D9: 朝阳 → 房山

June 9, 2022

"With the exception of bicycles, no bicycles allowed"

Getting back to the Compound as late as I did, I was somewhat shocked to find the gates that were such a pain in the ass to pass through during daylight hours to be wide open and unguarded as the prevailing theory is apparently that people who aren't supposed to be there doing things they aren't supposed to do will only do them during daylight hours. As a result, despite having left my bike locked up¹ outside the past two nights on the basis that a decent number of the bikes in the shed were un-cheap, I decided instead to take it up in the elevator with me.

Woke up with sunrise and again when the sounds of Jen very quietly moving about let me know to make sure to catch her before she left so I could thank her to her face. I don't actually remember what I said to her but I remember her giving me instructions on how to put the couch back together so I shall assume that my good-bye was done with words and sentences rather than grunts. It was, however, 8am and I am not morning person.

Caffeinated and out the door by noon, I really should have made oatmeal before I left. Restaurants are open but the bigcityness of the City in combination with the cost of my bike or the total disaster that losing my laptop would be makes me unwilling to leave it on a sidewalk unless I can clearly see it.

Some rather artistic and apparently original propaganda

Eventually, at around 4pm and at enough kilometers that their food is physically pleasurable, I get McDonald's.

Combined factors such as chill gray weather, flat terrain, and routes I've done before combine to make today's ride not especially interesting. There are some highlights, of course: an 800 year old bridge with a patchwork of new, modern, old, and ancient stonework; a martyr's tomb from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident; and a new sign for my Communications Cable Series².

I remember how much of a pain in the ass it was getting a hotel room in Fangshan in 2012 and I really don't want to repeat that, so I try really really hard to find the place I ended up at but—even though it shows up on Maps—it appears to be gone. At the very least, the urban landscape has changed so dramatically that, even with the occasional clue of buildings that are clearly more than 20 or 30 years old, I'm unable to really match things to what's in my memories.

For example, although I eventually come to the conclusion that the police station where—ten years ago—the nice officer drew me a map and said "if you still have trouble after trying these places, come back and I'll go with you" must be the same police station I spend an hour not harassing anyone at, I had remembered it as being streetside, yet the 1970s apartment buildings between it and the street have clearly been around longer than I've been alive.

My refusal to accept that a 435 yuan hotel is the only place in town which can definitely take me and which isn't currently a quarantine hotel eventually wears on the duty officer's nerves and he says "well we can't keep calling hotels and asking them if you are allowed to stay".

I never wanted that. I wanted you to call a perfectly ordinary hotel and inform them that I shall be staying. I don't want to have to make a disturbance when I arrive so that you guys show up so that things can get bounced up to whatever person in your local government has the authority to override the illegal verbal rule about foreigner hotels.

You don't want to make a disturbance.

That's true. I don't. But, I guess that's what's going to happen....

And when was the last time a train stopped here?

Or has it always just been a place for a road crossing guard?

Particularly given that I gave the staff of the hotel (a national chain) about 30 seconds before I started yelling, and also was doing the aggressive recording you on video while pointing out the obvious and embarrassing ways in which you are not in accordance with the law, it took an interminable amount of time for stuff to be handled.

I don't think this is my longest Rooming from start to finish but it's probably in the running. A particularly frustrating addition to the length of time things took was the decision to not let me behind the counter but instead have someone who I think was from Exit & Entry (who could not see the screen) spend 30 some odd minutes describing each item on the Form, how to fill it in, and where to find the content.

Then, they kindly upgraded me to a room with a window and had to redo a bunch of stuff because I specifically didn't want a window.

By now, I think it's safe to say that I'm harassing the police

If only there were some way to know if this training will stick

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¹ I removed the quick release pedals.

² The new addition has a different face than the other three that I've sorted as "wait a minute, all these signs with the same content are actually slightly different".

Those three are clearly Officer Masculine Ideal.

Interesting to note, though, that the Green Uniform from Guangxi and the Monocolor copy from Sichuan are both ranked 2 florets while the previous Beijing one was 2 florets and 1 stripe.

Today is 3 florets and 2 stripes.

All four images (as well as a number of associated but not "same image" images) have the same Pathetic Sniveling Criminal in handcuffs. The mobile phone in the preceding Beijing version looks to be more recent than the one in the other three, but today's copy is definitely after Serious Warnings started trending in the direction of cute and friendly rather than scary.

This is less an Officer Friendly than it is an Officer Kawaii

And if you found those interesting, the following pairs from my Rural Safe Electricity Usage series are even more mind blowing in how clearly they are the same picture while also being completely different.

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 576 km (358 miles)

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