The second day on my bicycle

One of the things I noticed very quickly is the friendliness of the Chinese people. Of course, it’s a bit weird seeing a group of western people on a bicycle, but once people see you’re traveling through their country they smile and wave. It made me smile the whole 144 kilometer from Pingwangzhen to Xushe J

Every morning we have a riders meeting where Paul highlights the main things for the day, like: ‘no coke stops before lunch’ and ‘lunch stop @ 70 kilometer’. I translated: have a proper breakfast!

There may be no coke stops, but noodles and tea is everywhere. I was riding with John and Mum Yew and we found a little place for a cup of tea. The owner and his wife were so enthusiastic that in the allay we could remove the mud from our legs with a water hose. We did make the restaurant floor all wet but that didn’t seem to bother them.  And of course, we couldn’t refuse the noodles with vegetables. Really great to eat and drink something hot when it’s raining all day. Mun Yew speaks Mandarin and John (in picture) some, and I learned my first two words! Nǐ hǎo and Xièxiè.

Slowly, very slowly, we left the Shanghai area and moved into more rural landscape. Still it was a grey day, with a lot of factories I passed by. It seems that since we’ve started, there hasn’t been any wild life. All the land is assimilated by humans. There were a few small birds, some fish in captivity in restaurants, a few wild cats and dogs, and that’s it.  The Chinese are building enormous factory and office complexes, and complete new cities are build. It seems that they just build a dozen or so 40 stories flats, just in case people might want to life there tomorrow. Where I live, we make sure that we’ve made money out of the first flats so we can fund the remaining construction work. Here, everything comes at once. I wonder how fast these flats will be occupied.

A very important moment of the day is dinner! After 144 kilometer plus a detour due to road construction, everyone is hungry. Lucky for us, Paul and Ingrid found the best restaurant in town! And we all got a huge smile on our face when we saw the table full of delicious food. I don’t know what I’ve been eaten, but it tastes more than great:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so, day 2 comes to an end! Happy people all day! Especially me, when I close my eyes and fall to sleep.