D15: 马镇 → 万镇 - Autumn Allegro in Asia - CycleBlaze

October 5, 2024

D15: 马镇 → 万镇

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
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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.

Collection of hillside shrines just outside of Mazhen
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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".
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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)
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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.

Highly targeted advertising⁴ graffitied on a rock
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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"
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Asking permission to take video⁵ of the date harvest
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Huge baskets for storing and drying the date harvest
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It's little things, like a child adding decorations to a statue of Chairman Mao, that make a place "alive"
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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.

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.

Temporary closure of the floating bridge across the Yellow River dated to the January flood season
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Definitely not in bridge configuration
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Distant view of the floating not bridge
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Stopped to take a look at the cool way in which locals were utilizing this natural cave space
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Stayed because Maps marked this cluster of buildings as the Party Service Center and Veterans Affairs Office
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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 .

Live tumbleweed
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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
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Not that long ago the road followed the contours of the cliff. Now, it's all long straight viaducts
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Combination truck scales and NAT testing site
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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
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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.

Nice little temple with some incredibly terrible art
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Master of Safe Anchorage
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This may be one of the worst drawings I've ever seen of a Qilin
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Even if his story mural includes the guy I refer to as "Hot Wheels⁹," Lord of Plagues¹⁰ is another new one for me.
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Guanyu¹¹ and one of his attendants
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A broken safe in the God of Wealth shrine
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--

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

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 

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.

Starting with the false doors painted on the exterior, this next temple promises to be a lot more interesting
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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
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Master of Safe Anchorage again
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Lord of Plagues and Lord of Fire get a joint shrine together in this temple
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Guanyu
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God of Wealth
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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.

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

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 

Main sanctuary has even better art than the side halls
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† Can't really call it a bathroom now could we?

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

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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

Dragon King
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General of Rivers
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I've seen this mural template before
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It's BIRD MAN
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Twee resort hotel about 10km before Wanzhen
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Natural grottoes
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That's DEFINITELY human made
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In situations like this, I really find myself wondering ...
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Where does this hotel wash their sheets?
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Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 946 km (587 miles)

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