D11: 江边 → 九所

January 22, 2025

I'm so glad I got one of the last rooms in Jiangbian's only hotel. I certainly could have made it the next 30km or so to Ledong County, but it wouldn't have been pleasant and I'd have missed all the pretty scenery.

It is not a super comfortable hotel room. It's not uncomfortable per se, but nothing is going to compare to the easily six inch thick memory foam mattress¹ at the Adams' place. Also, because I've gone back up into the mountains, I'm back to wanting to have heat to turn on.

However, wiped as I was when I got in, and faced with the prospect of stairs—few as they were—I'd left the Coffee Bag on the bike, and I didn't even have so much as my ghetto space heater² to take the edge off.

I refer to my Mokinas' color scheme as "accidentally Ukrainian"

On the Rainforest Road in the upper reaches of the Changhua River

Really mourning that lost tripod about now

There were no useful shops on the way out of the village where the Adams live and I didn't pass through any real towns, so, even though Super Ming³ is all braggy brag about having over 10,000 locations across China, I'm down to like two packets of instant oatmeal and a UHT pasteurized hard boiled egg in the food pannier.

Luckily, breakfast in Jiangbian's is easier to find than dinner was.

The weather is perfect. The sky is blue, the clouds are white fluffy cotton balls, the Changhua River is still wide and slow from the huge dam downstream at Daguangba, and I even see a couple of non-517 Chinese touring cyclists bravely being part of the first cohort to try to cycle the whole Rainforest Road since it's official opening last month.

This is one of the two largest reservoirs on the island

And you can't beat this kind of paving with this level of traffic

Then I get into Ledong and switch to the now 5xx "scenic" national road that's the primary non-expressway route between the county seat and the coast.

Logically, I know that the sky is no less blue and the mountains no less green. However, with a headwind and the kind of plain surroundings that provide support for the grain crops that feed much of Hainan, it feels as if the color has been leeched away.

Mind you, this could just be me getting tired of going up, down, up, down, up, down.

Actually, looking at my photos, mauve the colors were less vibrant

Took a photo of this "don't take photos of military stuff" sign because I'm reasonably sure I'm nowhere near anything military and I don't understand why there is a sign

Finally, the great big downnnnnn comes and I'm dumped in one of those train station towns full of tower blocks, winter snowbirds, and bike lanes that—instead of checking that the local ebikes meet speed regulations—some asshole has put speed bumps across.

I continue heading coastwards until I meet up with the old west line and the original Jiusuo Town. The hotel I've pointed myself at is playing games with the price they're showing on the apps and the bookings they're accepting⁵ so I pick something 300m farther away and with more of a business hotel vibe to it.

This pun is dreadful. Translation in footnote ⁶

My usual bike shop, which is named off of a reference to the owner's name is called 全力, so I had to get this shot for him

To see this PSA (translation in footnote ⁷) once in a town is disturbing enough. To see it twice, however, means that it's actually something which is frequent enough for the local government to view as a problem

It's the kind of place that used to emphatically not be on my radar because it was surely staffed by staff instead of the owner's family but this close to Sanya the proliferation of small holiday hotels run by random people who thought taking over managing a hotel would be a good way to spend winters here has already started.

Big elevators, huge lobby, a front desk that's willing to figure out the complexities of dealing with a passport⁸, comfortable beds, sufficient water pressure.... and they're now bookmarked for next year's Round the Island.

Also bookmarking this "natural hot springs, this way" site

I'm going to assume that the stunning wall paintings are because this is not a Tourism Road

The Yinggehai Salt Fields are a still operational and exceptionally pretty industrial heritage site at the south end of this county

¹ A mattress which is so decadently comfortable that her raised with a straw mat over wooden boards mother says it's "too soft to sleep on"

² After running for more than 30 minutes, the hotplate safeties down to 55° C.

³ That's the one I previously referred to as "the Jay Zhou store"

⁴ Daguang Reservoir means "Big and Big". Daguangba is the name of the dike and the village nearby to it.

⁵ Could be the apps playing games but, despite the number of hotels I've stayed at where the owner claims that the app is making unapproved discounts, I'm pretty sure it's the hotel

I have never looked at a tree and said to myself "what this tree needs is a six foot tall concrete wall topped with broken glass"

According to the wise and venerable Dr. M, just because I have only rarely seen heritage site markers for immovable cultural relics matched with a total lack of anything relic shaped, it's actually quite common

⁶ A 研究所 is a research institute. Pronounced the same way, this is a 研酒所 or "place for seriously contemplating the consumption of alcohol." It's also on one of those twee blue and white street signs Dr. M really hates.

⁷ Sexual molestation of minors is a crime which, in serious instances, can be given the death penalty. All sexual relations with girls under the age of 14 are categorized as violent rape.

⁸ I really dislike the ad hoc registration method† of "photo of the passport, send to the local police." In terms of convenience, even when it was simply the common solution used throughout rural Guangxi, it's great. However, most of the police stations which have effected this as a solution are having the hotels share our ID photos in a common group chat with dozens of other hotels. That having been said ... it's why he knew what to do.

† that may or may not result in actually being correctly entered into the relevant databases

His dried beef still requires cooking. He offered to cook some for me if I really wanted it, but I still had over 50 kilometers left to do

Today's ride: 89 km (55 miles)
Total: 718 km (446 miles)

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