D25: 庆祝 → 长垣

June 28, 2022

If he hadn't tried to sell me the fragile hand painted paper fan for more than I paid him for last night's hotel room, I might have even wanted it

Without making any particular effort to get away from the truck route but also without making any effort to detour to the interesting places, I find myself spending most of the day's ride atop an often tree lined levy road where the monotony is at least broken up by the fact that this park like area seems to be the go to place for every currently non working person in all the nearby towns and villages.

The last time I spent a significant amount of time riding levy roads was during the 2017 Yangtze flood season and, on that occasion, the only thing to break the monotony of having the same 200m long stretch of pretty stretched out and copypasted for 200km was conversations with the Flood Watchers¹ because modern equipment is all fine and well but guys in army surplus tents sitting around watching the water rise has probably been a thing in China since the time of King Yu².

Monument to a local calligrapher who died about 15 years ago

If you grow drugs, satellite imagery makes it difficult to avoid being caught

Today's destination is the city of Changyuan. In addition to a wealth of points of theoretical interest that I won't be able to find and a series of road names that erroneously point at the possibility of a warren neighborhood of 100 year old plus buildings, I'm also aiming for the Xidesheng.

As the name probably indicates, Xidesheng is a Chinese brand. They're sort of a cheaper version of Giant that hasn't ever managed to sponsor a non Chinese team (though, given how few countries they sell to, this may be intentional). From grocery bike to carbon racer, no matter what price point or style of bike a consumer is purchasing a Xidesheng at, they are doing it because it's the budget luxury option - head, shoulders, knees and toes above the brands that barely have names, better designed than anything by Phoenix, and an order of magnitude cheaper than Specialized.

Adjustable height barrier on the levy road

Multiple sizes and shapes in each set of piles

Although my bike shop in Haikou will switch into English to say some not very nice things about the professional knowledge of the guy who practically rebuilds my BB with random things floating around his shop (including a broken piece of farm equipment), I am rarely, if ever, disappointed by the mechanics at a Xidesheng.

My main purpose in visiting had been to get a look at the inside of my BB to 1) see what wasn't missing and 2) find a serial number or get measurements so that a new BB could be ordered and shipped on ahead of me. This handled, I scope out the hotel options farther down the road, and—in thinking I might actually go to the Chinese Cooking Museum (which I find out about from the Xidesheng) the next day—get a hotel room across the street from the shop.

Levy roads get a bit monotonous after a while

Intriguing local architecture once I'm off the levy

I never do find out more though about this style

This will turn out to be one of the most hostile episodes ever of my getting into a room and, even if the police actually agree that the person moaning about getting kicked in the leg has (pardon my pun) "no leg to stand on" regarding my injuring her, I'm a bit put out of sorts by the fact that I injured someone.

Yes, it came after my verbally announcing "if you don't let go of me, I will kick you until you let go" as she was attempting to physically prevent me from carrying my bags up to the room by grabbing at me and my clothing³, but I still feel bad.

This bitch really got under my skin. First by telling all the feral children to go say "hi" to the foreigner, then (when I asked the kids to back off) by telling me I wasn't welcome to loiter at the tables and chairs of the shop she didn't own while I consumed beverages purchased from that shop.

Not so many bed wetting advertisements these days. Still getting premature ejaculation cures though.

Yes, it started because, as I was at the "let me know the room number" stage of filling in the Registration, she freaked out and force logged out of the system; so, it's not like I was wrong⁴ to insist that I be allowed to use the hotel room I had already paid for; it's just, I hurt someone.

From deliberately picking cheaper hotels whose front desk staff are likely to be the owners' family to starting at the Police Station on evenings where I think there will be trouble, all of my tactics revolve around not actually doing anything worse than annoying the fuck out of people. So, even if every bit of it was a "she started it", it still bugs me more than any other night ever has.

Measuring the original so that I can order a correct replacement

He was particularly insistent that I not go behind the counter to show people what to do, so I went back upstairs

Apparently worried that I might damage the room or something, he came up to stand in the doorway (letting all the a/c out) and watch me. So, I put my laptop away and aggressively did my laundry at him.

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¹ There was also a gruesome motorcycle accident

² A semi-mythical god emperor who is the first person recorded as having built a river levy.

³ She may have exacerbated the tear in my jersey pocket and she's definitely responsible for my need to fix my camera strap.

⁴ I'll grant that throwing a large handful of keycards across the floor is ridiculously rude on my part but it's a tactic that has previously proven successful at getting the police called on me without damaging anything.

Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 1,472 km (914 miles)

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