D15: 马镇 → 万镇 (双语）

October 5, 2024

These clearly machine-carved, clearly modern lions, that are clearly in the standard male/female pairing have male symbolism (the balls¹) on both lions... and they're all over this region 这些明显是机器雕刻的、很现代的狮子，明显是标准的雌雄配对，两只狮子都有雄性象征（球状物）……而且这一带到处都是。

As it was a slow enough leak that pumping it up hard and riding sufficed to get us into Mazhen the night before, the thirty or forty minutes of riding in the dark was more the inevitable consequence of the amount of time spent at Qianfodong than it was because of Dr. M's flat tire.

Of course, since she then had the temerity to go and taunt fate by saying "I've gone 10 years without a flat tire," no amount of mocking her during the process of patching her tube was going to sufficiently appease the Tire Demons as to guarantee—with no spares of any kind in her gear—that another flat could be avoided.

因为车胎漏气很慢，前一晚打满气后继续骑行就足以让我们赶到马镇镇。在黑暗中骑行三四十分钟更多是因为在千佛洞耽搁了时间，而不是因为M博士的车胎没气了。

当然，由于她敢去挑衅命运，说什么“我都十年没扎过胎了”，所以在补胎过程中，无论怎么嘲笑她，都无法让“车胎恶魔”消气，无法保证——在她没有任何备用胎的情况下——不会再爆胎。

Collection of hillside shrines just outside of Mazhen 马镇镇外边山坡上的庙宇群

When contemplating the power of the written word in Chinese, it's important to remember that the etymology of English's "magic spell" is the same as "spelling a word" and "grimoire" shares a root with "grammar". 在思考中国文华对汉字的力量时，要记住英语中“魔咒（magic spell）”的词源和“拼写单词（spelling a word）”是一样的，“魔法书（grimoire）”和“语法（grammar）”有相同的词根。

Despite my habit of collecting Rural Safe Electricity Usage posters, I still find it hard to believe some of the ways people randomly wire things (like this shrine) 尽管我有收集农村安全用电海报的习惯，但我还是很难相信人们随意接线的一些做法（比如这个庙宇里的）。

Even the special and specific ritual purchase of a small plastic bowl² to be used solely to put water in during the process of seeking and finding of the hole in her inner tube was an insufficient sacrifice³ to the Tire Demons, and, after roughly 30km of riding, the action of rim brakes heating up the air and changing the pressure inside the tube was sufficient for one of those fizzlebang blowouts that results in a new tube and a new tire.

On the plus side, we very quickly managed to flag down an SUV with two ladies who were willing to let her hitchhike, and my dumping my bags on her allowed me to fly up the hills at a pace I would sorely regret the next day.

甚至专门按仪式买了一个小塑料碗²，专门用来在找车胎内胎破洞时盛水，这对“车胎恶魔”来说也是不够用的祭品³，在骑行了大约30公里后，轮圈刹车使空气升温并改变了内胎内的压力，足以导致那种嘶嘶作响然后爆胎的情况，结果内胎和外胎都得换。

还不错的是，我们很快拦到了一辆SUV，车上的两位女士愿意让她搭车，我把包扔给她后，就能飞速爬坡了，不过第二天我就会为这个速度后悔不已。

Highly targeted advertising⁴ graffitied on a rock 刻在石头上的极具针对性的广告⁴

It wasn't until Dr. M found the faded characters 加油站 on the side of the metal awning that I believed her patently ridiculous Expert Opinion of "this Martyr's Memorial used to be a gas station" 直到M博士在金属雨篷侧面发现了褪色的“加油站”字样，我才相信她那明显很荒谬的专家观点——“这个烈士纪念馆以前是个加油站”。

Asking permission to take video⁵ of the date harvest 请求允许拍摄收获枣子的视频⁵

Huge baskets for storing and drying the date harvest 用来储存和晾晒收获的枣子的大篮子

It's little things, like a child adding decorations to a statue of Chairman Mao, that make a place "alive" 正是一些小事，比如一个孩子给毛主席雕像添加装饰品，让一个地方有了“生气”。

This increased speed on account of not having luggage also let me visit lots of temples free of the guilt that comes with the knowledge that I'm the reason my friend is caught riding after dark.

I have no guilt about myself being caught riding after dark. That's entirely my fault. But, even with the knowledge that she's more cold weather acclimated, better clothed than me, and choosing to go my speed, I still feel really guilty over causing someone else to be out after dark.

因为没带行李，速度变快了。这也让我能去参观很多庙宇，而不会因为我害得朋友摸黑骑行而感到内疚。

我对自己摸黑骑行并不觉得愧疚。那完全是我自己的错。但是，尽管我知道她更能适应寒冷天气，穿得也比我暖和，还选择跟我骑一样的慢速，我还是因为让别人摸黑在外而深感愧疚。

While I'm checking out shrines to the Lord of the Plague and the Master of Safe Anchorage, Dr. M is contacting the bike shops in nearby cities to see if someone can express courier a tube and tire to her.

我在参观瘟神和平安锚地之神的庙宇时，M博士在联系附近的自行车店，看是否有人能给她快递内胎和外胎。

Temporary closure of the floating bridge across the Yellow River dated to the January flood season 从一月的洪水季节，黄河浮桥暂时关闭

Definitely not in bridge configuration 显然不像座桥

Distant view of the floating not bridge 浮桥的远景（浮桥没搭起来的状态）

Stopped to take a look at the cool way in which locals were utilizing this natural cave space 停下来看看当地人是如何巧妙利用这个天然洞穴的

Stayed because Maps marked this cluster of buildings as the Party Service Center and Veterans Affairs Office 停留的原因是地图上把这片建筑群标为党群服务中心和退役军人事务办公室

Which—maybe because he still feels the need to pay forward the kindnesses received when riding his bike to Tibet, or maybe just because they're bored—ends up being a two and a half hour (each way) road trip by the mechanics in Shenmu.

I never get to see the grotty local hotel in Wanzhen that probably would have been only a little bit nicer than where we stayed in Mazhen as, long prior to my arrival (and my ability to be a cheap arse), Dr. M has discovered that the yaodong cave houses which used to be the offices of the local government have been turned into a boutique hotel where the beds are soft and the plumbing⁶ mostly works⁷ .

不知是因为他仍觉得有必要回报当年骑车去西藏时得到的帮助，还是仅仅因为无聊，神木的机修工们最终往返花了五个小时开车来帮忙。

我一直没机会看到万镇镇那家破旧的当地旅馆，它可能只比我们在马镇镇住的地方稍微好一点，因为在我到达之前（在我有机会做小气省钱行为之前），M博士就发现，以前是当地政府办公室的窑洞已经被改造成了一家精品酒店，那里的床很软，管道设施⁶基本能用⁷。

In addition to her not having to wait for me at the top of hills, another advantage of Dr. M being in an SUV with all our bags is that I don't need to wait for her on long descents 除了她不用在山顶等我之外，M博士带着我们所有的包坐进一辆SUV。还有个好处就是在下长坡时我也不用等她了。

Not that long ago the road followed the contours of the cliff. Now, it's all long straight viaducts 不久前，这条路还是沿着悬崖的轮廓修建的。现在，全是又长又直的高架桥。

Combination truck scales and NAT testing site 卡车称重和核酸检测一体站

I was taking this picture when the mechanics from Shenmu pulled over to ask if I was the foreign female touring cyclist who needed help 我正在拍这张照片时，神木的机修工们把车停在路边，问我是不是那个需要帮助的外国女骑友。

Furthermore, she somehow feels that—as the universe has decreed that she not spend five hours going to and from Shenmu or the money it should have cost⁸ for the mechanics from Shenmu to come to her—she ought to pay for these rooms.

If there had been available rooms somewhere in cost between the place I don't see and the place we stayed, I might have insisted on paying my fair share. However, as I'm naturally a cheap arse who is Very Bothered by things that aren't worth what they cost, I resist my kneejerk need not to take advantage of friends whose cultural upbringing makes them offer to grab the bill, and let her get away with it.

此外，不知怎地，她觉得——既然上天注定她不用花五个小时往返神木，也不用花神木机修工到她这儿来本该花的钱⁸——她应该付这些房间的钱。

如果在我没看到的那个地方和我们住的地方之间有价格合适的房间，我可能会坚持说我应该付我那份钱。然而，由于我天生小气，对那些不值的东西很在意，我克制住了那种不想占朋友便宜的本能反应，毕竟是她们的文化教养让她们主动提出要买单的，所以我就由着她付了。

Nice little temple with some incredibly terrible art 小庙宇挺不错，但是这艺术太糟了

This may be one of the worst drawings I've ever seen of a Qilin 这可能是我见过的最难看的麒麟画像之一。

Even if his story mural includes the guy I refer to as "Hot Wheels⁹," Lord of Plagues¹⁰ is another new one for me. 尽管他的故事壁画里有我说的“风火轮⁹”的那个人，但瘟神¹⁰对我来说又是一个新人物。

Guanyu¹¹ and one of his attendants 关羽¹¹和他的一个侍从

A broken safe in the God of Wealth shrine 财神庙里坏掉的保险箱

¹ 'Balls' as in the carved round things in the lions' mouths, not their 'nads!

¹“球状物”指的是狮子嘴里雕刻的圆球，不是它们的睾丸！

² There were some other things we were going to buy at the same time but, having accidentally allowed the entire town know we were made of money by thinking the price for two beds was the price per room, and then paying for two whole rooms, they pissed us off with their "dumb foreigners didn't hear the price right" game

² 我们本来还打算同时买些其他东西的，但因为以为两张床的价格是一间房的价格，然后付了两个房间的钱，不小心让全镇人都知道我们很有钱，他们玩起了“愚蠢的外国人没听清价格”的把戏，把我们惹毛了。

³ As I engage in ritual appeasement of the Tire Demons, I would like to state that I'm an atheist-leaning agnostic Modern Orthodox Jew who both totally laughs off such a ridiculous concept and mocks anyone silly enough to actually believe that such dumb behavior works.

³ 当我在搞这种向“车胎恶魔”献祭的仪式时，我想说，我是一个倾向于无神论的不可知论的现代正统犹太人，我完全嘲笑这种荒谬的观念，也嘲笑任何傻到真相信这种愚蠢行为有用的人。

Starting with the false doors painted on the exterior, this next temple promises to be a lot more interesting 从外面画着的假门开始，下一座庙宇看起来会有趣得多。

It's only a few hundred meters away from the first one, but it's obvious that a lot more money¹² has been spent on it 它离第一座庙宇只有几百米远，但很明显它消耗了更多的钱¹²。

Lord of Plagues and Lord of Fire get a joint shrine together in this temple 瘟神和火神在这座庙宇里共用一个神龛

⁴ Construction equipment rental, for those of you who don't read Chinese. Being on a boulder on the way up to the second cluster of shrines we pass (but not in the areas frequented by non-laborers), it's targeted advertising the way the circumcision ad on the way to the pagoda was targeted advertising.

⁴对不懂中文的人来说，这是建筑设备租赁广告。它在我们去第二群庙宇的路上的一块巨石上，就像去宝塔路上的割包皮广告一样，是有针对性的广告。

⁵ I never did edit that video. I should try to do that before my translator catches up with bilingualifying this journal.

⁵ 我一直没剪辑那个视频。我应该在我的翻译把这些博客翻成双语版之前试着把它剪辑出来。

⁶ Considering that we were specifically instructed not to use "the room with drains†" in last night's guesthouse for anything other than washing our faces, and had been given a thermos to take upstairs cause the taps didn't work, anything was a great improvement over ground floor public squats

⁶ 考虑到在昨晚的客栈里，我们被特别告知除了洗脸之外，不要用“有下水道的那个房间†”做任何其他事，而且还得拿个热水瓶上楼，因为水龙头没水，所以这里的条件比一楼的公共蹲坑厕所好多了。

Main sanctuary has even better art than the side halls 主殿的艺术作品比侧殿的还要好

† Can't really call it a bathroom now could we?

† 我们总不能真把它叫做浴室吧？

⁷ An electric short in my shower means I have to go over to her cave and use her's.

⁷ 我淋浴间的电路短路了，所以我得去她的窑洞用她的淋浴间。

⁸ Not only did they insist that driving to help a cyclist in need wasn't something worth charging money for, they also sniped the dinner bill.

⁸ 他们不仅坚持说开车去帮助一个有需要的骑行者不是什么值得收钱的事，还抢着付了晚餐钱。

⁹ Like "Nose Guy" and "Mouth Guy," "Hot Wheels" and "Bird Man" are among the many horrible sacrilegious nicknames which I shouldn't use for relatively common supporting characters in Taoist mythos, but their real names refuse to stay stuck in my brain.

⁹ 像 “大鼻子” 和 “大嘴巴” 一样，“风火轮” 和 “鸟人” 是大不敬的绰号，我不该用来称呼道教神话中这些比较常见的配角，但我就是记不住他们的真名。

¹⁰ Given that this temple only has four shrines, it's interesting that Lord of the Plagues is the only one who got just wall murals and a wooden plaque, and didn't get a statue.

¹⁰ 考虑到这座庙宇只有四个神龛，有趣的是瘟神是唯一一个只有壁画和一块木牌，没有雕像的。

¹¹ Shu General and blood-brother of Liu Bei in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu (?-219) was fearsome fighter famous for virtue and loyalty who was posthumously worshipped and identified with the guardian Bodhisattva Sangharama.

¹¹ 关羽（卒于公元 219 年）是《三国演义》中刘备的义弟，蜀汉将领，他是一名勇猛的战士，以忠义著称，死后被尊奉为护法伽蓝菩萨。

¹² Height of the roofs, rooftop decorations, streamers running from one building to the next...

¹² 屋顶的高度、屋顶的装饰、连接建筑物的彩带……

I've seen this mural template before 我以前见过这种壁画模板。

Twee resort hotel about 10km before Wanzhen 万镇镇前约 10 公里处的一家花哨的度假酒店

In situations like this, I really find myself wondering ... 在这种情况下，我真的不禁会想……

Where does this hotel wash their sheets? 这家酒店在哪里洗床单？

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 946 km (587 miles)

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