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Peter Vanderlans, 2004

Peter Vanderlans

Cycling in China

Email from the Road

Part 12

Copyright © Peter Vanderlans, 2005.

 


More about Hong Kong

I had a night bus to Guangzhou. The first hours were no problem. The bus was almost empty and the hostess had given me the far back bench and told me I could sleep and stretch my legs which I did. So I slept for a few hours and woke up violently. What probably happened was that the bus drove into a hole in the road, which learned me to fly! I was literally flying in the bus and when I came down my right foot landed on a chair in front of me while my right shoulder came down in a way that hurt it bad. In Guangzhou it was the usual problem. Three different people told me the wrong bus number and taxies are not useful since the three taxies I tried did not understand my in Chinese written address of the Dutch consulate in the Guangdong International Hotel. So I had to walk which was not a pleasure with this injured foot. I got my passport, 66 pages business passport.

In the Guangdong Hotel I asked to write East Railway station for me and I got a taxi to this railway station. The train left almost immediately after I bought an ice cream. 55 minutes later I was in Shenzhen, crossed the border and got the KCR train to Kowloon. Hong Kong is a conglomerate of cities, sea and mountains. The train passed Faling with a huge amount of skyscrapers and then came into the New Territories. This area is surprisingly mountainous and many Hong Kongians come here during the weekend for hiking and mountain biking. I had crossed this area on bike earlier this year in search for a going through to Kowloon but failed for awhile though finally made it. The train passed Tai Po and more skyscrapers passed but it was until just before Kowloon Tong I got the full image of what made Hong Kong famous: batteries of skyscrapers.

hkview.jpg (17704 bytes)

Hong Kong Central

Literally hundreds of those massive buildings are there and thousands of people live in those concrete buildings. Strangely there is a lot of green to see too. The batteries are like Lego. There are so many of them you can hardly imagine it without being there (or have been to other places in the world - USA for example - where it's similar). A tunnel was passed and then there was Kowloon. I got out of the train. My first priority now was to organize a visa. I knew a place where to do this and even before I had a hotel room I had my application for a 6-month visa done. I could pick up the new visa in my new passport the next day. Hong Kong is fast and efficient. Now I found a nice little and relative cheap room in the Morador Mansions.

But now it was time to eat. I found without problems a place I had been before in one of the big shopping centers. I remembered having cheap (at least to Hong Kong) Japanese food and that was what I had. Another advantage of Hong Kong are the bookshops. In China there are the Xinhua bookstores but they only sell the Chinese approved books and a few English books by authors as Dickens, Tolstoy and Shakespeare. I bought a few books of Carlos Castaneda books and enjoyed hanging around in a few of the bookstores. Swindon is always a great place. Another place that had to be visited was the Flying Ball bicycle shop. This shop is without a doubt the best bike shop in Hong Kong and I found some lubricant oil for my chain. The shop offered a good selection of excellent race- and mountain bike plus all the spare material one needs. Fortunately for me my bike shop in Holland sponsors me and I will receive later this week in Yangshuo a parcel with some spare and replacement materials. Cheaper for me.

I left Hong Kong early in the morning by KCR train. After crossing the border I got a bus to Guangzhou and immediate transport to Yangshuo, back to the to me normal world. I have never been a fan of big cities and Hong Kong and Guangzhou are no exception on this. Back in Yangshuo I was welcomed by many who by now know me and asked where I had been. Yangshuo is such a small place. Good to be back! And on time for the Moon festival!

More about schools

I have received the parcel with some material for my bike. So that is fixed. All I had to do was making a plan for the next stage. The idea is this, leave Yangshuo tomorrow and cycle to Guilin, just 67 km's and then take the bus to Chengdu, a 21 hour drive.

But in the meantime I had to fill in time. A Singaporean guy named An asked me to join to visit an island in the river near Fuli, just a few kilometers away from Yangshuo. We took the bus to Fuli and walked from the main road to the riverside where we took a local boat to cross the river. The island looked much like many other islands from the waterside. Nothing much seemed to happen there.

We left the boat behind and walked through the village that was hidden behind the trees. The houses were mostly old and in many cases in bad condition. There was no traffic, not even the usual bicycles or tricycles. In this village there was no sound to be heard. Electricity comes probably around 6 p.m. so it was quiet apart of laughter of children, the sound of pigs and chicken and the wind in the trees.

We walked through a street and went into a schoolyard. There were a few buildings. The buildings were used as school and as soon as we entered the schoolyard we were welcomed by hordes of kids yelling hello's, laowai, laowai and guangtou tou, guangtou tou (meaning, no hair, referring to my bold head). The village obviously didn't see many visitors, let alone tourists. Most of the children were poorly dressed and contrary to the custom in China, wearing no uniforms. These children all came from poor family and there's no money for a uniform.

We entered the teacher's room, a big spacious area with some desks, notebooks with the children's homework and a fan that didn't work because of the lack of electricity. It was hot inside the room. As soon as we entered the room An was welcomed by some of the teachers. They seemed to know him quite well. In the both doorways kids were watching the newcomers and every once in awhile one of the teachers tried to keep them out of the room. They would soon return or simply stare through the window.

An donated some money for the education of a few children. He talked to them for awhile, making sure they would be doing a good job. The school bell rang and we saw the kids running to their classes. We talked a bit on the yard and looked into the classrooms. It seemed the classes had around 30-40 children. The furniture was whatever probably had been there around. There was as less unity in the available furniture as there was in the clothing of the children.

This village was backwards and it seemed the central government didn't care about these people though it was just a few kilometers from the town of Yangshuo where everything is well organized. The children in this town have not much change for further education if people like An would not exist. But even he can not solve this problem alone. He takes care of a few promising students and pays their costs. Still, it's a long way from this island to Yangshuo and further to any university if they get older. An had lived here for some time and it seemed he knew many people around. He found some old friends.

We sat there for awhile, drinking water from the nearby well. I looked in the eyes of this friend, an old woman who couldn't walk on her own and used a little bench to support her. Despite being old, her look was bright and clear when she observed the stranger, then she smiled. Another older man stood beside. He too had peace in his eyes despite the fact in this village everyone was very poor. After some time we left and walked a bit through the village. Some of the houses looked newer. Probably some of the villagers made some money and were able to increase their life but most of the houses were old and overgrown with vegetation. Back on the boat a big tourist boat passed by. The tourist on that boat would never know about the village and their struggle for make a living. There was a big gap, a gorge between both worlds and it seemed to me that it would be extremely difficult to overcome this gap for the next generation without help from the outside world.

Guilin

Who can tell if the rain today was a sign? I had some troubles, as usual leaving Yangshuo. In the last months I have spend so much time there that I felt it as my 3rd hometown. Some people there made my stay something extra worthwhile. I could have stayed much longer and William tried to make me stay a day longer. In fact I was planning to leave after my parcel from Holland arrived on Tuesday but I had some delays.

This morning I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't really sleep anymore so I watched a bit TV and drank some coffee. I checked my e-mail and had a breakfast. After William from the 7th Heaven Cafe had given me a T-shirt with his logo, today it was Lilian's turn to hand me over a nice black shirt with her logo (actually made by Malcolm, the former owner but let's not get into too many details). I left around 1pm but I didn't go very far before I met Ken, a Canadian older guy who cycled in the opposite direction. Ken had a 10 speed Canadian bike with ordinary bags, nothing fancy as me (or am I now too arrogant?).

Ken had cycled from Beijing to Guilin in the last few months and was on his way to Nanning and the Vietnamese border. As it goes in this sort of situations, there was a lot to talk and not enough time. I was on the verge to cycle with him back and spend another night in Yangshuo just to talk about our experiences. However, I had said goodbye to my friends there, I couldn't come back for just one night. Deep in my heart, I knew I would stay another longer time there and that's not what I need at the moment.

It was a drizzling day, you know those days, they are shitty because you get very wet, cold, though it was still 20 degrees and dirty. There was, of course, nothing to see in this weather so it was all in all a very unpleasant ride. Where the weather Gods warning me for my next destination? Only time will tell me.

My next destination will be Chengdu in Central China. The reason is simple; I don't want to cycle to much in the Yangshuo area anymore because it's too easy to go back for another period. Another main reason is my tenant who rents my house. Next month I hear if he wants to stay. If not I have to go back and start searching for a new tenant. The idea for the next 4-6 weeks is to cycle from Chengdu to Kunming. The reason is that from Kunming I can fly easily to Bangkok and from there back to Holland if necessary. If not, Kunming is a good base for other places in China though the north will be by then too cold. Anyway, the road I have in mind will be not easy and will go up very high.

Next week we'll see if I'll be on that road and how far that will lead me. But which road it will be, it have to be a more empty area where I can find some pieces back I lost in the last period. I start to loose myself and do things I have not too much control over. Back into the mountains and into real life, at least what I recall at the moment real life. Tomorrow I can have a new definition!

Next: Part 13


Peter Vanderlans - Cycling in China: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 |


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