Great Rides: China's Silt Road

D E T A I L S WHERE: South-west China START/FINISH: Hong Kong to Kunming DISTANCE: 2,180km PICTURES: Steve Livingston & Getty Images CHINA | GREAT RIDES Great rides Pam near Xingpu, happy to be on a well- CHINA’S surfaced road SILT ROAD Muddy roadworks made Steve and Pam Livingston’s 2,000km journey across south-west China a challenge but didn’t diminish the scenery or their reception Do it yourself V I S I T I N G he ferry from Hong Kong docked at followed the Xi River, the second largest in CHINA Gaoming on the mainland at 9pm. China. Ships on it showed its importance as You need a visa for mainland We – Ken, Ros, Pam, and I – were a transport artery and reminded me of the China. We were able to T obtain ones valid for three met by serious men in military uniforms. Rhine. While the road was dual carriageway We were nervous, having heard of Chinese on this section, it was relatively quiet and we months. On application, you will be required to produce an officialdom. Our passports were scrutinised, made good speed. itinerary, so we booked five our panniers and bikes put through security We took a break at the city of Wuzhou, hotels on our route, which scanners. We wondered how we would find which has the largest collection of snakes was acceptable. We cancelled our hotel, booked in advance in accordance in the world. It’s not a zoo but a farm: the or rearranged these as we travelled. Chinese hotels with the visa arrangement, in this strange snakes are bred for eating. Walking round the are generally good quality city in the dark. Then we were shown market there, we saw not only live snakes and very cheap – usually another side of China, one we were to meet in nets for sale, but also toads, terrapins, about £10-20 for a double again and again. turtles and other unusual food animals. room. They always have An official beckoned a taxi driver waiting From Wuzhou, we cycled north over the internet. If you are cycling independently, it is essential near the entrance, and told him to lead us southern reaches of the Nan Ling mountains, to be able to recognise the there. We following the taxi, tagging along climbing gradually through bamboo forest. Chinese characters for ‘hotel’ like ducklings, as he guided us along the We crossed the watershed, cruised downhill, – they often don’t look like nighttime streets, beneath unreadable and suddenly saw huge pillars of limestone hotels from the outside! If you get stuck, there will be Chinese signs. At the hotel, the helpfulness clad in green, except for grey cliffs that were always someone who will put continued. Bicycles shouldn’t be outside, the too steep for trees to cling to. Surely this was themselves out to help you. receptionist gestured; bring them in and lock the inspiration for scenes from the hit movie them up in the lobby. Avatar? The pinnacles became straighter and taller as we rode through them, until they TOWERS OF LIMESTONE surrounded us in every direction – a massive We had planned a trip of two months, cycling collection of extraordinary summits like giant unsupported from Hong Kong to Kunming. shark teeth. We would take the National Highway G321 We stopped off in Yangshuo and spent a almost all the way. For the first few days it few days there, cycling round on day outings THE PINNACLES SURROUNDED US IN EVERY DIRECTION – A MASSIVE COLLECTION OF SUMMITS LIKE GIANT SHARK TEETH CYCLINGUK.ORG CYCLE 51 CHINA | GREAT RIDES Above: Small temple in Xingping, North Guangxi Above right: Street scene in Pu’an Below left: One of the more passable stretches of muddy road… Below right: Spectacular karst landscape between Yangshuo and Guilin to ogle at the quintessentially Chinese difference between them and regular Han works around us was mixed in and the sloppy landscape of limestone towers. We saw other Chinese folk was most apparent in the mess had the consistency of wet cement. Westerners for the first and only time until women. The Dong women stood out in their Pedalling on the flat was like climbing a Kunming. The we continued to Guilin, climbing brightly coloured, everyday ethnic clothing. steep hill. Eventually, the sludge became high on a road overlooking the amazing karst so deep that we had to get off and push. scenery. STUCK IN THE MUD Our wheels were jammed with filth, and From Guilin, we headed north then west, Ken and Ros left us here, continuing by chains and gears were covered with lumps of joining another big river, the Duliu Jiang. public transport to visit other parts of cement-like gunge. This flows between the steep mountains China. We said our farewells, not only to I knew that no one would speak English of Guizhou Province and offers the easiest them but also, it turned out, the tarmac. but we had to find out if it was possible way west. A new motorway follows the same The authorities had decided that the G321 to get through. With a flash of inspiration, valley, generally on stilts, but that was not an needed improving. We spent several days I remembered the little notebook in my option for us. Yet the G321 follows the Duliu coping with large roadworks, then met our handlebar bag. The Chinese don’t use our almost to its source. match on the morning we left Rongjiang. letters but they do use the same numbers, We were away from tourist area now, There had been heavy rain during the and we had seen ‘km’ being used on road and the culture changed too. This area night and we were riding on a base of mud. signs. I pushed my bike up to a workman is inhabited by the Dong people, and the To make it worse, limestone dust from the and pointed at the sludge and wrote down: 10km? 20km? He wrote 80km. It was hopeless, but the G321 was the only way THERE HAD BEEN HEAVY RAIN OVERNIGHT through. Nothing for it but to flag down a lorry. AND WE WERE RIDING ON A BASE OF MUD The first wagon to pass was an empty low- CYCLINGUK.ORG CYCLE 53 GREAT RIDES | CHINA Clockwise Fact file from above: A rocky approach to CHINA’S SILT Pu’an. Day ride near Yangshuo. ROAD Bikes on lorry DISTANCE: 2,180 km in six weeks. ROUTE: We took a ferry for five hours from Hong Kong to Gaoming. From loader. The driver looked down at us in the mounted a small motor bike and set off. there we cycled on the G321 to mud with our filthy bikes and immediately Fortunately, the road went downhill, for about Guilin, then Guiyang. From here we grasped the situation. Moments later, we 2,000 feet, so we kept up with him, all the used the G320 to Kunming. had them strapped behind the cab. His way down to a small town in the valley. He CONDITIONS: We travelled from early wagon had four-wheel drive and could cope stopped outside a frugal-looking building. February to early April. The weather with the awful conditions. He dropped us off Odd looking hotel, I thought, as I followed was unusually warm initially, then cold and wet. Road surfaces varied when the surface was firm again, though still him in. There was a doctor behind a desk, from excellent tarmac on finished unsurfaced. I’d lost a lot of paint from my talking to a younger man in a white coat. I sections to appalling mud on sections bike’s top tube where it had rubbed on the was beckoned in and offered a chair. The where the road had been removed lorry as it lurched along, but otherwise the doctor listened to our guide, then turned to prior to rebuilding. (It should be bikes were rideable. The driver wouldn’t take me with the interested look reserved for a complete now.) any money for his trouble. new patient. BIKES: Holdsworth Mistral (1978), We had to become accustomed to It was bizarre. I pulled out my paper Surly Disc Trucker (2016) conditions like that on the road. The again and showed it. The doctor took it MAPS: Nelles China South mudguards came off, otherwise the wheels and scanned it up and down. He spoke no 1:1,750,00. Print-outs of Google Maps. became jammed. Fortunately, after the lorry English but understanding dawned, and he incident, these conditions lasted for less started to laugh and spoke to our guide, I’M GLAD I HAD… A Garmin Oregon GPS, though the marker was always than ten kilometres at a time, so we were who looked sheepish. He gestured that we skewed about 500m NW. Chinese able to push through. followed him, and got into his car. We rode roads in cities are generally well behind, through the busy market street, signed in both Chinese characters LOST IN TRANSLATION until he stopped at a house and spoke to and Pidgin. We could usually identify We generally found a hotel in every town the owner. We were taken to a bedroom and a main road on the screen and work out our route through the town from along our way. One afternoon, however, we we realised, as the doctor left, that we had there. were in a mountainous area and our best accommodation. NEXT TIME I WOULD… Download a guess from the GPS was that the nearest The situation resolved itself later when I simple version of Google Translate town was about 40km away, with big climbs looked at the help sheet again.

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