Greetings Man Zou blog readers:

Well…We’ve been on the road here in China for a LONG time now and we’re all starting to get a little tired…

But with less than a week of cycling left (and only 250 miles), the end is finally in sight. Although this has been an amazing adventure, I think we are all excited to get to Shanghai and see what the city and the Grand Hyatt (Thanks Kevin!) have to offer.

Right now we are in a small county town located on the Grand Canal, the largest man-made waterway in the world. Our cycling these days consists of heavier mileage, but much easier terrain. The mountains are gone now and the road is long and flat. It’s a straight shot to Shanghai from here down the beloved 204 (the road we are going to be traveling on for the next couple of days that runs parallel to the Grand Canal). So without further ado, I wanted to make a blog post recapping some of the events not reported in last week or so.

Since the ferry ride from Dalian to Yantai, we’ve had a great time checking out what the East Coast of China has to offer. Of course we told you about the Beer Festival in Qingdao, but we were able to see a lot of other cool things there including the famous Beer Street (home of the Tsingtao Brewery) where we ventured off from our guide and ate an interesting meal containing some mysterious food picked out by Kevin and I (the menu was in Mandarin!?). And no, if you’re thinking that beer was the only thing on our agenda in Qingdao, that’s not the case. It’s just that when cycling as much as we have, we become quite parched and work up a thirst…Plus things were just so festive here with everyone on vacation celebrating National Day.

In Qingdao we were also able to explore all over this amazingly beautiful city on the coast including visiting where the Olympic boating events were held. We were also able to take a small boat ride across the bay on our way out of town, which gave us a different perspective of the city. Since Qingdao, we have been cycling hard and making our push towards Shanghai.

One thing we haven’t talked about is how wild city riding in China can be. Entering into the cities and towns that we have been staying in is always a challenge as we have to weave in and out of traffic and ride in some occasionally precarious situations (more to come on this in Ian’s next post, Game of Death).

I actually enjoy this part of the day for two reasons. First, I’ve made it kind of a game and even amidst all the craziness, there does seem to be a flow to the way people drive here (although if I had to explain it, that would be impossible). Second, it means we are close to our hotel for the night, so rest awaits.

On the other hand, this is Sean’s least favorite time of the day as he gets frustrated following our guide’s lead sometimes (he’s very comfortable in this crazy environment and takes some risks that most of us don’t). But after a trip to the bakery for some sweets, he usually calms down.

Overall, I think we all wish we had more time to spend in the cities that we’ve been staying, but usually we’re pretty worn out when we arrive. Usually we have to find the hotel, unwind from the day and clean up, do our daily interviews, eat dinner, transfer footage…before we can even think about checking out the city. And of course we need to blog and get our rest before the next day of riding. But I’m not complaining…this all comes along with making a film from a bicycle, but I think we all have a list of places we would like to come back and explore on a deeper level.

Last, I officially tied Sean in the battle of the broken spokes (4-4) by getting two more today. Since Sean bought new rims, I’m probably going to win (or lose depending on how you look at it) before this trip is over. I am carrying a lot of equipment on the back of my bike (more to come about that in my next post, “Teching out in China”) and I think it’s finally starting to catch up with my rims. On a separate note, however….

Sean lost the bet of that we weren’t going to see blue skies for the rest of the trip as today was beautiful and clear of smog as we gained some distance between ourselves and the factories…

But just in case you were worried about our health (being surrounded by all this pollution), we wanted to put your mind and easy and show you that we’ve been protecting our lungs.

Once again, I’m up too late again writing on the blog, so I’m going to have to call it a night, but check out this last picture of a mantis picked up by Doven on the side of the road. I would never touch that thing!

Anyhow, on the road again bright and early tomorrow…

More to come soon.

Man Zou!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 1:57 pm and is filed under on the road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.