D12: 广海 → 崖门

May 31, 2023

Rural Trompe l'oeil Style (non surrealist)

One of the important things in life that bike touring has taught me is to take enjoyment where and when you find it. I don't mean that one should do away with concepts of delayed gratification per se, but more that you don't know what the road ahead of you will have, so—unless you've got an actual deadline like sunset—you shouldn't skip the things in front of you.

If I had been better rested and in any kind of condition to be getting on the road before 10 am, it's entirely possible that I might have made it to the World Bridges Museum¹ beneath the damn "Cars Only" bridge² across the Yinyu River while it was still open.

Instead, as I'm feeling creaky in ways that really aren't justified after two weeks of riding and yesterday not actually having any real climbs and the room window barely attaining the status of airshaft keeps me in the cool, quiet dark until late enough that I'm getting myself a charsieuw omelette³ with Sarsae⁴ at 11 am and I'm on the road when the temperature and humidity have achieved sauna-like levels.

This bus stop is dedicated in loving memory ...

Protect State Secrets, Do NOT take pictures of military installations. (I did not see anything military on this road, but this was one of three signs telling me how much trouble I'd be in if I took pictures of the military things I didn't see)

In terms of taking one's enjoyment when and where it is found, I'll spend a good twenty or thirty minutes making a video about the Beacon Cape Sluicegate and the attached drawbridge⁵ and probably another hour getting finicky with the editing⁶ while sitting out the worst of the heat over a midday beer.

There were Tours early on in my enjoyment of this hobby, where—even when the extra time of video making was not even the hint of a concern—I saw distant and not-so-distant pagodas and temples and skipped them in lieu of getting more kilometers under my wheels. Had this been one of those Tours, this would have been a dull and miserable day with nothing more than heat and truck routes, sometimes with trucks and sometimes without.

Instead, I got to do a sudden and unexpected deep dive into local history and I got to share it (12,000 views, 340 likes, 38 comments as of this entry) with other people.

A Martyr's Memorial that I'm too kerflunkt with heat to bother checking out

Rural Safe Electricity Usage Series (plus a "girls are people too" family planning policy sign)

Speaking of it being a truck route.... my hotel for the evening not only had laundry facilities available, they had washing machines in every hotel room!

¹ For reasons that are a bit complicated to explain, I went to a math, science, and engineering focused high school. Combine this with my university-level studies in art history and the bike touring, and—even before I started specifically seeking out bridges—the sheer scope of trivial knowledge I have on the last 1,000 years of Chinese bridge construction is rather impressive.

² This bridge is also why there is no ferry and why I had to make an 80km detour. I don't like this bridge.

Incredibly, with scenery like this, the road never actually went uphill

I've definitely entered diaolou territory

³ How much more fusion can you get?

⁴ Basically Malaysian/Cantonese Root Beer

⁵ My second ever drawbridge in 22 years in China!

⁶ Somehow the voice clips aren't lined up with my mouth. Also, the density of info that the Chinese language has made it really hard to do the English subtitles.

Photographing my Form to check me in (notable because tonight's hotel is one of the ones which was listed on the OTA as "no foreigners")

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 815 km (506 miles)

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