machines moving as fast as they possibly could on a road that still has level crossings, I wouldn't find a restaurant that looked like it had been open any time after the Hu Jintao years until after I'd been on the truck route for 8 or 10 kilometers.

I'm not sure if it actually got colder while I was sat inside or—like on last week's rainy day—if it just felt colder going back outside after I had some time to sit inside and defrost, but during my making of a video on trying out weird local drinks⁵, I also put on two more jerseys, a windbreaker, and my only pair of tights.

这条路在过去十年里拓宽过，好让那些 “杀手” 能在这条仍有平交道口的路上开到最快速度。在骑上卡车路线 8 到 10 公里后，我才找到一家看样子像是胡主席时期还营业过的餐馆。

不清楚是我坐在屋里的时候气温真降了，还是跟上星期下雨天一样，在屋里坐了会儿暖和过来，一出门就感觉更冷了。总之，在录制尝试当地奇怪饮品⁵的视频时，我又套上两件骑行服、一件风衣，还穿上了唯一的紧身裤。

On a less hungry day, I'd totally have stopped and climbed up on top of a tower that close to the road 要是没那么饿，我肯定会停下来，爬上路边那座塔楼

Booked a hotel another 15km down the very straight road with very wide shoulders and very respectful⁶ death machines who started announcing their presence from the moment they saw me and who both slowed down and pulled far to the left to pass as I pulled far to the right to let them.

A national chain that is internationally owned, because CTrip doesn't feel like following the announcement from the Ministry of Commerce⁷, it was still marked as "not taking foreigners" despite the front desk telling me that, although I was her first American, I was at least the tenth foreigner she had checked in since she started working there two years ago.

沿着这条笔直、路肩宽阔的路又骑了 15 公里，我预订了一家酒店。路上的大车司机很有礼貌⁶，一看到我，老远就开始按喇叭示意，超车时会减速，还会尽量靠左，我则靠右避让。

这是一家全国连锁酒店，归外资所有。携程似乎没把商务部的通知当回事⁷所以还是标注着 “不接待外国人” 。虽说前台告诉我，我是她接待的第一个美国人，但打从她两年前在这里工作起，起码已经给十个外国人办过入住了。

Who thought painted tires was a good way to decorate rural roads? 哪个人才给轮胎上漆来装饰乡村道路？

Wall painting about the Battle of Pingxingguan Pass 到处可见平型关大捷

I got into the room, turned the heat all the way up, made myself a bowl of oatmeal, and fully intended to spend the rest of the evening getting warm when the police called.

我进了房间，把暖气开到最大，给自己泡了一碗燕麦片，本打算舒舒服服地取暖度过这个夜晚，就有警察打电话来了。

¹ I think Rainbow Roads started somewhere in Zhejiang. In addition to the yellow line down the center of the road a red and a blue line are added to mark it as a scenic byway that usually isn't allowed to have through trucks. As the road I entered Shanxi on (which was once a truck route and which now has a traffic police post where trucks must stop and prove that they have legitimate business inside) was designated an official scenic byway by the traffic police and did not have the rainbow stripe†, I suspect that the stripes come from the local tourism board and don't have the force of law behind them.

¹我觉得 “彩虹路” 是从浙江某个地方兴起的。除了路中间的黄线，还加了红蓝线，以此标明这是一条通常不让货车穿行的风景道。我进入山西的这条路（以前是货车路线，现在设有交警岗亭，货车必须停车证明自己有正当入内事由）被交警设为官方风景道，但没有彩虹条纹。所以我怀疑这些条纹是当地旅游部门搞的，并没有法律效力。

Will this big intersection mean lunch? 这个大路口附件会有饭店吗？

† It also hadn't been renumbered as a 5xx road which used to be my standard way of determining that something was a Scenic Byway.

† 这条路也没重新编号成 5xx 开头，以前我都靠这个判断是不是风景道。

² Taking villages where greater than half of the population has moved to the city and turning them into holiday retreats managed by a single large company is a recent rural revitalization thing that I can't decide whether or not I dislike. In many cases, it's done quite well; the people still living there get improved services; the people who aren't living there get a reasonable income off of their otherwise disused property. But, in many other cases, it's basically a land grab that disenfranchises residents and ensures that tourism money doesn't spend any time in the local economy.

²把半数以上人口都迁到城里的村子改造成由一家大公司经营的度假胜地，这是近来乡村振兴的新举措，我都不知道自己喜不喜欢这做法。很多时候，改造得确实不错，还留在村里的人能享受到更好的服务，搬走的人也能靠闲置房产有笔不错的收入。但在其他不少情况下，这基本就是巧取豪夺，剥夺了村民权益，还让旅游收入没法留在当地经济体系里。

Once upon a time, when this road was smaller, and the trucks were slower, this might have been lunch 曾几何时，这条路没这么宽，货车也开得慢，这儿说不定能吃上午餐

Hasn't been lunch for even longer than the one above 比上一家废弃得更久

³ Never got around to figuring out if that was Chinese Civil War or War Against Japanese Aggression

³一直没搞清楚这是国共内战还是抗日战争相关的遗址。

⁴ I'm sure if they really wanted to keep people off of their under construction roads, they could. However, the necessary effort to do so would make things difficult for both the construction vehicles that need to use these roads and the locals who have no other choice.

⁴我敢肯定，要是真想把人挡在施工道路外，他们肯定有办法。但真这么做的话，施工车辆和别无选择只能走这条路的当地人，日子都会不好过。

⁵ Most weird local drinks (like “Very Cola”) have either been bought out by the national conglomerates (Wahaha in the aforementioned case) or (like "Dayao") have become national drinks in their own right. Few of them taste good. All of them are worth paying a small sum for to try on or off camera. In this case, the fizzy orange was mostly notable for a strong chemical flavor, and the fizzy snow pear for tasting like pears. I don't know if it was the glass bottles or what, but both of them were among the fizziest fizz-pops I've ever drunk.

⁵大多数奇怪的当地饮品（比如 “非常可乐”），要么被大型国企收购了（上述例子里的娃哈哈），要么本身成了全国知名饮品（“大窑”）。没几种好喝的，但不管拍不拍视频都值得花点小钱尝尝。这次喝的气泡橙味饮料有股浓烈的化学味道，气泡雪梨味的则像梨。不知道是不是玻璃瓶的缘故，这两款是我喝过气最足的汽水。

Welcoming guests from the Four Seas and the Five Continents 挺热情的欢迎语

I couldn't tolerate the orange and I faked finishing the pear 我实在受不了那橙子味饮料，梨味的假装喝完了

⁶ Just to remind me how nice most of the drivers were, the occasional truck driver kept to his lane without slowing or giving me space and let me feel the power of his motion.

⁶只是偶尔也有不那么友好的司机在车道上自顾自开，既不减速也不让空间，让我切实感受到了他的 “车威”，也越发显得大多数司机很有礼貌。

⁷ At this stage of things, they'd literally just that afternoon responded to guy making the complaint with a very arrogant line of bullshit as to why writing "this hotel can't take foreigners" on a listing isn't actually noncompliant with the Notice's explicit vocabulary that "online platforms may not say that hotels cannot take foreigners."

⁷就在这事发生的当天下午，针对有人投诉平台标注某些酒店“不接待外国人” 一事，相关方给出的回应特别傲慢，净是些强词夺理的废话，坚称这么写并不违反通知里明确提到的 “线上平台不允许说某些地方没有接待外宾的资质。”

Unsafe building, this bathroom is closed 这洗手间不能用

I clearly wasn't the only person unimpressed by that sign 我不是为一个还及时要洗手

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 511 km (317 miles)

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D8: 王庄堡 →砂河 （双语）

D8: 王庄堡 →砂河（双语）