50 km Biking Adventure

When I heard that my electricity was going to be off on Thursday morning, I knew that I wanted to be out of my apartment. My friend, Jaye, invited me over to their place to hang out this week, and I eagerly suggested Thursday. Jaye had heard about a biking trail in her area of Guangzhou that some people had done. We loaded up our backpacks with water, I lathered myself in sunscreen, and we took a Didi to the start of the trail where we could rent bikes. (Starting location in 增(zēng)城(chéng)区(qū)，广(guǎng)州(zhōu)市(shì)，绿(lǜ)道(dào)西(xī)堤(dī)驿(yì)站(zhàn))

When our Didi driver pulled up to the deserted bike shop, he took it upon himself to inform us that there was nothing interesting here. What in the world were we doing coming to this random location? I didn’t feel like it was any of his business what we were doing, but the deserted bike shop did seem to be a problem, and I hoped that his prediction was not accurate. All of the bikes that we could see were old and broken down. Some had flat tires, most didn’t look like they had been ridden in years and were covered in dust. I didn’t have high hopes. Our car drove off, and we wandered around the perimeter of the outdoor shop, calling for someone to help us. Finally, we saw a sign with a phone number on it. Jaye called it and the guy said he would be over in a moment.

A man walked across the street from the house on the other side of the road and unlocked the gate, assuring the dogs who had been eyeing us suspiciously that we were not enemies. He let us into the inner area with bikes covered by an awning rather than just a tarp, and I breathed a sigh of relief—these bikes were ridable. We chose two, paid a deposit and road off into the sunset. Just kidding, it was around 9:45 a.m. and we actually road off into a rain storm. We road along the river for several minutes until we ran into some construction, but thankfully we found our way around it without any problems. We ended up on a high road looking out over the river without a tree or any other shelter when it started to rain. At first it was just a few sprinkles, but it quickly turned into a full shower. I had an umbrella, so I used that and pressed forward, hoping to find shelter. I didn’t. Jaye decided to pull out her cheap plastic rain coat that she had brought along. Thankfully, after just a few minutes, the shower slowed and then stopped, and we enjoyed some wonderful, cool weather.

We continued riding along the river, sometimes riding through trees that reminded me of the Indian Creek Trail back home in Kansas. I had grown up riding along that trail, and I have lots of fond memories of biking there and stopping to wade in the creek that it followed. Here in Zengcheng, we had a full-blown river rather than just a creek, so we didn’t do any wading. We did see a few people with orange flotation devices marking their progress as they swam across the river. Sometimes, the variety of trees would disappear and only bamboo would be left. The tall, thin poles would rise up on either side of the path with leaves branching out at the top, making me feel like I was in a Chinese painting.

The path next to the river disappeared, and the map also seemed to indicate that we would need to follow the road for a while. Neither of us wanted to, so as we looked for water at a convenience store, we also looked for ways to keep staying close to the river. We found water, and we also found another path by the river! However, after a kilometer or so, the path came to a dead end in a village. Buildings crowded around small streets, and when I checked the map, I realized that we would need to head back more or less the way that we’d come and meet up with the road again.
After following the road for just a little while, it got smaller, until it also turned into a lovely view. My map showed that there was going to be an uphill section, and I was a little nervous. I don’t like big hills. We’d had some smaller hills, but since the map hadn’t mentioned anything, I assumed the coming hill would be a monster. I barely noticed when we arrived, though, because it was just a gradual incline. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The road continued until we were in the middle of rice paddies and fish farms with mountains off in the distance. I really enjoyed this part of the ride. If the sun had been beating down on us, it would have been tough, but we had lovely cloud cover but no rain at the moment, and it was beautiful. In addition to rice paddies and fish farms, we also passed a banana orchard and a papaya tree.

For the next section of the ride, we were back on a road. It was a lovely road, and there weren’t too many cars, but the real struggle came when it started to rain. This time it was really pouring, and it didn’t let up as quickly as the last one had. Even though the road was lined with trees, there wasn’t really a good place to stop and find shelter. Jaye offered me her other raincoat, and I put it on. At least my backpack with my phone inside would stay somewhat dry. My shorts and shoes were already soaked. We finally came to a road high above us that crossed over our road and offered some protection from the rain. We joined a couple of other motorcycle guys who had also stopped there for shelter. We stood beside our bikes, watching the rain pouring down in waterfalls from the road above us.

I love waterfalls, but I started to wonder what makes them so special. What makes water falling down a mountain so wonderful? It’s just water! I could argue with myself that I also love sunsets, but it’s just the sun. Perhaps it’s the combination of all of the nature around the thing, appreciating the beauty of what God made is what makes it so beautiful. And even these waterfalls off the road above us were beautiful—especially because the road offered some protection from those buckets of rain!

Once it stopped raining as heavily, we set off again toward our destination—a touristy area called 正(zhèng)果(guǒ) that Jaye and I had visited last year around the same time. We still had about 30 minutes to go, and since it was around 1 p.m., we were both tired and hungry. Jaye suggested that we turn around and go back, but since we’d come so far, I wanted to reach the destination (we’d been riding for around 3 hours at this point). Plus, I was pretty sure that if we made a circle, the way back would be shorter than the roundabout way that we had to come to get here. So, we pressed forward.

We’d been riding for a bit longer when Jaye saw a sign advertising 竹(zhú)筒(tǒng)饭(fàn), a kind of rice dish that is served in a long section of a bamboo tree. The one we ordered was as long as Jaye’s arm! We got some unusual stares as we walked into the restaurant full of people. My shoes were squishing water, and my clothes and raincoat were dripping. The waitress directed us to a table off to the side. We pulled the dripping raincoats over our heads, creating puddles of water at our feet. I avoided the fan, but Jaye pointed the fan at her so she would hopefully dry.
When the food finally came, we realized that the dishes were pretty big, even though we only ordered two. But a morning of bike riding had given us hearty appetites, and we ate everything! And it was delicious! In addition to the rice, we ordered a vegetable dish that had mushrooms, eggplant, and green beans.

Jaye again suggested that we turn back, but when I checked the map, I saw that we were only five minutes away, so she agreed to finish the journey to 正(zhèng)果(guǒ). From that place to go back on the other side of the river was only an hour and a half, so I was glad we had kept going!
正(zhèng)果(guǒ)was similar to what I remembered. The buildings were pretty new, but they were designed in the old Chinese style, giving the whole area a fun feeling. Many of the walls had murals of people cooking or leaning out of painted windows in the style of what life would have been like in the 20th century. One set of murals had a hand holding a stick that seemed to be holding up or poking the sun. Behind the hand were some mountains. I have no idea what the mural meant, but it seemed significant. Perhaps it was some kind of Buddhist mural.

Lots of shops in the area sold snacks—we tried some fish skin at one, and I enjoyed it. I was surprised that many shops had a large selection of soy sauce. I think it was a local specialty. There were also lots of dried snacks and tea available. Jaye bought a coffee, and I got 双(shuāng)皮(pí)奶(nǎi)which is kind of a milky tofu dessert. Unfortunately, a mosquito committed suicide in it while I was eating. Since it was a thick dessert and I got him out fast, I kept eating the rest of it, though, haha.

After finishing my snack and Jaye’s drink, we rode through the village on the way to the road to head back. Most of the way back was along a bigger road again, although we did find several places where we could ride on beautiful bike paths along the river and through the trees. Sometimes, a sign pointed toward a path that didn’t exist, and we found out from some people walking on a path that ended in a dead end that there had been some floods recently that destroyed much of that path. A lot of construction equipment seemed to be in the process of repairing the path, so hopefully the next time I go, the ride will be even nicer!

We branched toward the river on one path that had not been destroyed even though my map directed me to stick close to the road. That section was my favorite part of the return journey, and I’m glad we went!

The last section was through the city, and the roads weren’t quite as nice. We rode past one scenic area, and Jaye said that it was a movie town area that she had wanted to visit before. We decided to ride around and see what we could see. It seemed a little deserted, but some of the buildings were pretty. We didn’t get out and walk around inside because we were both a bit tired, and since it was pretty deserted, I wasn’t sure it could be that interesting.

We crossed a bridge, navigated our way through some traffic, and then we were back at our starting point at just before 5:30p.m. When Jaye called the owner of the bike shop, he directed us to just leave the bikes near the entrance, so we did and he returned our deposit. While we waited for our car that was stuck in the traffic that we had just passed, another family came along. While they waited for the owner to come, we suggested they try out the bikes we were returning. We later heard the man give him the same price that he had given us (30 kuai) even though there was now much less of the day available to them. I was satisfied with our 30 kuai ride that covered about 50 km and lasted about 7 and a half hours.