D1: 海口 → 白莲

January 26, 2024

Shigandang is a folk hero with ties to Mt. Taishan in Shandong. Although very little of it stuck, I once did a deep dive into his history in translating the subtitles for a documentary about Mt. Taishan.

Today's destination is a town that holds a special place in my heart as, 18 years ago, as a baby cyclist, it's where I gave up at the 101 kilometer point on what ought to have been my first full century ride. Now, being as I was a baby cyclist at the time, it was my first metric century; and being as it turns out that I'm not actually (much of) a glutton for punishment, I still haven't done very many full century rides.

However, this has nothing whatsoever to do with my choosing it as my destination. The announcement yesterday of an event I want to go to two days hence has suddenly made this year's Round the Island Ride counterclockwise rather than clockwise and this town was the most reasonably located in terms of distance and price¹.

Achievement Unlocked: First Roadworks of the Tour

My actual Tour Bike is still at the bike shop where I left it something like five months ago when I got back from Tianjin. Stopping by to get a spare tube for this bike, I'll discover that they've finally got the Rohloff-compatible replacement disc rotor for my rear wheel, but, even so, I'm still going all sporty on my de-raced former race bike as the luggage limitations are less of an issue when—if I really want to pay the cost—I'm never going to actually be more than 6 hours from home.

I'm riding a lovely titanium frame designed by Habanero and OEM'd by a company up in Beijing who do great stuff as an OEM manufacturer but less great stuff should you order from them yourself² and carrying two fork mounted bags with the Rhinowalk mounting system³ (one by Rhinowalk and one custom made for me by a fan), a Wildman handlebar bag⁴, and a pair of Vaude panniers on a horrible ugly "will mount on any bike regardless of rack mounts" no-name rack.

It's a good thing I had reason to stop by the shop. Otherwise, I might have forgotten to grab Stepadon (found on the road near Lianyungang last year), the Buddha amulet given to me by a temple attendant at White Water Temple in 2016 on the ride with the Special Snowflake, and my crutch monkey

The original monkey who was gifted to me in Shock Trauma in 2000 went missing in 2007, but this monkey is already more than 15 years old

Doing errands on my way out of town, I will discover things like "I forgot to charge the electric pump Chinese Boyfriend gave me," it's still possible to ride 700C×23 tires at less than 60psi, and the new coffee shop just across the street from the bike shop has the most absurdly overpriced pastry to the point that I'm definitely not coming here again on my own dime.

Things start getting interesting when I turn off into the Wuyuanhe wetlands park area. Mostly this isn't actually because things are "interesting" as it is because I've never taken this road before and everything is new to me. I do misguess a 1981 arched stone bridge as being mid to late 90s and later come across a probably 17th to 19th century stone slab bridge, but that's about it in terms of excitement.

First temple of the Tour, somewhere along the Wuyuanhe Greenway

My planned out detour (to a small pagoda noticed from the expressway in 2021) turns out to be inaccessible by road, around the same time as I find out that—in addition to not charging the pump—I also didn't charge my powerbanks, so that plus the cold weather means I don't go climbing over barriers and down embankments for a proper look-see the way I might for something that isn't a forty five minute drive from home⁵.

I'd expected the last 10km or so to be dull industrial park-type stuff and I do get a bit of that, but mostly I get the Divided Scenic Road to Nowhere where, despite the lack of buildings, the asphalt and landscaping, bike lanes and sidewalk (at least in the places that has bike lanes and sidewalk) are all surprisingly well maintained for an Unfinished Project.

Unlike the bridge, this is both a listed heritage site and on Maps

Stop for some cookies and carryout duck at the laobacha⁶ where I gave up on the aforementioned attempted century ride in September 2005, then check-in across the street for a most perfect room in terms of being isolated from street noise and the firecrackers that have already started everywhere it's not illegal to blow things up.

¹ By which I mean, given that I don't want to take the same boring route that's 70% the same as the training ride I used to do every day back when I still did training rides, it exists in a location that allows me to wander all over the place and still end up somewhere not too inconvenient for booking online or for continuing onwards tomorrow.

² Much of this woe-filled saga is recounted in my 2019 Tour Journal intro

³ I understand that their best known stuff is copies of some specific Brompton bag but this particular mount and the bag it's supposed to come with are uniquely them.

⁴ I know nothing about them other than they were the only quick release handlebar bag currently on Taobao

⁵ Assuming that I could drive

Pedestrian activated crosswalk near the beach

⁶ A local kind of dimsum, afternoon tea, snack type place that's recently been inscribed as a provincial-level Intangible Cultural Heritage item

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 56 km (35 miles)

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