D11: 朔州 → 阳防口

October 1, 2024

It is really, really cold in the morning. The kind of cold that has people more accustomed to the existence of winter wondering whether or not that sparkle on the pavement is frost.

Despite not being a breakfast person¹ and only ever having any of the oatmeal one evening when our dinner was fairly inadequate, Dr. M immediately volunteers to take my food weight and the coffee bean resupply she brought me.

While we wait for the sun to warm the world, we're starting with a visit to the still walled historic downtown and a temple that's supposed to have some nice Ming frescoes. Despite it being National Day, we are at most expecting a fairly quiet visit that might involved grilling some docents that aren't used to in-depth questions.

请勿动手 "Please don't touch" can be literally translated as "Don't move the hand" ... And there's no hand

Not that I remember any of it, but it's so nice going to a temple with someone who knows more than me

Eyes made of other materials or gems are added to Buddhas that are active worship objects

It's a place that's been recommended by one of her colleagues. So, even though domestic tourism has heated up enough in the post-Covid era that Maijishan and other places that haven't gotten turned into Historically-Themed Disneys are hitting their daily visitor limit, we aren't expecting a random temple in a random county in central Shanxi to have much in the way of people.

But you see.... there's this new computer game about Journey to the West. This new really popular computer game about Journey to the West². And some of those "nice Ming frescoes" that M's colleague mentioned are present in background shots along with a substantial number of 3D renderings of the temple grounds, and it's quite possibly the largest crowd I've experienced since I made the mistake last May of trying to go to the Dragonboat Races on the Haidian Creek³.

His expression really captures that "did someone fart" aesthetic

This much older sign was tucked behind a sign that said "no flash photography"

It's been too many decades since I was a medievalist for me to understand what's particularly Christian looking about this demon guy hanging out over top the Buddha's halo

No burning. Also, apparently, no regular repainting.

We now know why so damn many people were getting off the train.

Giving up on the possibility of really getting to look at anything of the "indoors variety" at the sort of level that either of us want to look at it, we end up in the Courtyard of Unimportant Things⁴ confusing our entourage of children and security guards while we get legitimately excited by the process of trying to decipher some early 20th century stelae that are half in Chinese, half in Latin, and were most likely the gravestones of prominent missionaries.

Then, after about 97 million photos with people who mostly all ask⁵ if they can take pictures with us, we are out of the temple and on the road south across the plain in the general direction of the pass at Shenchi.

Sunflower seeds outside the mall where I bought us gloves

Wind, wind, wind, wind, wind.

Lunch stop on the outskirts of town where I discover, despite not liking tofu or much in the way of peppers, we have relatively similar tastes in food. By which I mean, of the anything I will happily eat, the anythings I am happier to eat line up nicely with the items she doesn't dislike.

It's cold. The addition of thermal gloves and the thicker of the two pairs of tights is not really enough, and the road is kind of boring in that "built for more traffic than it has" way that is common with arterial routes whose trucks have been stolen by the expressway⁶.

So, we go wandering.

Ostensibly, we're looking for a cluster of historic graves that three previous visitors have decried in AMap comments as "unfindable" and possibly nonexistent. Mostly though, it's a useful marker to set our GPSs to as we aren't on the kind of terrain that supports riding side by side and we haven't yet discovered how much we enjoy swapping stories with each other⁷.

Well before it has gotten dark, and without even knowing that the Shenchi Pass still has all the trucks, we have realized that our chances of making it up a long climb before darkness falls and the cold gets colder are nigh on nonexistent so, even though the only place in Yangfangkou to be marked "bookable online" is 38y, we head there anyways in the hopes that one of the many dots that doesn't have online bookings or a phone number will be acceptable to us.

Success is found in the form of what turns out to be the nicest hotel⁸ in town. We are, as is expected, the first foreigners they've ever had but the staff and owner are pretty amenable to letting us behind the Front Desk to register ourselves and police we never see who are vaguely aware⁹ that orders from above have been issued about not rejecting foreigners just because.

Birth Control Policy image sets I haven't previously seen templates of

Not sure what this anti dowry picture has to do with the text

Someone was paid to make this drawing ....

Being the first, letting the boss and all his staff take pictures with us, and making a praise-y video about the boss letting us behind the counter earn us a free dish of some savory mutton stew that's substantially better than either of the dishes we specifically order. Then, it's up to rooms where the central heat hasn't been turned on yet, there are no individual heaters, and everything is chilly enough that neither of us are willing to find out if the showers have hot water.

¹ Eating too early in the day gives her an upset stomach

² Black Myth: Wukong. You can find it on Steam.

Part of why neither of us were up to taking a shower (or walking barefoot)

Sufficiently gusty wind that I managed to pee all over both socks (and would decide to throw them out)

I'm pretty sure the standard image in this template is a refrigerator not a microwave

³ First time in over 20 years for Haikou to hold Dragonboat Races inside the urban area

⁴ Every moderately large historic site in China has one of these as a sort of dumping ground for Movable Relics† that researchers or conservators at the museum or Antiquities Bureau are currently "doing something with." At the time, I forgot to ask Dr. M where they go after the "something" is done.

† China divides Historical Relics into "Immovable Cultural Relics" (i.e., buildings, Very Large Statues, and Cave Temples) and "Movable Cultural Relics".

⁵ This will become an important topic multiple times during my ride with her

The road ahead is under construction, please take another route

By the Laws of Physics, he gets right of way

⁶ In this case, although we only hear about it rather than experience it, it might be because there is construction going on on one of the passes south of here. Rather than a Rt. 66 situation where the traffic dried up and never came back, it seems that this construction is also part of why most of the not very many hotels in Yangfangkou are currently shuttered.

⁷ Compared to her, I am a total amateur at putting myself in unnecessarily uncomfortable and/or dangerous situations on account of a certainty that Everything Will Be Fine

⁸ 80y apiece, 88 if we'd wanted tax receipts

⁹ Bearing in mind, Yangfangkou is rural enough that the normal pre-Notice behavior by the police would be to ignore our existence

Scrabble is so much more enjoyable when you okay open hands and try to help the other person get their best possible score

Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 700 km (435 miles)

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