D10: 代 → 朔州 (双语)

September 30, 2024

Beyond the occasional bit of spit in the air that's less of a nuisance than someone who talks with their mouth full, the rain has left. It has, however, been replaced by a very intense cold front that has me reevaluating my decision to purchase thermal bibs on Taobao and get them sent to Beijing for the post-National Day holiday excursion.

On my way in to the supermarket where I stocked up on oatmeal and mini chocolate bars, I'd considered a pair of tights the day from a store across the street but they'd closed by the time I came out. It's so cold, however, this morning that I know I'll be waiting until whenever that shop (or some other shop with tights) is open before I proceed.

除了偶尔飘在空中的几滴雨，这点儿雨还不如满嘴食物说话的人讨厌，雨已经停了。然而，取而代之的是一股极强的冷锋，这让我重新思考之前打算国庆假期后在淘宝上购买保暖背带裤并寄到北京的决定。

前一天在我去超市囤燕麦片和迷你巧克力棒的路上，我就看中了街对面店里的一条紧身裤，但等我从超市出来时，那家店已经打烊了。然而今天早上实在太冷了，我知道我得等到那家店（或者其他有紧身裤卖的店）开门再出发。

Coffee and breakfast at Mrs. Zhang's while dawdling my morning away until the sun heats things up 在张女士那儿喝咖啡、吃早餐，消磨着早上的时光，直到太阳出来暖和些我才走

Beacon Towers seen on the way up 上坡路看到的烽火台

Beacon Towers seen on the way down 下坡路看到的烽火台

Even with the numerous rounds of coffee I make while chatting with my guesthouse owner Mrs. Zhang, none of the clothing shops on this street are open, so I begin my day with a leisurely visit to the Ashoka Stupa on the grounds of the Dai County government offices. The county government also has a "Mao Was Here Site" but—even with my thoroughly unsuitable "spring weight" Decathlon tights on over my shorts—I'm getting chilled with the being outside, Mao-related sites are either completely worthless or a massive time sink of interesting (with nothing in between), and I was sure I'd touristed enough that they must be open by now.

Given that I'd probably spent close to 10 minutes trying to convince myself that an overly expensive¹ pair of cotton sweatpants from a closer by store might work and they were still just starting to open by the time I got there, I probably could have fit in a visit, but, oh well, I already know I like Dai enough that I'll be coming back someday.

尽管我和民宿老板张女士聊天时喝了好几轮咖啡，但这条街上的服装店都还没开门，所以我决定先悠闲地去代县政府大院里的阿育王塔逛逛。县政府还有个“毛主席曾到过此地”的景点，但即便我在短裤外面套上了不太适合这种天气的迪卡侬“春季款”紧身裤，待在外面还是觉得冷。而且与毛主席相关的景点，要么毫无看点，要么就是有趣但极耗时间（没有折中的情况），我还以为我逛得够久了，那些服装店现在肯定开门了。

我大概花了近10分钟试图说服自己，从附近一家店买条贵得离谱¹的棉质运动裤也许能凑合，但等我到那儿的时候，店才刚开门。也许我本可以挤出时间去那个景点，但算了，我已经很喜欢代县了，我知道以后还会再来的。

Covid test booth repurposed as a ticket and info booth 改造成售票和咨询亭的核酸检测亭

Ashoka Stupa. I particularly like the sign reminding people which direction to go in for circumambulation of the stupa. 阿育王塔。我特别喜欢那个提醒人们绕塔时该按什么方向走的指示牌。

I think I paid 15y for the the thermal tights and 30y for the fleece lined thermal tights and, other than both pairs being aggressively ugly, they were probably one of the best purchases of the year.

After a lot of getting turned around trying to find my way out to the main road on a maze of mud pits that's apparently been the general state of Dai's roads for the past three or four years of completely redoing everything to modern standards, I found myself once again on the Great Wall Tourist Highway² heading north to the petrichor-smell of the corn harvest.

保暖紧身裤花了15元，加绒保暖紧身裤花了30元，除了这两条裤子丑得辣眼睛，它们可能是我今年买得最值的东西之一了。

在一个像迷宫一样的泥坑路中绕了好久才找到通向主路的方向，据说在过去三四年里，代县为了将道路按现代标准彻底翻修，道路一直都是这种状况。之后，我又一次踏上了长城旅游公路²，向北骑行，空气中弥漫着玉米收获时节泥土的芬芳。

On the Great Wall Tourist Highway again 又在长城旅游公路上了

My original route called for me to be taking the slightly lower pass to the west but going north over the mountains would put me in a city with a train station that a riding companion who was coming up specifically to spend her Golden Week Holiday with me could (with some effort) reach from Xi'an.

The OpenStreetMaps data on my topo map gave me three options to the north: a modern pass created by the G208 National Road; a historic pass protected by Yanmenguan Fort; and a high road that went around the outside of the Declared Tourist Area.

我原本的路线是走稍低一些的西边山口，但向北翻山可以到达一个有火车站的城市，这样一位特意来和我共度黄金周假期的骑行伙伴就能（费点周折）从西安抵达那里。

我地形图上的数据显示向北有三个选择：一个是由G208国道形成的现代山口；一个是由雁门关堡保护的历史山口；还有一条绕开已划定旅游区的高地公路。

Why is this boulder in a pavilion? 为什么这块大石头在亭子里？

I'm good with the "no non tourism vehicles" sign; I'm not good with the "no through pedestrians, bicycles, or motorcycles" sign; also ugly-ass concrete paifang replacing one that was supposedly³ blown up by the Japanese during WWII 我能接受“非旅游车辆禁止通行”的牌子；但“行人、自行车、摩托车禁止通行”的牌子就让我不爽了；还有那个丑到爆的水泥牌坊，据说³原来的牌坊是在二战时被日本人炸毁的。

With both AMap and BaiduMaps labeling the G208 "unpassable" on account of roadworks and the cobblestoned Fort Road officially being "walking only," my only real choice was the high road.

Which, of course, when I got up there (after 500m elevation gain over a shade under 20km), was gated-off with a prominent sign indicating that "motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians" are prohibited from using this road at any time other than Officially Sanctioned Events.

由于高德地图和百度地图都显示因道路施工G208国道被标记为“无法通行”，而铺着鹅卵石的堡道官方规定为“只允许步行”，我唯一实际的选择就是那条高地公路。

当然，当我好不容易到达那里（在不到20公里的路程中海拔上升了500米），却发现路被封锁了，还有一个显眼的牌子，上面写着除官方批准的活动外，任何时候“摩托车、自行车和行人”都禁止使用此路。

I'm not going to say that my behavior at the Fort was good or right or nice. I was tired and cold and frustrated and kind of a bitch. However, I'm also pretty sure that quiet, rational, calm discussion of every goddamned route that wasn't the expressway being closed would have gotten the same result in the end.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea magna culpa.

我不会说我在堡垒那儿的行为是好的、正确的或者得体的。我又累又冷又沮丧，有点像个泼妇。我也很确定，就算心平气和、理性地讨论任何一条不是高速公路且被封掉的路线，最终还是同样的效果。

我千分之百认可我的错。

I think that was originally part of a stone bridge 我觉得那原本是石桥的一部分

Ugly modern skin, but the brickwork inside the gates looked pretty old 外观是难看的现代风格，但门内的砖石结构看起来很古老

When the pick-up truck I was put in to take the high road was temporarily blocked by a very stubborn herd of goats, that was the necessary bit of laughter to make me change from sullenly accepting people going out of their way to help me to calling the guy I blew up at and apologizing to him. And, more importantly, he accepted my apology⁴

Sat in the sunlight at the other side of the pass, eating chocolate bars and lazily putting my bags back on my bike, a local cyclist who had just come over the "all the maps mark this as closed" road came by and asked me where I was going. Cause whoever takes the data that a road is currently in the process of having one side freshly tarmac'd (and therefore is experiencing a slowdown) is better at updating their databases than whoever put a private Park Staff Only access road⁵ onto the Maps.

当载我走高地公路的皮卡被一群非常倔强的山羊暂时挡住去路时，这一幕让我忍不住笑了出来，这也让我从闷闷不乐地接受别人帮忙，转变为打电话给刚才我向他发脾气的人道歉。更重要的是，他接受了我的道歉⁴。

我坐在山口另一边的阳光下，吃着巧克力棒，懒洋洋地把包重新放回自行车上，这时一个刚从“所有地图都标记为封闭”的路上过来的当地车友路过，问我要去哪儿。因为负责更新道路数据的人，似乎更擅长把正在重新铺设一侧路面（所以会有交通缓行）的道路信息更新到数据库，而不是把一条仅供公园工作人员使用的私人道路⁵ 从地图上移除。

You got to admit this is kind of funny 这真有点好笑

Bad roads on the way down and Great Wall 下坡途中的烂路和长城

The amount of Wall in this area really looks like the Qing Dynasty decided that building a whole new structure a kilometer away would be easier than repairing what the Ming had built⁶ 这个地区的长城看起来真像是清朝觉得在一公里外建新的长城比修缮明朝的更容易⁶

The condition of the road on the descent gave me some idea why Dai County has recently decided to completely redo all their roads from the roadbed on up, and the volume of truck traffic on the road was sufficient that—in combination with a bitter headwind that persisted no matter which direction I turned—had me grateful to go "off road" onto farm tracks for a substantial percentage of the next 30km.

It might have screwed with my speed and pushed me into another night ride, and it might have mostly been uninteresting⁷ brown countryside, but anything is better than sharing the road with the Death Machines.

下坡时道路的状况让我明白了为什么代县最近决定从路基开始彻底翻修所有道路，而且路上的卡车流量很大，再加上无论我朝哪个方向骑都一直顶着的刺骨逆风，让我很庆幸在接下来30公里的大部分路程中能走“非公路”的农田小道。

这可能影响了我的速度，让我又得摸黑骑行，而且大部分路程可能是平淡无奇的棕色乡村景色⁷，但总比和那些“死亡机器”（卡车）共用道路要好。

Greenway to Nowhere and a good example of "measure once, cut twice" 不知通向何处的绿道，这是做事不严谨的好例子

I actually made it to the Shuozhuo Train Station exit ahead of Dr. M, albeit barely, and only because of her train being late and the massive unexplained outflow of people getting off the train in this podunk county.

We adjourned to the first place with food on our side of the road for the slowest noodles in the known universe (and that both of us agreed were nigh on inedible⁸), followed by the closest hotel for a check-in process that would have been a million times smoother if both of us had used our English names⁹ on our respective bookings, or if the Front Desk lady hadn't gotten her very drunk boss and his even drunker friend involved.

实际上我比M博士先到朔州火车站出口，不过只是勉强领先，只是因为她的火车晚点了，而且这个小县城莫名其妙地有大量乘客下车。

我们去了路边第一家餐馆，吃了世界上出餐最慢的面条（而且我们都觉得几乎没法吃⁸），然后去了最近的酒店办理入住。如果我们在各自的预订中都用英文名⁹，或者前台女士没有把她烂醉如泥的老板和他更醉的朋友牵扯进来，入住过程会顺利一百万倍。

Great Wall on a nearby ridge line 附近山脊上的长城

Great Wall on a faraway ridge line 远处山脊上的长城

Great Wall both on the ridge and in the valley 山脊和山谷里都有长城

¹ I'm not sure if the ultimate decision not to buy these was the ridiculous price tag or the headache-inducing volume their music was still playing at after the second time they turned it down for me.

¹我不确定最后没买这些运动裤，是因为离谱的价格标签，还是因为他们第二次为我调低音量后，音乐声仍然大得让人头疼。

² Similar to Hainan's recently signposted Coastal Tourism Highway, this seems to be a recent initiative that is 95% preexisting roads and a signpost.

²类似于海南最近设立指示牌的环岛旅游公路，这似乎是一项近期举措，95%是已有的道路都加了指示牌。

³ As the actual semi-defensive structures at the pass were not blown up by the Japanese, I'm more than a little dubious of this particular claim.

³由于山口实际的半防御性建筑并没有被日本人炸毁，我对这个说法相当怀疑。

⁴ I will also do a follow-up written apology after the Tour is over.

⁴旅行结束后，我也会写一封后续的书面道歉信。

Freshly repainted 70s slogan on a irrigation lock that looks like it was redone in the 90s 看起来像是90年代翻修过的灌溉水闸上重新粉刷的70年代标语

1990s Irrigation Lock with a corn cob decoration 带有玉米棒装饰的90年代灌溉水闸

⁵ As all of my previous attempts at telling AMap that a marked as "existing" road doesn't actually exist have failed completely, this won't receive any real follow-up efforts on my part.

⁵因为我之前所有尝试告诉高德地图一条标记为“存在”的道路实际并不存在的努力都完全失败了，所以这次我也不会再去跟进此事。

⁶ When you consider that a lot of Ming and Qing Wall construction was a way of using up corvee labor, and that—through much of its history—the Wall was less a defensive structure than a way of making sure merchants travelled the correct tax paying routes, this probably isn't that far off.

⁶当你考虑到明清时期很多长城建设是为了消耗徭役劳动力，而且在历史上的很多时候，长城与其说是防御建筑，不如说是为了确保商人纳税，那么这种说法可能也不太离谱。

⁷ There were interesting things like forts and bits of Ming Wall and greenways that went nowhere. There just wasn't any time to properly experience them.

⁷路上有一些有趣的东西，比如堡垒、几段明长城和不知通向何处的绿道。只是没有时间好好去体验。

Much of my sojourn off the Truck Road was like this 我在远离主干道的这段旅程，很多时候都是这样。

But, some of it was like this 但也有些时候是这样。

⁸ Bearing in mind that I was hungry enough that pineapple-flavor Dayao† tasted good.

⁸要知道，当时我饿得连菠萝味的大窑†汽水都觉得好喝。

† One of the local Chinese sodas that escaped obscurity to recently become a nationwide brand, it's generally quite vile in the way that only the cheapest of store brand fizz pops can be vile. I am however to understand that the brown flavor is the closest thing in China to Irn Bru.

†大窑是中国本土汽水品牌之一，原本籍籍无名，最近却火遍全国。它的味道通常很糟糕，就像那种最便宜的商店自有品牌气泡水一样难喝。不过我听说，棕色的那种口味和苏格兰的 “依云布鲁” 汽水味道最接近。

⁹ My using my English name and her using her Chinese name led to them initially not realizing that we had two bookings, which then led to the one drunk guy telling the other drunk guy not to bother hitting on a pair of lesbians†.

⁹我用英文名，她用中文名，结果他们一开始没意识到我们订了两间房，这就导致一个醉汉让另一个醉汉别去骚扰一对女同性恋 †。

An empty bottle of Dayao with a full plate of noodles 喝光了大窑汽水，剩的满满一盘面条

Presumed 18th century fortified village that I would have liked to have spent more time exploring 估计这处设防村落建于18世纪，我本想多花些时间好好探寻一番。

But, as you can see by the light in my photo of the info sign, there wasn't enough time before sunset 但从照片显示出的光线情况得知，很快就要日落了。

† This did not actually stop them from fawning over us in that particularly touchy feely way that drunk men do, but it changed the dynamic‡.

†不过这并没有阻止他们像醉汉惯常那样，动手动脚地讨好我们，但气氛还是有所改变了 ‡。

‡ Luckily, as Dr. M was the one who took the short straw in most of the dealing with them, she thought they'd called us "nü cheyou" (women cyclists) not "nü jiyou" (lesbians) and didn't know about it until after we were playing Scrabble in my room.

‡ 幸运的是，处理这类事情大多是 M 博士来应对，她以为他们把我们叫成 “女车友”，而不是 “女基友”，直到我们在我房间玩拼字游戏时她才知道这事。

Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 661 km (410 miles)

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