Jolanda & Jakob on Tour in China

On the 15th of Janaury, Jakob’s birthday, we went to the Amsterdam restaurant “Sea Palace” to re-discover our chopstick eating skills. Everything worked out nicely and they even served our favorite dishes from China: Chicken pieces with nuts and vegetables in a spicy sauce and of course roast duck with rice.

The contrast between the average Chinese restaurant in China and the Sea Palace is huge ! Sea Palace is extremely decorated on the inside to make it look “Chinese”. Only, restaurants in China that we visited certainly looked a lot more basic than that – usually with little more decoration than tables and chairs.

Having filled our stomachs at the Sea Palace we continued to proeflokaal Wynand Focking to a reading by Herb van Drongelen on his 6-year adventure mentioned here.

Very inspiring and a good way to finish the birthday.

Technorati Tags: China, Chopsticks, Restaurant, Herb van Drongelen, Cycling, Chinese, Thusgaard

Pretty late in the evening and after a few days of looking through our photos from our trip to China we’re finally ready to post the best of the best online!

Basically viewers have two options – an external slideshow from Flickr.com and a thumbnail gallery on China.Thusgaard.com. The links are both available in the menu on the right hand side under “China Trip”.

Feel free to ask questions to the pictures and comment online either on the blog or directly on the pictures.

Enjoy the viewing !

Jolanda & Jakob – not on tour right now

Technorati Tags: pictures, photos, travel, china, airplane, cycling, flickr, gallery, thusgaard, great wall, rain, nudels, rice field, breakfast, taichi, tai chi, xian, Simatai, schiphol, route, xi’an, vliegtickets, visa, flybillet, map, routemap, chinese, chopsticks, mechanic, toeristen, tourists, airport, beijing, peking, peking duck, food, Forbidden City, Roger Moore, Jingshan park, Night Market, moon cake, Panjiayan Market, Dirt Market, Yuan, Rolex, army goods, Hutong, Hotpot, biking, Miyun, Great Wall, Dictionary, English, Internet, Netcafé, Dam, Jinshanling, Simatai Eastern Great Wall, Chengde, Temple, Dutch, Yingshouing, coal, Huangyaguan, Stele, Eastern Qing Tombs, Zunhua, Graveyard, Tombs, Emperor, Xing An, Golden Coast, Fishing Boat, Wine, Bei Dai He, Golden week, Shanhaiguan, Old Dragon’s Head, monastery, First Pass Under Heaven, Sea God Temple, Bureaucracy, Train

This post might look a bit unstructured. The main reason is that at this point in time we’ve been awake for almost 24 hours, and have been packing, checking out, checking in, checking out and then in again, and to make a long story short we’re back home in Amsterdam without any injuries to ourselves and only minor damage to the bikes. Luckily the damage to the bikes came now and not in the beginning of our holiday. It seems that the holders for both bike computers cracked in baggage handling – it would have made the route through China very challenging indeed not to have kilometer indications available.

Now we’re going to bed ’cause we both need to work tomorrow morning, which we obviously look extremely forward to !

Xi’an, 08/10/2005 at 16:56

We still have a few days to write about here in the blog, but rather than spending our last evening in China writing blog, we’ll be updating it with the last couple of days, more stories, more info, photo gallery , etc. when we come home. To mention a few things from the last couple of days, though, one of the strangest and most challenging things has been to get our bikes onto a train in Beijing and one of the most beautiful and amazing sights has been the thousand terracotta warriors outside Xi’an. We were very happy to have a talk yesterday with two Canadian English teachers and their Chinese students at the South Gate in Xi’an. We could ask the Chinese students about their life in China, and they learned a bit about our life in Europe.

For now it’s time to say goodbye to China, and we’ll do that in the streets, restaurants and shops of the former capital of China, Xi’an. We have to get up tomorrow morning at about 04.30 local time to be about 18 hours later in Amsterdam – approximately 17.00 Central European Time.

It’s been a fantastic holiday!! Still we look forward to our traditional European rhythm of life (and soft beds). Looking forward to see you all and tell the full story !!

Amsterdam 23/10/2005 at 15:30

Day 23: Beijing – Xi’an: Arrival in Xi’an
At the station in Xi’an we found that there were absolutely no problems with the bikes. As usual the gears had been changed, but we were getting used to that. Outside the station we met hordes of sales people who wanted to sell anything from hotels and taxis to maps of the city. Once having checked in we took a bus to the Bell Tower Hotel to arrange a guided trip for our next day to the terracotta army.
Having arranged our final day in China we went to the Drum Tower. Eventually we ended up at a very western looking café. Everything was like in Amsterdam incl. the crappiest service that we received in China. Finally done at the café we took at stroll down the moslim alley where food and “antiques” were on sale. There we found the Great Mosque and back alleys used for trading all sorts of stuff that tourists would want to buy. A group of Danish tourists from Kuoni Travel advised us to go to the south gate and take a walk on the city walls.
At the south gate: Didn’t feel like walking on more walls. Instead a couple of Canadian English teachers with their Chinese students bumped into us and we started talking. During the conversation we drew a crowd on Chinese by-standers and beggars. The talk went on about China-, Canada-, and Europe-related topics, differences in customs in the three cultures, and much more. One of the many differences are found in the procedures for international travel. Where Europeans generally very easy get their hands on a Chinese visa, the Chinese have to go through a lengthy process, which by far exceeds our troublesome bike-check-in in Beijing a day earlier.

In the evening we enjoyed dinner at the colorful street restaurants in the moslim quarter and the spectacular water-lights-music show on the fountain square at the pagoda.

Amsterdam 23/10/2005 at 15:30

Day 22: Beijing – Xi’an: Chinese Bureaucracy
***** 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY *****
- Although we didn’t realize that ourselves until on the train to Xi’an. Instead we got the day going with in-the-room “home made” breakfast and got busy packing, making final arrangements with the Vlieg & Fiets agent in Beijing, and eventually checking out of the Hademem Hotel.
We still had a few things that we wanted to shop for, so we went to a few chopstick shops in the center to get chopsticks, and to the silk market to shop for silk and a fake Rolex for Jakob.
In the early afternoon we passed by the hotel to get our bikes and luggage. With everything packed we made our way towards the Beijing West railway station. At the same time Beijing – and we – got rained on.
At the station first thing to do was to check in our luggage – the bikes. We arrived in the basement of the station and the railway employees down there were unable to help us. Only a single person managed to understand the Chinese note we were carrying with us, which was supposed to say that we wanted to check in our bikes. He guided us to a small shed-like house in a dirty back alley across the street from the station where we wouldn’t have liked at all to leave our bikes! He then took us to a more official looking parcel and luggage office at the station (a bit east of the main station building). Here we would have been absolutely lost had it not been for two guys who helped us with everything – every single procedure. In addition a girl came along to sort out a few translation problems. The staff was helpfully flexible as well although unable to speak any English. Basically the procedure went as follows:
1) We went to counter 1 for a form to fill out. The form was only available in Chinese.
2) We got the two guys mentioned above to help us fill out the form.
3) We taped the cardboard pieces to Jakob’s bike.
4) We went to counter 2 and got a piece of paper as for checking in the bikes.
5) Then we went back to counter 1 with the bikes which were now suddenly not allowed to be checked in.
6) Back at counter 2 (again) we got a woman to help convince the railroad man at counter 1 that it was OK to get the bikes on the same train as us to Xi’an.
7) At counter 1 the bikes were now let through, but only after all the cardboard was taken off again.
Discussion about whether the bikes can or can’t go on the same train as us. Eventually they’re cleared for the train.
9) Final visit to counter 2 for payment and to get the ticket for the bikes.
10) At counter 1 the bikes are now taken back out through the gates and we take them – still helped by the two guys – about half a kilometer to the right platform.
After this the guys said goodbye and left without making any claims for any reward or compensation whatsoever for their invaluable help.

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00

The weather the last couple of days has been mostly good, but always a bit cloudy. Warm enough, though, for shorts. Below is a quick rundown of most of the events of the days 18-21.

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 21: Beijing: Tai Chi in the Temple of Heaven Park
Getting up very early we left the hotel at 06.00 to see people do Beijing wake up in the Temple of Heaven Park. “Waking up” in Beijing includes various sports including easy gymnastics, running, tai chi, kung fu with and without weapons, singing, screaming, tennis, badminton, and walking backwards. Quite different from Europe!! The rest of the (early) morning we saw the rest of the temples – unfortunately the Temple of Great Harvest was closed for restoring until April 2006, so we had to do with lesser buildings. The rest of the day we spent shopping for jewelry, chopsticks, tablecloths, watches, traditional Chinese clothing, but we didn’t realy find the right things except for a Chinese shirt for Jolanda. This evening we’ve been to a show at the Lao She Tea House. Singing,, comedy, opera, magic, and acrobatics while having dinner – quite an experience.

Tomorrow evening we’ll celebrate our 5 years anniversary on the night train to Xi’an!

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 20: Shanhaiguan – Beijing: Back to the Base

As agreed our contact in the taxi underworld of Shanhaiguan had kept his word to arrive with a mini bus to bring us to Beijing. We hadto take the bikes partly apart, but at the end everything fitted and we were brought safely to Beijing. The driver apparently knew all the tricks in the book about avoiding road tolls, including changing license plates and driving through tolls so closely following cars in front of us, that the gates closed on top of the car (but did let it pass). Despite all of this we checked in at the hotel relatively early and spent the rest of the afternoon tourist shopping including having our own special “chop” made (due to illiteracy people earlier needed another form of signature than chinese letters. The chop would be a graphical signature in the form of a stamp made with red ink. ). In the evening we enjoyed a delicous Peking Duck dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel.

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 19: Shanhaiguan: End of the Wall

Finally ready for a bit of sightseeing in Shanhaiguan this day was about seeing the first part of the Wall. We started out early in the morning at “The First Pass Under Heaven”, which is the first important tower on the Wall. Having enjoyed this we took the cableway up the first mountain pass that the Wall crosses. At the top we had spectacular view of the entire area including the ocean, lake Yansai, and a monastery. You could see how the Wall, crawled its way down the mountain, through the town of Shanhaiguan into the ocean – a bit like a very long dragon. It leads to the “Old Dragon’s Head”, which is where the Wall begins or ends and where we went afterwards. We were standing on the very first part of the Wall – practically in the ocean. A very special feeling. To finalize the day we went to the Temple of the Sea God to enjoy the sunset. In the evening we had our most spicey dinner so far, which we tried to drown with Great Wall wine.

Beijing, 05/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 18: Bei Dai He – Shanhaiguan: Lost in China

A few times during our holiday the biking route guidebook has been a bit of a challenge – on this day more than ever. After 12 kilometers we decided to return to Bei Dai He and start over. Again we didn’t make the guidebook fit reality and decided to navigate on our own, mainly using the sun as compass and the locals as guide. Eventually we made our way to Shanhaiguan where we passed the place where the Great Wall meets the Bohai Sea, to arrive at the hotel shortly after. We still needed to arrange transportation back to Beijing, but the physical battle for queue spaces and seats on the train made (forced) us to take care of our own transportation. Basically there were no seats available in the train due to this week being Chinese holiday, so we hooked up with a local cab driver to arrange a “taxi” for those 300 kilometers to Beijing. Well above the train price, but for European standards very doable!

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

We DID say that it would be a while before you’d see us online again, but that it should take six days until our next post was unforeseen. Below is a rundown of the events that have passed from day 11 through day 17.

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 17: Golden Coast – Bei Dai He: Happy Birthday China

On the 1st of October 1949 the People’s Republic of China was declared, which makes today China’s 56th birthday. We celebrated with a short ride to beach resort Bei Dai He in good weather and spent all afternoon on the beach relaxing and reading. Unfortunately there was no sun during all afternoon – we had a good time anyway. One of the weirdest things today was the sight of an American beach. Behind a high fence Americans (NO Chinese) were playing games and sitting around enjoying the beach, while on the other side of the fence the Chinese (NO Westerners except us) were looking at the Americans – not unlike at the Zoo. Quite embarrasing for the people inside the fence, we thought…
Tomorrow we will have our last day on the bikes for a while. It’s the last planned day of cycling with baggage for this holiday. Meanwhile it’s quite late and we’ll be heading back to the hotel now – if we can find a taxi.

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 16: Xing An – Golden Coast, Ghost City at the Beach

Yipiiiiiiieeee – dry all day ! We passed a few village markets and were followed by school kids by bike. Halfway throgh this ride we entered a wine district where we had lunch in yet another family restaurant. Very nice experience where we met student Yue Li who was very happy to practice her English and actually see that it works. Very few foreigners come to Chang Li for her to practice on – we were the first ! Her father – a grape farmer – presented us with the overwhelming gift of a few kilos of grapes, which Jolanda more or less willingly transported to the Golden Coast on the back of her bike. On the way we saw “fields” of drying noodles.
The Golden Coast seemed to us to have had its “Golden” time. The city was dead besides a dozen half-open restaurants and hotels.

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 15: Zunhua – Xing An: 110 Kilometers in Mud and Rain

Immediately from the beginning of this ride we got into the rain. The dusty roads turned into small mud pools, and after the first major industrial area especially Jakob was covered in mud. At about 30 kilometers we had enough and tried unsuccesfully to get a ride to Xing An. We continued by bike towards Xing An, saw the Great Wall a few times on the way, and finished the day in heavy rain with our mind on warm showers. We almost didn’t dare to enter the hotel to ask for a room – we were THAT dirty! How do you explain in Chinese that you need newspapers to put into your shoes for drying?

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 14: Huangyaguan – Eastern Qing Tombs – Zunhua: Biking on the Graveyard

A very warm day awaited us on this trip with a spectacular stop-over at the Eastern Qing Tombs. We noticed that fall is starting here in China. Leaves fall to the street and it also quickly gets cold in the evenings. As mentioned this day was warm – also when we arrived at the Eastern Qing Tombs.
When we had seen the first major building of these sacred emperial burial grounds we already thought that it was the actual tomb of the first Qing emperor. Huge and massive it stood there right in front of us. It turned out to be a mere shed compared to the actual tombs a few kilometers down the road. It’s an amazing area with huge tombs in the shape of temples made for the emperors, empresses, their concubines, servants, etc., etc. The area was that of a medium-size town, so we decided to skip a part and move on towards Zunhua. We got there by dusty roads, checked in to the best hotel so far, and found a place to have dinner. The owner of the restaurant thought it was very special to have us there and served free dishes for us to enjoy.
After having slept on rice pillows for several nights it was very nice with a descent hotel with descent pillows again…

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 13: Huangyaguan: Cleaning Bikes and Walking the Wall

With the mud layers from the flood crossing between Chengde and Yingshouing still on the bikes, this day was perfect for a heavily needed cleaning job. Both bikes were washed completely, re-oiled and had the tires pumped to close to maximum – ready for a new ride and then eventually parked in our room, while we took a long walk on the Wall. Luckily it was much less foggy and the view from the Wall was great. On the last part of our hike, Jakob managed to leave a lasting impression on the Wall. Concrete workers working to restore the stairs had put wet concrete in the gaps between some of the stones. Jakob accidently stepped in the concrete and thus left an impression which will have tourists wondering for decades.

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 12: Yingshouing – Huangyaguan: Back to the Wall

Luckily we were allowed to leave Yingshouing to go in direction of Huangyaguan for another look at the wall. After escaping the industrial zone we found ourselves again in a postcard-like country-side and the cycling day was finished with a long descent down the misty mountains (misty all day) and check-in at a family run guesthouse/fishing farm. For lunch we had freshly caught – killed in front of us – salmon, which was subsequently grilled and extremely delicious.
We went for another hike on the wall. After having seen the wall between Simatai and Jinshanling this piece of wall didn’t seem that impressive. It was largely restored, but mainly by use of stone and concrete. Concrete just doesn’t really suit the Great Wall. Here again we had almost no tourists.

Bei Dai He, 01/10/2005 at 23:00

Day 11: Chengde – Yingshouing, Ugliest City so far

This morning we saw another extreme example of cultural differences in the restaurant at breakfast. 30-40 Chinese who all chewed their food and drank their drinks or rice pudding – all with their mouths open. The noise was quite incredible! Roads were in general very bad today with holes, bumps, not to mention a missing bridge where we had instead to go via a very muddy path to cross the river. We went through several tunnels as well, which is slightly unpleasant. Imagine that you are very small and have a very small light in a several hundred meters long tunnel, and a HUGE truck is coming at you – honking. You get the picture…
At a certain point we really doubted whether we were on the right track. This is not so funny when the maps are undetailed and you have another 70 kilometers to go. We just did not need any additional kilometers on this day, which was extremely warm. We found the right way, though, and about half way enjoyed a very nice lunch at a by-the-road family restaurant. At the end they just wanted to make pictures of us, and didn’t want to charge us for eating. Towards the end of the day the beautiful country-side scenery changed into grim, industrial surroundings and we ended up in the coal mining mess of Yingshouing. We have never seen so many things being so black in one place, and felt actually most like staying the evening inside the hotel. You can’t imagine how black everything in such a town is – even the smell was black.

Chengde, 24/9/2005 at 17:00

Today we’ve been biking around Chengde looking at the temples, many of them being buddhist temples. Sometimes it has felt more like being in Tibet than in China. Other than that the city of Chengde is ugly and not very cozy. At the back of out hotel we just spotted yet another extremely poor neighbourhood. We went in that direction to eat yesterday and people are really friendly despite living on a financial minimum. We were invited (read: forced) to drink Yun Hu beer with the owner, and Jolanda discovered just about the only beer in the world that she actually likes… Besides that we ended up spending about 5Y (50 Euro Cents) for the whole dinner!

This morning we met a Dutch couple in the restaurant for breakfast. They had been following the same route as we, but were forced to shorten their holiday and were going back to Beijing today. We met them by accident and they are the first cycling tourists that we’ve seen here. They were probably twice our age and pensioned. We have a lot of respect for people at that age going on cycling holidays.

Later on we went out and the weather was beautiful – around 24 degrees and only a few clouds all day.

Now we look forward to getting into slightly more quiet countryside with less traffic on the roads as well. This should also mean that we will have less possibilities to get online, so it’ll probably be a few days until our next post.

Chengde, 23/9/2005 at 18:30
Before we start with this long story (we’ve been without internet for couple of days) the most important thing to mention is this: We’ve been on the Wall and it is TRULY GREAT! See below what happened from day 6 to day 9.

Chengde, 23/9/2005 at 18:30

Day 9: Simatai – Chengde: Bad Day on the bikes

We got up at 5:15 am to get away early and be before darkness in Chengde. We started and found out that Jolanda had a flat tire. People get up early in China because already at this time of the day we had a lot of spectators around us while we changed the tire. Finally we got going and with several breaks we made it to the 60 km mark of our day trip before we found a taxi to drive us the last 60 km to Chengde. The heat (although it was cloudy), the honking cars, the pollution, the continous trouble with the bikes finally made us call it quits. So now we are in Chengde where we have found a decent hotel with SOFT beds, a Kentucky Fried Chicken (we are too tired for challenges in Chinese) and an internet cafe to keep you guys updated about our trip.

Chengde, 23/9/2005 at 18:30

Day 8: Simatai Eastern Great Wall on foot

Visiting the people of Jinshanling had been a bad experience so we decided to stay another day in Simatai. This time we walked the Eastern part of the Wall at Simatai. This part is not for the faint-hearted. This rough section of the Wall is largely unrestored and very very steep. We went as far East as we could and walked the same way back. Downhill was quite a challenge because we felt our legs from the day before. But that doesn’t matter, it is definitely worth it.
This was the hottest day so far with nearly no wind.
Back in Simatai we took the bikes out to try to find another way out of Simatai, basically to cross the wall to get North in direction of Chengde. But it turned out that we anyway had to take the main road around the Wall. Day 9 would be a very long bike ride…

Chengde, 23/9/2005 at 18:30

Day 7: Simatai-Jinshanling on foot on the WALL

After having slept on beds like planks we got up early to get to the Wall. We wanted to be there before the tourists on day trips coming from Beijing. The village where we slept was close to the wall, so actually we were up the Wall so early that there was nobody yet to check our tickets that we had bought already the day before. The first 2 hours we only met 5 other people and in total on the 10 km trip maybe only 70 people. It took us 6 hours to get to Jinshanling. We did it very relaxed and enjoyed the views. It was so beautiful and so was the weather.
Some parts of the Wall are luckily not restored so it feels like walking on the real one, but is also very tough. At the end of the day arriving in Jinshanling we were both really tired. Jolanda’s legs were shaking… So we hired one of the locals to drive us back to Simatai. For the rest of the day we relaxed in Simatai and watched the sunset going down on the Wall.

Chengde, 23/9/2005 at 18:30

Day 6: Miyun-Simatai by bike

Having gone all the way from Beijing on the major roads the day before it was a pleasure to go to Simatai primarily on country roads. We had almost no traffic and went through many small farmer villages with houses falling apart between the hands of the very poor farmers. We had our first encounter with Chinese authority as we needed to cross 3 dams on our way to Simatai. At the first dam the gates were closed and we had to take a detour of unknown distance to get around the dam. Finally it turned out to be not that far and we moved on to the 2nd dam. There the gates seemed closed as well but were opened as we got closer. And after having cycled another couple of kilometers we found ourselves in front of dam 3 with the gates closed again. The dam guard only agreed to open the gates when a car full of Chinese tourists helped us persuade him of the importance of letting us al through. Alternatively we would have had to back track numerous kilometers and plot out a new route. And our maps are not that accurate. If he hadn’t let us through, Jolanda would probably have thrown the bikes an bags over the gate to go the 15 meters across the dam. All day it was cloudy, perfect weather for biking.
Towards the end of the day we got the first sight of the Wall – the major goal of our trip to China, only a few kilometers away.

Today we’ve already been in Beijing for a few days and it’s time to move on. However, first it’s time to try to give you a taste of all that we’ve seen in the last couple of days.

On Saturday we had breakfast where we enjoyed the so-called Moon cakes. They’re supposed to be very delicious, but the one we had on Saturday morning were not really our thing.

We ventured out into the traffic of Beijing went to the Forbidden City and took the metro to the Tian An Men Square. What a place ! All sorts of people of course wanted to offer us all kinds of services, and a group of Chinese people wanted to have their picture taken with Jolanda!

Once inside the Forbidden City at the North end of the Square, we rented a Roger Moore audio tour of the forbidden tour and went on to see what this Forbidden City hype was all about. The city is HUGE! We had expected a few well-kept houses, but what we found was simply amazing. Many small temples, most of them more than 500 years old, many of them rebuilt several times in the original style, because fire has never been a friend of the wooden Forbidden City, and all of them amazing to look at. We were busy all day until 17.00 when they closed, and we could probably have run around a bit longer – just to see it all.

We exited at the North Gate and went across the street into the Jingshan park where we had seen a temple which prodivided us with an extraordinary view of the entire Forbidden City !

Still trying to digest all we’d seen during the day we decided to take a look at the Night Market and have something to eat. At the first stand at the Night market we got cheated into paying a very high price for our food, but we got smarter and eventually got ourselves a very nice meal, shopping from the stands.

On Sunday we went through the same procedure as Saturday with breakfast, but with much better moon cakes than on Saturday. For some reason they still played the very same song over and over again as yesterday.

We went by cab to the Panjiayan Market (a.k.a. Dirt Market). Outside the hotel men are willingly offering taxi services for 50 Yuan and as you leave they’ll start slashing the price. We went across the street and got the same ride for 20 Yuan. A couple of hours were spent looking at crafts, Rolex, Chinese and Soviet army goods and many other useful and useless things. Very interesting to see everybody bargaining and talking about goods. We tried a bit of bargaining ourselves and went back to the hotel with a HUGE painting for our home. Help! How will we get that home??

Having rested a bit at the hotel we shopped at a small local supermarket and then went cycling and also saw some hutongs. Hutongs is the name for the areas where especially poor people live with small alleys and low houses – to great extent in ruins. Again we saw how the city mixes rich and very poor within a few square meters.

Later in the evening we went to a hotpot restaurant across the street. Hotpot is a restaurant where the guests sit around a table with each managing his own pot of meat and vegetables. Very delicious and cheap.

Now we’re ready to go biking. Everything is good here and we look forward to seeing China outside Beijing as well !

Technorati Tags: Beijing, Hotpot, China, Restaurant, Hutong, Panjiayan Market, Dirt Market, Night Market, Jingshan park, Moon Cake, Forbidden City, Tian An Men

After a long flight with way too little space and way to little sleep we have arrived in Beijing. Of course it was very interesting for us to see if the bikes had taken the same trip as us – preferrably in one piece. At Beijing Airport we found all of our luggage including the bikes. The luggage was fine and only the protection that we had put on the bikes was damaged. Besides from a few scratches we think that the bikes are fine.

When we first got on the plane it was a bit of a dissapointment to have been given two middle seats – even in the middle row. And at below middle size… It’s quite difficult to sleep in spots like that. We flew with China Southern Airlines, and we suspect that Boeing has probably constructed this plane on special order to fit the Chinese people!

Shortly before the start we met Mikkel, the husbond of Lisbeth, one of Jakob’s former colleagues at Cisco. He was by accident located in the seat immediately behind Jakob. Very weird! Mikkel by the way also happens to be a former inhabitant of Nyborg, Denmark – like Jakob…
He was on his way to a training in Beijing, and we had a bit of a talk about how he and Lisbeth were doing, and about this and that in general.

At Beijing Airport, the taxi driver was already waiting for us at the arrival, eagerly waving a sign with our names, which made it difficult to recognize the names on the board. He recognized us because of the bikes. He took us straight to the hotel – through the mayhem which is Beijing traffic. Nobody breaks for noone here, they honk a lot and here little men with red flags, whistles and big hats are trying to control the traffic. They see of course that they are failing and limit themselves to fiercely control the pedestrian traffic…

At 14.00 local time we were check in at the Ha De Mem Hotel. Time to pack out, shower, put bikes together and then get out on the street.

We went in direction of the Tian An Men square, but instead of going to the square we chose to go for something to eat. It took us quite a while to get there as we had to get ourselves a mobile number. The mobile number was a specific challenge in that nobody here seems to speak any English. We were really finding the words from the Lonely Planet books that we had with us, and with a few hand signs and the 5 words of English that the salesman knew we finally ended up with a mobile number. We even tried to negotiate a discount…

The rest of the way towards the square we took the time to look at the life in the street. People getting their hair cut, people selling all sorts of food, which we wouldn’t even know HOW to start eating, bike repair shops on the sidewalk, and all the time these traditional Chinese lamps in between the moderne skyscrapers and commercials.

People are looking at us, and especially Jolanda wished she would have put on a pair of long trousers instead of the shorts. Apparently girls in shorts is not really normal. Can’t wait to get into the bike outfit….
Maybe we also stick out basically by looking different, taller, blonder, different colour of eyes, etc.

We managed to eat dinner with sticks this evening. We don’t really know what exactly we got, but are pretty sure that we will be better at choosing the right things in the future. This was not really the most succesful evening meal we’ve ever had.

Now we’re super tired and want to go to bed. It’s now 20.10 here in the evening, it’s dark outside and we slept three hours each last night.
We’ll see how it goes tonight. The beds are stiff as bricks, so it’ll be another new experience.

Finally on the way, now sitting at Schiphol Airport waiting for the boarding at 19.15. This morning was all about packing everything, and that went extremely well until about 15 minutes before we wanted to leave when we weighed everything. We’re allowed to bring 30kg each including bikes excluding hand luggage, and to our great surprise we were well above that. A quick repacking allowed us to shuffle some stuff into hand luggage and end up at a lower weight, and we’re now checked in and well.

Jakob looks pretty tired right now as he had some things to finish work-wise before going to China. In fact it ended up taking until 02.00 last night. Jolanda is irritated because she got a fee from one of the employees of the Amsterdam public transportation company. We were travelling outside the zone that the ticket was valid for, and when we got “caught” the GVB-guy insisted on having Jolanda pay a hefty extra penalty only for forgetting to stamp an extra zone. Now she has to pay within 7 days, which is obviously quite difficult, so now she will probably have to pay an extra fee for paying too late.

And now we’re off to gate F8.

In the picture you’ll see how busy we are getting the bikes ready for China. Today we’ve adjusted them, and created cardboard protection for wheels, gear changers, and frames – all in order to be as prepared for the airport on Thursday next week as possible.

At the airport we will have to:
1) Set our saddles and steerings low;
2) Take the pedals off;
3) Take some air out of the wheels;
4) Turn the steering;
5) Put the extra protection like cardboard and “bike pyjamas” on the bikes, for them to have as safe a flight as we hope to have.

After doing all of this at the airport we will no doubt find hundreds of oil spots on our clothes – just before sitting down in a nice, comfortable, and clean airplane seat for 10 hours.

We have now both been to the haircutter, so we don’t need to worry too much about hair fashion for the next few weeks.

Almost set to go !

When you go to China obviously you need to eat Chinese food. And how do you eat Chinese food. Yes, with chopsticks. Jolanda plans on smuggling a pair of cheat chopsticks into China to use them as an “if-all-else-fails” way of eating.

Thank you, Michiel for making Jolanda’s life easier!!

Below you’ll see her practicing the art of cheat-chopsticks-eating on an Dutch Peking Duck.

On another note, theres only a week to go now. A week from now if all goes well, we’ll be sitting in an airplane already far away from Amsterdam! The bikes are now pretty much set to go. We’re waiting for some clothes to arrive, traveler cheques are in place, and the list of things to-do is getting
smaller every day.

Here’s the map of the route that we will take in China. Quite impressive if we may say so. Click here to see what the route map and the detailed plan looks like.

Igår fik vi så flybilletterne med posten. Nu virker det hele ikke længere så fjernt. Mindre end 2 uger til afgang! Heldigvis får vi også lov at tage vores cykler med. I flyet er der kun plads til et begrænset antal cykler, men vores har nu altså fået plads.

Imorgen prøver vi nok at skille cyklerne ad en extra gang – bare for at være sikre pÃ¥, at alt er som det skal være. De skal være klar til turen!: Pedalerne skal af, styret skal drejes, sadlen skal sættes ned, osv. og sÃ¥ skal den i sovepose. Vi har besluttet at lade cyklerne transportere i poser istedet for kasser. Alle mulige mennesker har mange forskellige meninger om den ting. Den ene har bedre erfaringer med en pose, fordi man sÃ¥ stadig kan se, at der er tale om en cykel og kan rulle den, og der bliver tit kastet med cykelkasserne. Andre siger at cyklen hurtigere bliver beskadiget, hvis den kun er beskyttet af en tynd pose. Nu har vi ihvertfald valgt, og sÃ¥ ser vi hvad der sker.

SÃ¥ imorgen prøver vi lige at se om vi stadig kan skrue alle skruerne løs uden problemer, sÃ¥ vi ikke pludselig stÃ¥r i lufthavnen uden at kunne forberede cyklerne til turen. Det kunne være kønt…

Idag og imorgen skal vi også lige cykle nogen kilometer for at tage et par dage i træk, hvor vi er på cyklerne. Desuden mangler vi stadig traveller cheques og lidt andre sager, som I kan finde i packlisten ovre til højre.

So, we’re busy planning everything that should take place while in China. We try to imagine what it will be like, which is difficult, and we try to prep for all sorts of scenarios. Some of the challenges we will undoubtedly meet are:
- no speaky Inglesh!
- don’t accept !
- finding accommodation along the route
- finding food

But all plans are coming along nicely and eventually a full plan and all documentation will be available here on the site !