S1, R2: 东方

January 19, 2025 to January 20, 2025

There's a written theory test, so I'm really not happy with the idea of a driving school that explicitly advertises being able to help illiterate people learn how to drive

The first and only time I remember meeting Jesse Adams, I and a non-Chinese speaking media colleague¹ were in Dongfang for Qingming (Grave Sweeping) Festival to try and find the Memorial Garden to the unknown members of the Australian Gull Force who had been part of a group that escaped from the Japanese internment camp which built Hainan's first railway.

Sick, injured, or both, the rest of the people they escaped with have disappeared to history. However, because they both died and because they were recognized quite early on as Revolutionary Martyrs, the graves of these unknown soldiers are one of Dongfang's more interesting historical sites.

And, as is often the case with places like this, one of Dongfang's nearly impossible to find historical sites.

Jesse, his wife, and their two nearly teenagers currently live in a gorgeous village house that—as she is no longer a Chinese citizen—they probably aren't supposed to be able to own² but which they can always transfer over to a family member if someone gets a bug up their ass about it.

We must have met more than that one time, cause he remembers my coffee; and I'm reasonably sure that a) I wasn't carrying the Coffee Kit with me on that trip, and b) if I was carrying the Coffee Kit, we met far too late in the day for me to make coffee.

Mostly, we know each other online.

Way back before the American Consulate in Guangzhou cancelled the citizen liaison program because too many of our fellow liaisons were taking their volunteer role way too seriously, and back before Covid dramatically changed the makeup of what sort of foreigners (and how many) live in China, Jesse was the Sanya liaison, and I mostly knew him as "the foreigner most likely to be found talking to the police about something dumb done by someone stupid³."

He, in turn, knew me as "the foreigner most likely to be found yelling at the police" only in my case the dumb someone who did the stupid something was probably a police officer.

Oddly dated well after online ride hailing became the norm, a sign informing members of the public that taxis aren't allowed to refuse fares and you can report them if they do

I don't even contact him to let him know I'm in Dongfang until quite late on Sunday.

Invited out for lunch on Monday, I admit even before I go to meet them that I'm not going to be well though to put in a full day of riding but that I'd like to pretend that riding is actually going to happen until some time after I get to their place and go: "gosh, you have such a lovely home, with such a wonderful guest bedroom"

And let me tell you, I have an absurdly expensive pillow top mattress on my bed at home, and the bed in their guest bedroom is even more comfortable than the one I sleep on when I'm not on Tour.

¹ A photographer working for a company that probably should have had him on a J-visa

² Not because foreigners can't own property, they can; but because rural property isn't even supposed to be able to be sold to non-locals

³ With over thirty liaisons in as many cities across southern China, fully half of the "AmCit in trouble, need assistance" requests in our private chat group were from Jesse.

Today's ride: 7 km (4 miles)
Total: 560 km (348 miles)

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