Day 2: Blast From the Past

October 6, 2021

Suzhou to Fenhu Economic Zone

The second objective of this trip was to explore the hinterlands where I used to teach in 2008/09 at a school called Sino Canada and then compare the development of the area now with the past. Basically, to assess the changes for myself. So today I rode the bicycle from Suzhou city center to the hinterlands. These hinterlands are an area called Fenhu Development Zone that are technically part of Suzhou (Jiangsu province) but they straddle three different provinces: Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. As a result nowadays it is hard to tell exactly which one you are in at a given time.

The lake where the makeshift bridge goes across the provincial border

The key discovery on this trip was that the provincial borders are essentially being erased and are much more porous than before. From an economic development point of view this only makes perfect sense. If there are political boundaries that artificially divide a development zone, then development is curtailed. Integrating the area means development can happen all around instead of just in patches

13 years ago however, the political boundaries were a huge deal. Since the school was so close to Shanghai province, many teachers would naturally go there on weekends or live across the border. But at the time, you actually needed permission to do that! Not only that, but your mobile phone number in one province wouldn't work in another and so you'd end up having to buy two SIM cards. As for transportation, it was a massive headache. Getting across the provincial border itself was your choice of a convoluted bike or scooter ride on farm roads, taxis that weren't allowed to cross so you'd have to get off one and take another. Or you could take buses that would run very infrequently and were often illegal, that is the infamous 'chicken bus'. There were also many police checkpoints along the borders and many instances of people riding scooters and getting stopped. I became very familiar with all the backroads at the time since I actually lived in the next town within Shanghai province and commuted to work every day across the provincial border.

Now, however, it is almost as if the line has been erased. The biggest change was a new wide road essentially replacing the old farm roads and going right beside the school. There are no checkpoints on this road either and it brings lots of traffic. Before there was almost no traffic. It is as if all of a sudden the school was on the grid. Now it is as easy as hopping to the street and calling a taxi and you're in Shanghai just like that.

Today's bike ride started out in the center of Suzhou at the Novotel Hotel and then gradually turned into the hinterlands. As it did so the scenery got more and more beautiful. This is really the best area close to home for riding, and I was pretty thrilled to have picked it. Given the circumstances as they are in the world, you need to make the most of what is available.

I got rerouted towards Zhouzhuang, that is a famous water town. There are many of such places in the area and I've seen them all so there is no point getting excited about it. For this holiday it was absolutely slam packed and I had no desire to go in.

This bridge was very new, it provided a connection between the island of Zhouzhuang and the nearby Shanghai province

After that sudden realization I was in Shanghai province I figured why spend another night on the road, why not just bike back home and save on hotel costs.

Well it isn't so simple as that. Due to the complex and incredibly random nature of the provincial borders, I was actually more than 60km away from home and it was getting dark. Originally I was going to stay in Fenhu development zone in Jiangsu province so why not just stick to the plan.

But as usually happens near provincial borders, the development on one side is severely lacking (this was on the Shanghai side)

This provided the opportunity to find out about this new road mentioned earlier that goes right by my former school then double back around and stay in the development zone. What I saw was rather shocking, the place had transformed immensely. The mushrooming of buildings all over the place, shopping malls, McDonald's, Starbucks, and various new roads along with traffic made it feel like a completely different world than last time. I actually got lost and my friends were right, I wasn't able to recognize the place.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,106 km (687 miles)

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