7 Oct - to Longchuan

We've been lucky with the weather. A typhoon made landfall today to the north of us, affecting the area where we were the first week. During the first week, a typhoon was affecting this area.

Today was dry, following a national highway from Meizhou to Longchuan.

This young lad stayed with us for several miles between two
of the towns we passed today, riding here on a bike lane
that is separated by trees from the highway

 

Rae passing a lady leading a team of mules, the first we've
seen of the use of such animals as beasts of burden

We had a couple of climbs through hilly, forested areas - this is
one of the cuts made to accommodate the highway resulting in
an interesting tree-line

The not-so-nice side of the Chinese countryside is garbage. The centre of larger cities are generally well-kept, clean, and free of garbage. Not so away from those areas. In the rural areas, garbage is dumped at the side of the road, sometimes at sanctioned sites, more often not. Even at the sanctioned sites, it seems that periodic burning is the disposal method. And we wonder why we are constantly breathing smoky air.

 As I write this, the Chinese news is reporting that Beijing's smog levels in the past week have been terrible, even prompting official advice to spectators at the finals of the Chinese open tennis tournament in Beijing on the weekend to wear masks - again, we were lucky three weeks ago when we visited Beijing to get three days of clear weather. Air pollution is a huge problem for China. So is water pollution - lots of rivers and streams, but horribly polluted. Lets not forget noise pollution... nobody moves anywhere in their car, bus, truck, or motor scooter without honking their horn at the mere sight of anything or anybody else, and the honk is a blare if they want you to get out of the way... it is incredibly noisy along these roads.