It's the Final Countdown

31-Oct-08:
China: Xi’an – Rest Day

Where do I start? Well how about with the conclusion of yesterday’s news. Firstly, in the course of using the internet cafe to call home, during which I had to switch computers 3 times due to broken headsets and power failures, I managed to lose track of my purse containing about $300 and a credit card! The security staff at the internet cafe tried to be helpful despite not being able to speak a word of English and wanted to trawl through security footage...the cafe was so dimly lit that I could barely make out myself let alone a small purse and anyone who walked away with it...and what would I do if I did see someone walking away with it? So I let it go and got back online to cancel my credit card!

Secondly, the laundry service we put our clothes into to be washed managed to lose $200 worth of my clothing...not happy Jan! Thirdly, the sim card which I had just topped up with credit died and would not work. I’ve heard things come in 3’s...so it seems...

On a brighter note, today we went to see the famous Terracotta Warriors. I had seen the odd story on TV about them before but to see them first hand was astounding. They were constructed over a period of nearly 40 years to guard the tomb of a Chinese Emperor...and were subsequently destroyed during peasant riots. There are estimated to be around 7000 warriors in total, with about 2000 having been uncovered to date. Painstaking restoration work is carried out to reassemble the broken warriors and only one undamaged figure has been uncovered so far. Each figure stands 7 feet tall and has a unique facial expression and when unearthed is brightly decorated with paint...but the paint oxidises and loses its colour within 40 minutes of being exposed to air, hence why so many of the warriors remain unearthed...they are waiting to develop a technique of preserving their original glory.

We visited 3 archaeological ‘pits’ containing warriors unearthed and restored to varying degrees. Pit 1 was the largest, being the size of a football field and enclosed by an airplane hangar. This pit contained the original location where a farmer was digging a well and unearthed the first piece of a warrior in 1974. Since that time the farmer has found a new day job and can be found every day in the visitor centre signing copies of a book...and no photos please! I did snap a few pictures of the warriors and think they probably tell the story best, although it was hard in the dim lighting to get a clear shot.

On returning to the hotel at about 3pm, Ben held a bike shop and was finally offering to help people change over their old bike parts for new ones...and so most of us who have wanted to do this for months finally had our chance. It took a few hours of assisted mechanical work but my bike now has a new middle chain ring, cassette and chain...a very exciting achievement in my little bike obsessed world at the moment!

01-Nov-08: Close Call
China: Xi’an to Huayin
123km, 5h 42min ride time

As we expect to be the norm from herein, today was full of busy traffic and the odd close call. I had a lady hold out her arm right in front of me to hail a bus and she was so close that I had to duck to avoid crashing into her. I wasn’t so lucky when I had a slow speed collision with a motorbike who turned in front of me without indicating...in fairness I was passing on his right but in a country with no road rules you just have to make what you deem to be an appropriate call and in this case I lucked out. The old man’s front wheel went into a deep roadside gutter, momentarily pinning him to the ground and I did little more than slowly topple and scrape a little skin from my knees...so we were lucky!

Pedestrians are forever walking out into the road without looking to see if anything is coming. And even if they see us they mostly misjudge the speed at which we are moving and walk out in front of us anyway! Despite all the activity we managed to keep our eyes out and ended up being the only ones who did not get lost following flagging tape indicating a change of instruction. Four crucial turns were left out of the daily route instructions and the van was parked roadside to flag us down and point out the first of the new instructions to us...but aside from a second nearby turn they failed to mention a couple of additional turns to watch out for. Most missed the additional turns and ended up back at the Terracotta Warriors before being put back on the right track, after having done an additional 10km. Luckily I saw the flagging tape and we ended up being to first to arrive at lunch despite being the last to leave for the day, so it was nice to have something go in our favour.

Our hotel for tonight is next door to a Bowling Alley and so the staff (due to Miles being a keen bowler) arranged for a bowling tournament to be held. We had 4 teams competing and had a lot of laughs as most of us had not bowled in many years and some had never bowled. Despite my not having played for as long as I can remember I managed 3 strikes and 3 spares so was pretty happy...the other scores were all a bit hit and miss!

02-Nov-08: It’s the Final Countdown
China: Huayin to Samenxia
147km, 6h 46min ride time

Today was our 10th last day of riding...so it is now literally the final countdown till we reach Beijing. Our route today was a bit of a surprise to all of us, despite knowing about the long distance we had been told nothing of all the climbing it involved.

Long days occasionally spur me on out of desperation to not have the day turn into an extended nightmare of a ride. And so out of desperation and in the spirit of the Noosa triathlon being held back home today I rode the remaining 70km with renewed energy after lunch and into the hotel, arriving within 5 minutes of everyone else who had a half hour head start on us.

03-Nov-08: I Honk Therefore I Am...Coming Through!
China: Samenxia to Luoyang
126km, 6h 37min ride time

Today was a difficult day with a fair amount of climbing and an afternoon of headwinds. The focus however is now the terrible traffic. We are being driven to distraction by the amount of honking on the roads. The absence of any reliable traffic laws has created a chain reaction spiralling out of control in which honking excuses all wrongs...vehicles and people pull out into the main stream of traffic without looking...as a consequence the vehicles in the main stream of traffic honk at every potential intersection where someone could pull out, resulting in a constant din of competing horns.

Trucks and buses are the worst as they honk loudly and incessantly and in long and repetitive intervals whilst they pass through towns at high speed, not prepared to slow down or stop for anyone! I am sure the hearing in my left ear has been compromised by too much exposure to air horns. Amusingly and probably alarmingly, the best example of good driving today was a scooter using it’s indicator to turn, despite driving the wrong way up the road!

04-Nov-08: Vegetarian Bathing
China: Luoyang to Bo’ai
110km, 5h 13min ride time

The ride today was comparatively uneventful...the same old busy traffic and fairly flat terrain. The highlight of the day was arriving at the hotel, which is very nice despite the shower which is simply a retractable extension hose from the basin tap...like a vegetable washing tap seen in fancy kitchens. Consequently, having a shower involves removing all items that should not get wet from the room and closing the toilet lid so the seat doesn’t get wet!

05-Nov-08: Dumb Detour
China: Bo’ai to Xinxiang
85km, 3h 54min ride time

With an expected 77km distance to cover, today was practically a non riding day. The terrain and route had little to surprise us with exception of being sent on an unnecessary 8km detour. The van flagging the route got a little confused by some signage that had changed since last year and resulted in following a detour which added 8km to the distance but ultimately returned to the original road which we were following.

Despite having figured this out by the time we rode past, staff still directed us on the longer route because the riders before us had gone this way...we did not realise this at the time but it was bloody obvious as we rode out of our way only to return back to the road we were on. Their excuse was that everyone should follow the same route. The infuriating point being that by the time we reached them all the other riders would have been back on the road we were already on and still they told us to follow a path they knew full well was a waste of time. Sometimes their illogical and stupid reasoning baffles me to exasperation and I am thankful that my time in this little micro world is nearly over!

06-Nov-08: First Signs to Beijing
China: Xinxiang to Anyang
115km, 5h 31min ride time

We saw our first roads signs to Beijing today...how exciting! I am trying to come up with some new bit of information in each daily blog, but at this stage it is like trying to write a differing account of your drive to work every day. The environment changes little now as we are constantly on busy roads passing through one seemingly never ending heavily populated area.

The influence of the west is becoming increasingly obvious with branding like KFC, McDonalds and Starbucks becoming the norm now...and consequently obesity is now increasing. Actually, I was noting just the other day how little obesity has been present since day one of this journey. Having ridden across 2 continents and seen people from many walks of life has made it starkly obvious just how comparatively unhealthy our society is back home.

Our final rest day is in the city of Anyang, about 550km south-west of Beijing. We are staying in a hotel nearby to what appears to be a children’s hospital and consequently the surrounding area contains a proliferation of businesses catering to the needs of babies, children and new or expectant mothers. It is strange to see such a concentration of such goods and services as presumably due to China’s one child policy it has not been very obvious to this point. I saw a pregnant lady last week and she was the first I had noticed since entering the country.