Bicycling around the Yulong River

The next morning I was ready again to conquer the world. Until I left my room and felt the heat suffocating me. I was exhausted the moment I closed the door behind me. Nonetheless I had a coffee in my hostel

and then walked to the hostel next door to rent a bike for the day.

With the clever plan from the city (and it is a city with 2 million people) and the information I had gathered last night I set out to find the Yulong River. Along of it I wanted to ride up to the Dragon Bridge. Once I passed the big street next to my hostel I was out of the city bustle and on the road to the scenic sights. Since I usually don’t really bike I felt totally adventurous.

I did my fist stop after 2km at an “ancient” tribal village. Yeah, definitely not ancient and not worth it. The only ancient stuff were some pottery shards and the rest was newly built huts, made to look old with lots of Chinese people dressed like the Flintstones.

From here on I decided to stick to the natural scenic sights, I would probably enjoy these more. Just a couple of kilometers more I cam across the bridge over the Yulong River and watched the bamboo rafters getting their boats ready for customers.

The scenery was really stunning no matter in what direction you looked. I stayed on the right side of the river going up, the road looked a bit better. I knew it would be about 10-12 km to ride up to the bridge.

As it turned out it was going to be a lot longer for me. I rode up all the way to until I came a motorway. I didn’t really want to bicycle between trucks so I turned around and tried to find a different route to the Dragon Bridge. On the map it looked as if a small dirt road would go all the way up to the bridge. But then the dirt road turned into a track and then the track turned into a mud trail and eventually it vanished. So not for me, after about one km I turned around again and looked for lunch.

I stopped at a very nice looking hotel and was the only guest there. The owners had just opened 2 months before and had a friend from the US staying with them. Which was good because this guy entertained me during my lunch of wild greens and rice (was still trying to avoid dog meat and it was so hot that it was almost impossible to eat anything at all). Then later he took a picture of me and my bicycle and they showed me which way to go to the bridge. Also, when I was about to leave it just started to rain, so the waiter gave me his rain coat. You must love the Chinese, they were really nice people.

With their directions it was easy to find my way. I had to cross a foot bridge again to the left side of the river and from there on it was easy-peasy to find my way. Also after about 10 minutes it stopped raining and I could remove the rain coat again. Shortly before the Dragon Bridge I met a German couple that was with me on the bus yesterday. We stopped for chat next to the river and they told me about their trials with China. They got scammed twice already, once on the Beijing Wall and once with the “Tea Ceremony”. I was really lucky because nothing like this had happened to me. While we talked it started to rain in earnest again and we sought shelter under a large tree where we talked for at least another hour. Eventually I said my goodbyes because still wanted to see the Dragon Bridge.

Was the bridge worth riding for kilometers on end? Probably not but the scenery all around was just stunning, so this waste amazing ride. Plus when I turned around I met Lisa and Paul again and we made our way into the city together where we went for an early dinner after this long day in about 35 degrees with 80% humidity or so. It actually felt more like a 100% but have learned better since then.

The place for dinner that we chose was small but had a couple of pictures on the wall and from there I chose one recommended by Paul some meat dish which was one of the worst things I had in China.

The dish consisted only of bone and from which animal they came I didn’t know and actually don’t want to. For the Chinese this would have been super delicious because they like to suck all the marrow out of the bones, but I rather I would have liked to have more vegetables with it. Never mind though, it was an experience and the right ending for the day. I headed back to my room at the Westland Hostel, cooled down and later headed out to get some fruits and something cold to drink. But I went to bed early after all, I was sure I had done at least 20 km with all the turning around and I felt it. Yours, Pollybert