Looking back it seems silly that we had any form of trepidation before crossing into China. It’s been a country that, more than any other so far, has exceeded expectations.

We’ve found unbelievable generosity that goes beyond even the high benchmark set in the Muslim countries. Areas of the landscape have been unlike anything else we’ve seen, truly extraordinary. Food (on the most part) has been tasty, plentiful and cheap, and there’s always hot water and pot noodles available for a quick fix. The urban sprawl of the great plain has been relatively easy to negotiate thanks to huge roads and separate bike lanes, and camping has been possible even if suitable sites need some searching out.

Things have changed a lot in the last 20 years but there is still a level of control in the country that will be more obvious to the people who live there than for us just passing through. We were certainly being watched and had our photographs taken several times each day by cameras on overhead road gantries, in parks and through towns. Certain internet sites were blocked but a decent VPN easily gets round that to allow the all important status updates to be posted. Our main difficulty came when we tried to get our visa extended and that experience highlighted the lack of flexibility with anyone in authority. They are not prepared to risk their jobs by bending the rules so you have to accept them and stick to them or pay the consequences.

But all of this is wrapped up in a ‘world’s biggest’, neon lit, loud, rebuilt, crazy package that is uniquely China. Overall we’ve had a great time and the good news is that there’s more to explore another time. A lot, lot more.

Back in Beijing we’re reunited with our bike which had been kindly looked after by Ray and Florence while we were in the DPRK. When we arrive back at their apartment we find they have some other Warmshowers guests staying in the form of a family from France (https://leschamavelo.wordpress.com). Here is a good example of how having several children doesn’t have to be a barrier to adventures. With Albane aged 6 riding on the front of a recumbent tandem, Joseph (9) and Ines (11) on solo bikes with their parents Geraldine and Antoine, the Chamussey family have ridden from their home in Montpellier to Istanbul and then from Bangkok to Beijing. Next they’re heading into Mongolia and back into Europe via Russia. It makes any logistical difficulties with getting 2 adults on a tandem across the world seem tiny in comparison but they seem amazingly relaxed and organised. Schooling is provided as and when they find time but the education they will be getting from their life on the road must be invaluable. Chapeau et bon voyage!

Before setting off again we take a trip up to the Great Wall as it wouldn’t be right to leave China without seeing it. We’re joined by Karen, Tineke and Manuel who we’d met in the DPRK, as well as some backpackers from their hostel and together we take various buses and a taxi to find a section of the wall that is unrestored and empty. For our Colombian friend Manuel this is a seminal moment as it marks the completion of several years of travelling on a mission to visit all 7 modern wonders of the world. “This feels good, really, really good!” he shouts from the ramparts.

The next day we’re back on the bike, waking up the cycling muscles and working off the excesses of our 2 week break. It takes 2 days to make our way down past Tianjin and into the port of Tanggu. This is one of the largest ports in the world and somehow we need to find the ferry terminal to buy tickets to Incheon. It’s not where we thought it should be but we do find Mike in a nearby office and he makes a few calls and gives us directions to where we actually need to go. The Jinchon ferry company is well hidden on the fourth floor inside the hotel back in town and after buying our tickets they give us a good discount on a room for the night.

Tanggu is not a bike friendly place. In the morning we ignore the signs on the tunnels and flyovers that say no bicycles as otherwise we’d never have got to the ferry on time. No one seems to mind though as traffic rules are only loosely observed.

The ferry terminal is much like an airport so all the bags have to come off to be scanned, we then hang on tight to the bike on an escalator to get up to the boarding area. On the boat we get a cabin with a thin futon bed on the floor which serves us just fine. Even better is the fact that all meals are included though the scrum that ensues when the announcement that dinner is served is a sight to behold. We’re the only westerners on board as most people opt for the 1 hour flight from Beijing to Seoul instead of this 25 hour ferry journey but it’s a much more pleasant way to travel, especially with the bike.

After passing through an enormous lock that takes an hour to fill we arrive in the port of Incheon. Unfortunately their terminal isn’t as grand as the one in Tanggu so instead of an easy gangplank we have to lug the bike down several flights of stairs. The customs officer turns up his nose at the state of the bike and sprays it thoroughly with disinfectant but then we’re released to explore country number 41: South Korea.

It’s immediately obvious that this is a different country to China in that there are no scooters on the roads and we barely hear anyone beeping their horns on our way into Seoul. Our host in the capital city is Elbert who meets us in a lighting shop where we’ve been enjoying a coffee with the owners. They’d seen us loitering on the street and invited us in for a drink before calling Elbert to let him know his guests had arrived. It looks like there will be some similarities with China after all if Korean hospitality continues like this.

We are Elbert’s first ever Warmshowers guests and he’s keen to make us feel welcome so after dumping our kit in his smart flat we’re taken out for a Korean BBQ. We’ve seen this style of restaurant in most big cities in other countries but have been waiting for our first experience of one until we could get to the real McCoy. It’s worth the wait with a whole heap of tasty meat to cook on the hot plate in the middle of the table. Endless bowls of kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) arrive along with cheese topped rice and soup all washed down with the local tipple, sogu. Elbert explains that there is a spiciness scale for Korean food with level 1 being plain and simple while level 10 could require a trip to the hospital. He suggests we’d be wise not to go beyond 5 given what we’re eating is definitely a lip tingler though not a tear jerker at a safe and sound level 3.

We have a rendezvous the next day with a certain Canadian we’d last seen on a mountain in India. Since we left her last September, Tara has ridden the Pamir Highway, jetted off to Greece, popped home to Canada then returned to Asia with exploits in Myanmar, Thailand and Taiwan. We’d suggested she joined us for a jaunt though Korea and the timing was right so she said yes!

First we have to find her though and we discover that our suggested meeting place of the entrance to the Olympic Metro station is flawed in that there are 10 different entrances. Eventually we spot a blonde girl jumping up and down on the opposite side of the street waving madly which is either someone doing their morning exercises or it must be Tara. It’s great to see her again and we spend the rest of the day catching up while strolling round some of the city’s attractions.

Where Pyongyang felt like a town from the 1950’s, Seoul is more like somewhere from the 2050’s: It’s clean, sharp and high tech. Roads are stacked on top of each other and where they’ve run out of room the road stands on stilts in the river. We get a better look at it from our bikes with Elbert the next day.

Our arrival in Seoul is perfectly timed to be able to take part in a huge group ride organised by the Korean cycle commuters club, so the panniers come off and the number boards go on. The ride leader introduces himself with several bows in a custom that we would be getting used to. We also have to get used to the frequent stops for group photos at various points along the route. Every landmark requires us to dismount and assemble for several snaps. The city sits alongside a bowl of hills which we climb up onto for great views and a fun descent back into the centre where we’re awarded t-shirts for our 40km epic. We feature a few times in this video produced by one of the riders. There’s also a photo book from our day out here.

While spinning past immaculate streets, sleek cars and busy coffee shops it’s hard to imagine that this was once the poorer of the two halves of Korea. A concerted effort to improve education and the rapid growth of their high tech industries has allowed South Korea to develop at a phenomenal rate. It’s now the 11th largest economy in the world (based on GDP nominal) and has a GDP 80 times greater than its northern sibling. This difference will cause a huge shock to people on both sides of the DMZ if and when Korea is reunited and is one reason why many young people in the south don’t want it to happen. The cost to the south will be enormous and could well cripple them for years.

We’re in an unusual position to be able to visit the DMZ from both sides now so we book a tour to return to the border but from a different direction. It’s a strict affair with two days notice required for security checks and a dress code insisting on a collared shirt and no ripped jeans. They’re afraid that the North will use photos of scruffy tourists for propaganda purposes.

On the way there we stop at the war museum which tells a very different story to the war museum we visited in Pyongyang. However it’s no less dramatic and the language used is equally as strong just replacing the North as the aggressors instead of the US imperialist forces. There doesn’t seem to be a balanced view on the conflict with both the North and South pointing fingers and laying the blame with equal levels of enthusiasm.

We stop once more before reaching the DMZ to view a railway bridge that ends just before the border. It’s poignant in that it highlights the fact that South Korea is effectively an island. Without the DMZ this line could connect with Beijing giving access to the whole of Asia and beyond. As it stands, the only way in and out is by boat or plane.

At the DMZ there are several passport checks and a clothing inspection. We’re then transferred onto a military bus to get to the joint security area (JSA) and escorted through a large building to arrive at the blue huts that straddle the border itself. South Korean soldiers stand with their feet wide apart, fists clenched and staring across at their counterparts on the northern side. We’re ushered into the central hut but unlike the last time we were here we’re not allowed to sit at the negotiating table in the centre and the atmosphere is much more tense. Our guide warns us not to get too close to the door at the far end “in case someone from the north opens it and tries to grab you”. We stood at this extract same spot when we visited from the DPRK but it’s taken half a day on a bus, a day on a train, two days of cycling, 25 hours on a ferry and 2 hours on another bus to be able to get here from the south.

On our way out I mention to our military escort that we’d been to Pyongyang and visited the JSA from there. He’s amazed and didn’t realise that it’s possible to get a train from Beijing to Pyongyang. He tells me that the North will always be a place of intrigue and danger that he’ll never be able to visit unless something drastic changes but from what we’ve seen the South are a lot more afraid of the North than the other way around.

Before we leave Seoul the bike needs some TLC so gets treated to a new chain and cassette, the last set having served us well for the last 13,000km. The bike shop is out of stock of our preferred Schwalbe Marathon tyres but I spot a pair that are hardly worn in a pile of used tyres on the street. They tell me I can have them for nothing which saves them having to dispose of them and saves us a stack of cash.

We also collect our Korean Bike Passports. Across the country are several purpose built bike roads and at various points you can collect stamps to prove you’ve covered a certain distance. Complete the length of one path and you get a shiny sticker in your Bike Passport. Complete the entire cross country route from Incheon to Busan and you get a medal and a certificate. With the challenge set and the reward waiting for us in Busan the three of us are ready to start collecting those stamps!

China is by far the noisiest country we’ve travelled through. Market stalls all have loudspeakers that shout out repetitive messages that probably say things like “Tuuuuur-nips, get your Tuuuuur-nips” or “Shoes, shoes, shoes, I’ve got shoes, shoes, shoes”. Calculators talk, street sweepers play tunes, there’s not been a single day when we haven’t seen or heard fireworks. But the most annoying noise comes from the constant beeping horns. It’s not unusual for us to be beeped at as most drivers in the world seem to enjoy a good blast of the horn. But in China the truck and bus horns are unbelievably  loud and have been tuned to the perfect pitch for maximum irritation. It’s not a good place to get a headache, and if you don’t have one now, you soon will.

11th March – 8th April 2016

The snow has all gone and there’s a hint of sunshine. Shirley escorts us to the outskirts of Yuanling along with two of Mr Tang’s cycling friends before sending us on our way with more food gifts. We’re following the valley of the River Yuan but up ahead are some sizeable mountains so the road soon starts ramping up.

We climb on to a ridge and find a small patch of level ground for a campsite with a fantastic view. The ridge is the first of several that we have to ride up and over before we eventually arrive in the city of Zhangjiajie. Out of the middle of the city a cable car takes passengers to the the top of Tianmen mountain. This cable car ride is notable for being the longest in the world at 7.5km but also passes over the most frustrating road in the world if you’re a cyclist. A squiggle of 99 bends has been carved into the mountain to take buses up to the ‘Heaven’s Gate’, a massive hole in the mountain. To ride this road would be a grimpeur’s dream with challenging gradients, incredible scenery then a high speed sweeping descent. Unfortunately it’s closed to public traffic so no bikes are allowed to climb it which is a travesty to cyclists around the world.

After the cable car station we shuffle out onto a snow covered walkway that has been pinned to the cliffs and runs all the way around the top of the mountain. For some sections the concrete is replaced with glass so we can see right down the 300m drop below our feet. Vertigo sufferers should probably avoid this one.

Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for as after Zhangjiajie city we find ourselves with a mountain that we are allowed to climb. The tunnel we had expected to take is closed and the detour up and over the hill is steep and long. On the other side we arrive through a high sided gorge into Wulingyuan and find the entrance to Zhangjiajie national park.

Like everything else in China, Chinese tourists are noisy. At all tourist sites groups are led round by a guide shouting at them through a loudspeaker hanging from their waist. The guide is barely audible over the dull roar coming from their guests though. Even in a place as enormous and gob smackingly beautiful as Zhangjiajie peace and tranquility is not always easy to find. However, Chinese tourists also like convenience so the park offers many easy ways to avoid having to hike up to the best viewing places. A monorail bristling with selfie sticks ambles along the bottom of a valley to save walking. The world’s largest glass elevator hoists people up to the top of a 300m tower of rock to avoid climbing the 3978 steps. There are bus routes and cable cars linking up the viewing platforms and for the supremely lazy a sedan chair can be hired with two men to carry you along the paths.

What this means is that, with a bit of effort it is possible to get away from the crowds by actually walking. We pick a small path and spend the morning hiking up an incredible staircase with rock pillars jutting up into the sky all around us and barely see another soul. The park is marketed as being the filming site for Avatar and although this is a blatant lie you can see how there are a few similarities with the landscape that the dragons flew around in the film.

We get some warning that we’re near the top as the noise builds again. The bus has dropped the crowds off at a fantastic viewing spot that we’ve worked hard for 2 hours to earn. Then there it is, the final sacrilege on this area of outstanding natural beauty: The golden arches of a McDonald’s sit high on the mountain top. We barely hide our disdain and tut loudly as we purchase 2 McFlurries and quickly move on.

After a day and a half walking round the park we hit the road again. The mountains shrink down to forest covered hills and fields, all worked by hand. It’s noticeable that the average age of the rural population seems quite old. They call the young folk that move to the cities ‘Phoenix men’, looking for a new start away from their hard working parents. They’ll earn much more in a restaurant or factory than they would in a field but it must be leaving a huge gap in the country’s farming workforce.

We’re still drawing in the crowds whenever we stop. At a noodle shack Kirsty has her photo taken holding someone’s baby. There must be hundreds of selfies featuring us on WeChat now (Along with Google and Twitter, Facebook is blocked in China so WeChat is their equivalent). Our ‘magic letter’, which introduces who we are and what we’re doing, has been translated into Chinese and it gets a great reaction whenever we bring it out usually in the form of two thumbs up. One woman liked the letter so much she ran away with it and we never saw her or the letter again.

It’s still tricky to communicate sometimes though. In one village we try to buy some eggs and I unleash my best chicken laying mime to a small group of people outside a shop. They laugh then quietly disperse. Inside the shop Kirsty tries using our picture book which is more successful and she returns with 4 eggs. Meanwhile the group I had performed to have returned and one by one they present a handful of eggs each. We try to turn them down but of course they insist and we end up leaving with 16 eggs in a plastic bag hanging off the back of the bike.

We keep pushing north and after a ferry across the Yangtze arrive in Jingzhou where we have an important task to sort out. Our 30 day visa is coming to an end but we should be able to renew it by visiting a Public Security Bureau (PSB) which can be found in all major towns. From reports by other cyclists this sounds like a straightforward process involving a few forms, some passport photos and a handful of cash. In Jingzhou PSB we meet the duty policeman and he looks unhappy to see us. By chance there’s a girl who speaks good English who tries to help us out but the message she passes on is that they are too busy here and we should go to another town. Charming.

The next big town is Nanyang which is 330km away and our visa runs out in 5 days. If everything goes smoothly we should be able to get there in time to have a day or two to sort everything out but there’s not much contingency!

With a new sense of urgency we continue. As the day begins to draw to a close a van passes us slowly to take a photo before speeding off. Then further down the road we see it parked up and its occupants are waving for us to stop. “Would you like to take part in our bicycle race?” they ask after we’ve pulled over. It’s a tempting offer but the race is in 3 days time and we need to be in Nanyang by then so we have to decline. When they find out we plan to spend the night in our tent a phone call is made and then we’re told a hotel has been booked for us a few km up the road and they’ve already paid for it. Not only that but they want to take us out to dinner to meet the rest of the cycling club they’re all members of. It’s a great evening and we leave stuffed with beef offal, chicken feet, rice wine and with plenty of new friends. This could well be a worthy sister club to The Las Vegas Institute of Sport.

Charging along the road for three days we manage to get to Nanyang just in time to begin getting our visa application sorted out. The process requires us to be registered in a local hotel so we check in to the first one we find. We’ve just plonked our panniers down in our room when the owner knocks and tells us we have to leave again. He’s just found out that he’s not licenced to let foreigners stay but he takes us across the road and helps us check in to somewhere that can take us. It costs twice as much even after haggling but they do chuck in a free breakfast.

Bright and early the next day we ride out to the PSB and hand over our forms but there’s a problem. The hotel didn’t register us with the local police station so we have to go back and sort out more paperwork. This simple task takes most of the rest of the day as no-one at the hotel seems to know how and where to do it. After visiting the police station ourselves along with two of the hotel staff we finally get the pieces of paper we need, jump in a taxi and return to the PSB. But now there’s another problem. We’re told we either need a sponsor based in Nanyang who can vouch for us or prove we have $100 for each day we plan to stay in China. We anticipated this and produce a bank statement showing a healthy balance but they won’t accept it as it’s a UK bank. We point to our visa card and mime an ATM transaction: card in, cash out, but they won’t budge. The language barrier is making the whole situation frustrating for all parties so they call the local English teacher. He explains that what they want us to do is open a Chinese back account and transfer $3000 to cover the 30 days of our visa extension. We laugh thinking this is a joke but they’re all deadly serious. It’s also past closing time so we’re kicked out and told to come back to the morning.

It’s the last day of our visa now so after another complimentary breakfast we head back to the PSB to continue the argument. Various people get involved including the English teacher on the phone but the hours tick by and nothing happens. We keep getting told to “Just open a bank account and transfer the money”. We’re two foreigners spending a few weeks in their country with no fixed address, would a bank really give us a back account? Where would we get the bank card sent? Regardless of that, it would take 3 to 5 days to transfer the money and we have only a few hours left on our visas. Drastic measures are required and we’re getting nowhere here so we run out of the PSB and by 8:30 we’re in Hong Kong 1200km away.

We’d always hoped to be able to visit our friends Jon and Reena in Hong Kong at some stage on this trip but hadn’t expected to only be able to give them a few hours notice. By escaping to their apartment we’ve been stamped out of mainland China and avoided overstaying our visa but it’s cost us a flight to Guangzhou and a train ride into Hong Kong. It’s great to catch up with some familiar faces though and for an evening our visa woes are forgotten.

We have double entry Chinese Visas so can get back into China for another 30 day stay without any problem. However this uses up the second entry that we planned to use for our side trip from Beijing as we’d be leaving China and coming back in again there. The Chinese embassy in Hong Kong is supposed to be one of the more lenient ones but they’re not interested in our request to add another entry to our existing visa or to grant us a new one. “Nothing can be changed” is the stern response from the girl behind the bullet proof glass.

Despondently we book flights back to Nanyang and hop on the metro back to the train station but don’t get far. We’ve come all this way to Hong Kong but have hardly seen any of it! Realising that we’re rushing away for no reason we turn around and send a message to Jon to ask if we can stay another night. He and Reena are great hosts and we have fun looking round the city, proving our mantra that something good always results from something bad.

We finally get back to Nanyang late the following night after our 48 hour city break. We’d left with not much more than the clothes we stood up in so we’re relieved to find our bike and kit are safe and sound in the hotel where we’d abandoned it. We can now pick up where we left off.

We’re in the heart of China’s Central Plain now. A vast, flat region inhabited by 1 billion people making it one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Rice, soya beans and oil seed rape grow in huge fields between the towns and cities making use of the fertile land from the Yellow River.

The wind seems to get stronger as the day progresses and inevitably it blows from the north, right into our faces. One of the many tiny electric trucks are great for drafting behind to make things easier and we’re watched closely by the children riding in the back.

 

Our next destination is Kaifeng where we’ve arranged to meet up with Zhu, a Warm Showers host. After introducing us to his 100 year old mother we take a walk around the ‘ancient’ city. We’ve seen barely any genuine history in China. The few so-called historical sites we’ve been to have been immaculate reconstructions turned into shops and restaurants. Kaifeng is no different. The old streets are decked out in neon lights and there’s not a brick out of place.

In search of something more authentic we’ve decided to embark on a day trip to see one of China’s most famous attractions: the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. Leaving the bike with Zhu we catch an overnight train to Xi’an to take a look at the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle.

1000 of the lifesize soldiers have been carefully pieced together and form an impressive sight, lined up in 3 pits under huge hangar-like buildings. It’s taken 40 years to get this far but there are still another 6000 generals, archers, infantry, horses and chariots lying in pieces behind them, each one with totally unique features. It looks like the archeologists are going to be busy for a while longer.

We opt for a ‘soft sleeper’ ticket for the return trip to Kaifong. It’s three times the price of the ‘hard seat’ carriage that we were in to get to Xi’an but the ability to actually get some sleep makes it well worth the extra cost. Back in Kaifong we meet up with Zhu and his friend Nana who load us up with food and cans of beer then Zhu leads us out into the wind for 20km before waving goodbye. Despite the breeze, the sun is out and warming us up nicely. We’re on the G106 and this road will take us all the way to Beijing.

Although most of the time is spent on the main road, occasionally we can drop onto a parallel minor road to look at life in the villages. Here all the men wear navy blue donkey jackets and mao caps, a timeless look that’s lasted decades. There are piles of rubbish by the roadside and everything needs a lick of paint. In the bigger towns there are teams of people sweeping the streets and tending to the communal parks but there’s no such luxury here in the countryside.

After a few days the wind finally turns round and blows in our favour. With this extra assistance we’re now overtaking the electric vehicles at 30kph. On a particularly gusty day we stop for lunch at a stall under a metal canopy. For dessert Kirsty pops into the next door shop to buy ice cream. Just after she’s returned the wind lifts the canopy, flips it over and brings it crashing down in front of the shop where Kirsty was standing a few seconds before. If she’d spent any longer in the shop she would have been crushed. Who would have guessed that being able to make a split second decision between a cornetto and a choc-ice would be a life saving skill? Luckily no-one else was hurt but everyone was a bit shaken up by what could have happened.

Back on the G106 we’re counting down the kilometres. As another cyclist once wrote “main roads lead to destinations, small roads lead to adventures”. We’re bypassing potential exploits in favour of getting to Beijing in good time. This could be any hard shoulder in the world as there’s not much to distract us from the task in hand. The only reminder that we’re in China being the deafening horns from the passing trucks and buses.

On our last morning before arriving in the capital we’re woken at 6am by hundreds of fireworks being let off not far from our tent. The patch of trees where we’d chosen to spend the night is near some burial mounds and it happens to be the day of the ‘Sweeping The Tombs Festival’. Traditionally people gather to tidy up graves and tombs, lay flowers and let off fireworks as a kind of spring clean for their deceased relatives. We’re just glad we weren’t blown up by a stray fire cracker.

Then we enter the outskirts of Beijing. It’s a massive city that takes most of the day to get into. Where London has one congested ring road in the form of the M25, Beijing is so large it needs 6 concentric expressways running around it.

At the centre of the city we roll up to Tiananmen square where we’re quickly surrounded by a crowd of people who want to take photos of us. There are soldiers everywhere and they don’t like the look of the mob that has formed so wade in and send everyone on their way.

It’s a great moment as we’ve now made it from Bristol to Beijing by bike, covering 30,397km through 39 countries in 600 days. It’s time for a short break we think!

After a free night in the Leo hostel, a favour from the sympathetic fellow cyclist behind reception, we make our way to the home of Ray and Florence, yet more amazing Warm Showers hosts. There are a few days of rest, admin tasks and sight seeing to be done before we leave for our side trip.

We’ve often used races and events as excuses to visit places that we might not have gone to otherwise. As a result we’ve been to amazing towns like Las Vegas, Klagenfurt, Bilbao and Llanwyrtydd Wells to take part in competitions. So when I read that there was a marathon in Pyongyang and that foreigners can take part it was just the excuse we needed to book a trip to North Korea. Through Young Pioneers Tours we’ve booked an 8 day trip to see various places around the country and will be able to take on a half marathon while we’re there. Travelling in  North Korea is very carefully controlled, independent travel without a guide is not allowed and taking the bike would be impossible so we’ll be spending the week on a bus.

Apart from coping with this lack of independence there is an area of even more concern as we’ve now used up both the entries on our Chinese visa. This means we’ll be going in without a confirmed means of getting out again. Not an ideal situation when visiting one of the most controversial countries in the world. This could be a very interesting week.There are  now a few more photos from our entire trip across China in the China gallery.