Oct 20 - to Quinzhou and a day of rest

The sun came out again today...the sun behind us just after leaving the hotel and reflecting off the river that we crossed in Lingshan...

Lingshan

We were quickly onto small roads for the first part of the morning and in one town came across the biggest meat market that we've seen in full swing at eight-thirty in the morning... 

...each merchant with their own scale that doesn't depend on electronics...

...I'm happy when the customer is happy!

...and I'm happy on Mom's back when she takes me to the market.

Back out on the road... the rural areas are a far cry from the bustle of the cities... we see many women carrying heavy loads as they work the fields or carrying water to their homes...


...or carrying their kids while working... 

Unfortunately, we had to get back on the highway for the last 60 km into Quinzhou, a two-lane concrete road being widened to 4 lanes. So most of the ride, we were on the right side of the old concrete with a three-foot drop (no barrier) into the excavation for the new lanes.

As much as China has beautiful new roads, it also has rotten old ones. This patch of broken concrete is far from the worst that we've seen... they've tried to fill it with aggregate... there may be nice smooth concrete, then these slabs that have sunk and heaved and broken up so badly that busses (normally flying along honking their horn) slow down to the point that even I can pass them going uphill. Toronto's pot holes are kid-stuff compared to this. It suggests to me under-engineering for the traffic, poor foundations, poor drainage, poor quality concrete, or a combination of all of the above.

Alongside the excavation for new lanes, we saw half-a-dozen of these resurfacing operations... the machine hammering and breaking the top of the concrete surface, whether it was already broken and heaving or not, then they levelled it somewhat and rolled it, then sprayed tar on it, then spread more gravel... 

...seems to me that the underlying problems causing the break-up don't get fixed this way, but being an aeronautical engineer, my qualifications probably let me suggest only that it might not make a great runway for an airplane without rough-field landing gear. After this treatment, instead of having a smooth concrete highway interspersed with absolutely horrendous holes and enormous bumps, now you have a very UNsmooth highway interspersed with lesser holes and bumps. It makes for great saddle-sores...

but it doesn't stop the mobile meat industry. This guy roared past me, then slowed down, and for about three minutes, we had a nice conversation while going 25-30 km/hr dodging bumps on the road. I have no idea what we talked about, nor does he I'm sure, since the only words that seemed to get repeated were 'Shanghai' and 'Singapore' plus lots of shrugs and smiles and laughs and thumbs-up.

The nice thing about there being so many Chinese on motor-scooters is that they invariably smile, say hello or nihao and in general are friendly nice people. As we approached the hotel, we exchanged such greetings with this gentleman...

What about the one-child policy?
...and what is the capacity of a scooter?
...we don't know because we haven't seen six yet!

Before closing today's blog, remember two weeks ago we were in Meizhou and we met a young man named Melon at the Buddhist Temple, the Pagoda of 1000 Buddhas... Melon spent a couple of hours showing us around... didn't want any money, but he told us about buying birds in the market in order to set them free, so he accepted enough money to buy another bird and do that again.

Well, we got an e-mail this week from Melon with photos of the birds that he set free on out behalf on the grounds of the temple. 

October 21st... We're enjoying a relaxed rest with nothing fancy on the agenda. Tomorrow will be our last day of cycling in China as we ride 100 km or so to Dongxing on the border with Vietnam for our last night in China before entering Vietnam the following day.

Tomorrow is also the birthday for brother Bruce in Canada and sister-in-law Sylvia in Switzerland. Happy birthday to both of you, we'll think of you as we pedal the bikes.