D25: 和平 → 定南

June 17, 2023

I should probably be creeped out by the police officer who added my WeChat off of the information taken down while "registering" me at the hotel.

I'm not, at least not yet.

Given that, once I figured out who I was talking to, he apologized for inappropriately adding me without asking first, it remains to be seen whether or not he does anything else sketchy.

If I were the sort of person who minded random people contacting me, I wouldn't have the social media presence I've got. It's just, the other two police officers (2008 and 2019) to be overly interested in further connecting with the Biking Foreigner as to do it via "the wrong channels" weren't interested in me in a social media kind of way.

The one from 2008 (which was also my first major Tour) was so aggressive about "just wanting to be my friend" that—in the days before blocking a specific number was easy to do—I had to give him his own "Ignore Me" ringtone¹ and (possibly because the older male person I used was my boss) even having someone else answer the phone and tell him "stop calling her" only got him to call me less.

I don't think I've responded in any way since then but I still get random calls from him every so often, with the most recent one being in December 2022.

The one from 2019 started as a "you sure you guys aren't lost?" proceeded through driving to where we had ended the day so he could take me and the two South Americans that were briefly with me out to dinner, and ended with as lame an attempt as I've ever seen to talk one's way into a girl's hotel room². However, other than being an unattractive married guy (with zero conversational skills) whose attention wasn't desired, he accepted the "not interested" signals without too much effort on my part and has mostly refrained from continuing to contact me⁴.

Contrast this with the dozen plus officers who have made contact with me via "the right channels" and, let's just say, it won't take more than half a whiff of additional sketchy behavior from him before "I should probably be creeped out" turns into "making a complaint". But, for now, I'm letting it pass.

After breakfast, coffee, and generally internetting in the room, I begin my day by getting treated to an early lunch with the hotel owner and his family at their currently mostly delivery-oriented restaurant next door. While with them, I try to explain to them that I'm aware of the reasons⁵ behind his feeling the need to have me call the police for permission⁶. But, as evidenced by Exit & Entry calling me last night regarding my not being entered on his computer, I absolutely could have been entered on his computer, and there wouldn't have been any problem in the first place if his local police's instructions regarding the one-in-a-million likelihood of a foreigner showing up had been in accordance with the Law.

Inclusive of the gem that they backed down as soon as they were faced with any form of opposition, he—in turn—tries to explain to me why it's okay for the police to make arbitrary unwritten rules.

By the time I leave, neither side is the slightest bit convinced that the other side is right.

After a stop to buy a new secondhand phone that, annoyingly, despite being the same brand as my primary phone is just far enough away from being a flagship model that it can't pair with my primary for Dual Phone Video Recording. It's also got the version of Bluetooth that doesn't accept pairing my current speakers⁷.

This is followed by a quick visit to an unrestored but open Former Home of Local Important Person⁸ and the truck route.

As truck routes go, it's not a particularly trucky one. I think all surface roads in China have been free to use for at least 10 years now and, when the expressways were newer, that used to lead to long distance through traffic taking those roads instead. However, as weigh stations and enforced overweight penalties have become more common, and as wages went up, the savings from having a convoy of drivers take an extra week to make it to a destination kept creeping downwards and any trunk route paralleled by an expressway is likely to have lost most of its traffic to the fast road.

Even once I cross into Jiangxi near the end of the day and get onto a Class II "fast road" with generous bike lanes and shoulders, I'm still counting a scant handful of trucks every few minutes and them all picking up or delivering locally.

The moderately priced hotels are all listed "no Foreigners" by the OTA while the very very cheap place that's literally the first lodging after entering the city isn't, so, even if I know that the "no Foreigners" listing by the OTA is generally not set by nor controlled by the hotel, I pick that one. Of course, they've got no idea how to handle a foreigner, and sweet baby Jesus is their copy of the Registration Software a clusterfuck of misery but we jointly figure it out and get me checked in without having to engage with anyone official.

¹ I recall something like 5 or 6 missed calls per day, for weeks....

² With the right person³, "I need to charge my phone before I drive home" could work. But it requires someone who has indicated at least some degree of interest, which—other than three cyclists accepting his free food—I hadn't.

³ Chinese Boyfriend's quite successful pick-up line was easily an order of magnitude lamer.

⁴ I can't find a chat history with him so, after a few rounds of my responding solely with raunchy gay porn stickers, this may be because I eventually blocked him...

⁵ I really want to use a word that sounds something like "exegesis" here but my post-Covid brain can't remember what it is.

⁶ A reason that boils down to he's still going to be here tomorrow and there's a lot of unhappy he'd be facing if his local police don't like him.

⁷ During my brief period of having paired speakers, I definitely preferred it over a single speaker. However, it's not exactly of critical importance.

⁸ General Huang Hanting, not that it matters

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,450 km (900 miles)

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