D21: 长丰 → 琼中

February 7, 2025

Does this count as a part of the Unexpected Furniture Series

The gray weather that spends the entire day threatening to rain (but never doing more than spit at me) certainly has something to do with it, but I'm just not in love with this road. Next year's Round the Island, if I once again attempt to turn an 800km ride into a 2,400km one, I will definitely stay on the national road down to Xinglong so that I can go on the smaller county road up to Heping instead of staying on the provincial route the whole time.

Bearing in mind that, in 2023, when I last came this way (and did the smaller road instead of today's road), I was in a horrible headspace of thinking that I'd just lost a fourth person to Covid related complications in less than three months, the "show by map" function shows that—in addition to a video for Douyin—I still took nearly 20% more photos on that road.

For a place that I didn't previously photograph, I have surprisingly strong memories of how clean this toilet was two years ago¹

Also, it's only 8 or 10 kilometers more thant the 'sensible' route, and if I somehow end up being too wiped to go all the way in to Qiongzhong, it will mean an excuse to add the town of Changzheng to my list of "places I've slept." Which, as it is increasingly difficult for me to find towns that I haven't slept in while on tour and which also have hotels² in Hainan, is a bonus in and of itself.

Needless to say, after starting the day with around 20km on an unexciting National Road, and spending the rest of it on an unexciting Provincial Road, the wasn't really much of anything that happened beyond churning out the kilometers.

Usually, dumped garbage doesn't count in the Unexpected Furniture Series, but I was surprised at the time to see something this nice looking

As per the usual for being on a Classic Route and then leaving it, there were loads and loads of Round-the-Islanders³ while I was still on the National Road, changing to no bicycles⁴ at all as soon as I turned inland.

Getting in to Qiongzhong, there are a number of hotels that fit my "top of the bottom" criteria, one of which I've stayed in at least four times over the past twenty years, which used to be very high end, and which I found wonderfully quaint and dated when it was my completely random pick during the last Chinese New Year Holiday Ride.

I don't know how accurate it is, but I've been told by Chinese people that the massive pyramidal roofs that used to be a Thing in Chinese gas station architecture of the late 90s was related to Feng Shui and negating the harm of the petroleum products

After confirming that the citrus had been on the altar long enough to start going moldy, I swapped⁵ two apples for two pieces of peanut brittle

Unfortunately, the last year has seen a precipitous slide in quality from old fashioned and in want of renovation to bunches of things being straight up broken and in desperate need.

Bearing in mind that some of the things (like the bedside power points) that are not working properly are things that similarly don't work properly in the apartment I'm about to move out of, and that the reason they don't work at home is cause I can't be bothered to have workmen in my space fixing them, it's still a bit different when it's a hotel room. Also, where's the fun in staying in a hotel like this when it no longer has the vintage AIDS prevention, drug control, or fire safety literature for me to laugh at?

I wonder if it's a soil drainage thing that leads to so many old bridges being turned into vegetable gardens

A rare display of Chinese New Year cheer

And that's without even getting into the Front Desk whinging at me because she missed whatever training it was that the Qiongzhong Police had already done last year⁶ and didn't think she could check me in and couldn't I just cancel my reservation and go somewhere else⁷ and then keeping me standing around for ten minutes while she figured it out because giving me a key was too hard or something.

¹ I chose not to spoil my memories by checking if it was still clean and stocked with both soap and paper

² I'm actually kind of impressed with myself that I'm 21 riding days in to this Tour and I've added 10 new pins to my Map of All Things.

Also a great place name, but (unlike Changsha in the picture above) I can't read it at the "uploading photos" resolution and I don't remember what it says

³ Mostly on 517 bikes, there was even one family where Mom on a bike with a pedal assist motor was towing a toddler daughter in one of those big kid carry trailers, Dad looked half dead, and the tween boy was so casual about his helmet and spandex that I wouldn't be surprised if he's the one that got the rest of them into biking.

⁴ Not counting the guy in duck shoes and bibs in the Yummy Market in Qiongzhong, there was one roadie in over fifty kilometers and he was local enough to call out my name† as he whizzed past.

Whoooooosh as he came back the other way

I'm pretty sure he's the cyclist in the family

† He called me "Yifan," which is a common name that is the reverse of my social media name "I am Fanyi" so he isn't necessarily from Hainan, but chances are pretty good that a cyclist without luggage, on an uncommon road, who knows a name of mine is probably local.

⁵ Especially after the cultural weirdness of the many people grazing off of the altars at the big temple in Zhengding, I've talked to a number of people from appropriate religious traditions and been told that Merit is acquired by the act of giving, that no one actually thinks the inanimate representations of their religious traditions is eating the food, and it's okay to take stuff if you are respectful about it. In other words, taking more apples than I was hungry for wouldn't have been okay, and leaving candy behind wasn't necessary but was right.

Not a big altar by any stretch of the imagination

A particularly interesting example of Ancient Trees vs. Chinese Roadbuilders because

This not very old tree is a replacement cutting from a now dead Old Tree, and it's also a county level cultural heritage site marking the location of a particular Martyr's death

⁶ Two years ago in Qiongzhong, I stayed at a hotel that had previously accepted foreigners but had stopped after the company that sold her an all-in-one registration kiosk not only told her the (nonexistent) kiosk with foreigner registration capabilities would cost 5,000 yuan, they also said that having a kiosk for domestic guests meant she could no longer do manual registration for anyone. No one official ever responded to me about my video but both times that I stayed at hotels in Qiongzhong between then and now, the hotel had received training.

⁷ My number one reason for going to non chain hotels is because non-salaried Front Desk workers with a probably familial connection to the owner are supposed to have two fucks to give.

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 1,441 km (895 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0