The Ride has Begun

Sunday 22 September...

Yes, 0500 we were at breakfast, 0615 on the Bund, and by 0630, we were underway negotiating Shanghai's busy traffic. The Guillon family came out to see us off.


On the Bund, Pudong behind us, ready to start

Myriam, Olivier and Emilie with us near the start

Sunday was a working day to compensate for holidays last week, so a busy day on the roads. As chaotic as Chinese driving can seem to be, it's more a matter of the norms here being different. And the bike lanes were physically separate for almost the entire route, so it is mainly at intersections where you mix with cars and trucks, and we had no problems.

Most of the roads are lined with trees.

Once out of Shanghai, most of the ride was on this kind of separated roadway. It was shared with scooters, most of which are electric, and often not as fast as even us. But you need to keep your eyes open as this kind of traffic goes either direction in the lanes on either side of the road, they might drive on the left, they tend to merge in without looking. But it all works. No real problems as long as you play their game their way.
 The organization of the departure was excellent. Hotel checkout for 50 people at the same time went smoothly. Nobody got lost that we know of. The lunch bus was exactly where they said it would be, and lunch was good. Today was 107 km and we already at the hotel and checked in at ten past two. And it sure was nice to get a shower after 80 degree heat and high humidity.


lunch

How to string new wires across a highway.

Between the separated bicycle paths and the amount of water, we wondered if we were in the Netherlands. We crossed half-a-dozen major waterways that would take barges like this...

and many smaller ones, on the banks of which were industries, old towns and, here, newer residential complexes.

They are also obviously the source of food, but we don't know exactly what it is.

So a good start today... early to bed tonight, breakfast at 0600, and on the road
probably around 0700 tomorrow... good night.