Going to Chengdu

Chinese kids
The people everywhere along this voyage are interested in us and the big motorcycles. Many approach us, often in little towns and gas stops. Others are more shy and stand away smiling, often taking pictures with their phones. Yesterday our friend Alain Gabriel ( a retired exec from France/Switzerland) snapped this shot of a Tibetan kid sitting on the back of her Mom’s motorbike while we were fueling. Most people in Tibetan China still wear traditional garb, herd yaks or sheep, live in tents or huts, and carry iPhones. 15th century meets 21st century.
We have already travelled through uncounted geographic regions and sub-cultures, from Europe, through Russia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Mongolia, and China’s varied territories – the theme is always the same. While the scenery and sights are fantastic, the motorcycle riding is the best we have ever experienced anywhere, yet contact with the people, especially kids, is the most rewarding part of travel. (by LeeAnn Fick)

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Needed a little fix on one bike in the middle of nowhere China tonight. The mother of the kids standing told me to pick a kid and take him/her home 😳. Then another mom handed me the 7 month old to hold out of nowhere. They all invited me into their home for a family dinner. I had to decline. My american GI tract can’t handle it. (by Mike Meyer)
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The Chinese baby whisperer…Almost every time we stop in a small little town I get people coming up and asking me to take pics with their babies. The kids don’t know what to think of me. I wouldn’t either if I were them. (by Mike Meyer)
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Getting to experience a little Tibetan culture first hand. They are completely untouched by any aspect of western culture. So amazing. This was my little buddy I met at the lunch stop today. Made me think of my nephew who is the same age. (by Mike Meyer)
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Descent from the clouds

Yesterday we descended from 13,000 feet on the Tibetan Plateau to 1600 feet in Chengdu (home to most of the pandas in the world). To do that we followed the raging Minjiang River for more than three hours through steep canyons and gorges. It was breathtaking.

I have ridden such roads before, but never for such a long stretch. If you have ridden the train up the mountain to Machu Picchu, you know the kind of river and road I’m talking about. The road also passed through many, many long tunnels. Since we were on the small, rural national road, the tunnels were not lighted. For older folks like me with age related sight loss (difficulty driving at night, blinded by bright lights from oncoming traffic, etc.) this made it almost impossible to see. It was terrifying! Fortunately, our “sweep rider” and EMT, Mike Meyer, had my back, as he so often does. Knowing that I was riding blind, he pulled close behind me and turned his lights up full blast. This helped get me through the tunnels. Many thanks, buddy!

Once we were in the outskirts of Chengdu, we were back to reality. Smog and impossible traffic. The fourth largest city in China, 12 million people are competing for a vehicle spot on the pavement. This led us to our latest potential international incident.

Recall our rider who was bitten by a dog at a gas station. Fortunately, he had been vaccinated against rabies in the U.S., but the bite required him to get two booster shots, which are only available in big cities. He was developing flu-like symptoms (which could also be from many things besides rabies), but we were hauling ass all day to get him to a hospital ASAP! Once we hit big traffic (imagine NYC in rush hour) we we bobbing and weaving to keep moving. This led us into a bus only lane. When we saw the policeman in our path, we tried to escape, but to no avail. He got on his walkie-talkie, and before you could say “Oh Shit!” the multi-lane overpass had been shut down and an angry looking policeman walked down the long line of stopped cars to us.
He demanded that we all surrender our driver’s licenses to him. Then more and more officers arrived, each with more stars and stripes on his uniform. You can see four in the photo. (by Randy McClanahan)

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There were more, however. Many locals were enjoying the spectacle, with photograph taking galore. After perhaps a half-hour of much waving and shouting, we were allowed to take our friend to the hospital, where he received what he needed and will be fine.

Our fearless leader, John Jesson, and our beautiful and competent Chinese liason, Yingchu, were required to “be interviewed” at the police station. Of course, being a lawyer, I feared the worst! In China there is no presumption of innocence. After relentless Chinese water torture, I knew that they would have to give us up, we would all go to Chinese prison and have our bikes impounded. Just as I was about to call the White House to locate and plead for mercy with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is currently visiting the U.S., I learned that all was well. The interview resulted in no charges, high fives, many happy photographs and the return of our licenses. As John said, “God I love China!” (by Randy McClanahan)

Sometimes while traveling one gets to experience a little more of the local culture than anticipated! Today we accidentally ended up on the wrong highway where motorcycles are not permitted. The local police stopped all the traffic on an inner city freeway to stop us! It started off with 7 officers removing the bike keys which they returned to us but they did take all our licenses away (note firmly gripped in my left hand) we were allowed to take the group to the hotel but Yingchu and I had to go to the traffic department for an interview! Lots of laughs and photographs later we were given all the groups licenses back and wished a wonderful and safe trip further….! I love China! (by John Jesson)

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Today is a rest day. I’m in search of a liquor store to replenish my stock of drinkable western whisky (a necessity after any day of riding a motorcycle in China), after which I plan to have a hard workout in the hotel fitness center, go in search of a traditional Chinese bath house, and attend the Sichuan Opera tonight! Me too John, I love China too! (by Randy McClanahan)

Rest day in Chengdu. Pandas

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He was totally digging the head scratch. (by Mike Meyer)
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That one time I got to pet a baby Panda. Such a neat experience. (by Mike Meyer)
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A Night at the Opera
The Sichuanese opera originated here in around 1700. It developed into five historic melodic styles, which flourished up to the cultural revolution, when they almost died out. Since 1978, however, with the Chinese economic reform, they have flourished again. The five forms are combined into a single show, involving a play theme, singing, dancing, comedy, sword hiding, puppeteering, acrobatics, and outlandish costuming. The “band” contains a gong and several forms of drums. We first caught some of the performers doing their thing in one of many food courts across the street before the show.

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The part of town reminded me of Broadway. Of course, when the show ended it was raining and we had to walk several blocks to fight for a taxi. Just like Broadway!
It is now 5:40 a.m. Alex rejoined us last night. Ida had surgery in Jakarta is is recovering at home. Our ten bikes will hit the road around 8:00 and fight our way out of this charming town of 12 million people.
By the way, I really liked Chengdu. I would love to return to this city in the future.

Janis contemplating his duck dinner….

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A Bamboo Sea
We are in Zhuhai, Changning County, China, 271 miles south of Chengdu, finally headed toward Hong Kong. It took a couple of hours to get out of Chengdu, but it is such a cool town, it was worth the effort! If you are in China and can get there, I recommend that you visit. It is my favorite city in China, after several visits here.
We are now in southern China, and can feel the heat and humidity. Today’s ride was a slog, through many small and large towns, with lots of road construction. The landscape is now totally green, with rice paddies. We are clearly out of ranch land (livestock) and in farm country. It looks like rice and corn are the mainstay crops here.
We crossed the Yangtze River, which I personally thought was very cool. It flows almost 4000 miles and empties into the sea at Shanghai. I feel like I have accomplished something now having ridden a motorcycle over both the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.
We have now entered bamboo country. The roads are lined with them. In fact, we rode through a “bamboo tunnel” for almost ten miles to reach our hotel, the Eden Resort near the “bamboo Sea.” Looks like a good place for a honeymoon, but we are only here for one night. Hope I get to try the hot springs!
I must say, however, that as we passed some carts hauling bamboo, I noticed the sharp ends where the stalks had been cut, and was reminded on the bamboo traps set by the Viet Cong during that war. Nasty stuff! (by Randy McClanahan)

Renhui, in the Yanjinhe River Scenic Area
Would you prefer mud or oil, sir?
Today was a very challenging day of riding. Although we only traveled 170 miles, it took all day. We are in the center of China, hundreds of miles from any real city. Add to that our inability to use the main roads, and we are seeing the heart of rural southern China. I keyed our hotel into my Garmin GPS and received “unable to calculate” messages all day. In fact, my GPS device failed to recognize any of the “roads” we were on all day. Kudos to our guide, Yingchu, for figuring out how to get us here.
We are in Renhui, in the Yanjinhe River Scenic Area. We have been in the tropical mountains all day. And to make everything lush and green, it rained all day. We rode up and down mountains all day. Probably over a thousand switchbacks, many of them under construction. It reminded me of Appalachia. If we were lucky, we only had mud to deal with. If we’re were unlucky, we had oil, which they add to the roads at places, undoubtedly to make it more dangerous for American motorcyclists! It was first, second and third hears all day. Didn’t need the other three!
We observed a mega freeway construction project underway. They are going directly over and through the mountains, with mammoth bridges (we’re talking hundreds of feet high) and tunnels everywhere. I’d like to know how many billions of dollars are being spent, but you would love to have the construction contracts!

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A highlight of the day was a random stop in one of the dozens of villages we passed through. There was the usual crowd of Chinese curiosity seekers, but one young girl captivated my attention. She was twelve years old and was carrying an English schoolbook. She is the one sitting on my motorcycle. After getting to know us all, and being our translator with the locals, she gave us all hugs goodby and there were tears galore.
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While in that village I had a wonderful bowl of noodles, veggies and “beef” (?). I got to see up close the inside of one of the thousands of Chinese storefront shops/homes. Each is roughly the size of a U.S. one-car garage. The lions’ share of the space is dedicated to the business. In her case, it was a cooking area, and several tables and chairs for customers. The only additional rooms were a bedroom (for the whole family) and a bathroom (potty with shower). It seemed to be all she needed. There are thousands of these little shops in every village. They are for day to day life. Tourists do not come here!
Finally, this part of China is famous for Baijai, the Chinese alcoholic beverage similar to saki. It is very strong, 40-60% alcohol by volume, distilled from grain. It is served in tiny shot glasses, perhaps 1/3 the size of a tequila shot. Everybody fills their glass, a toast is made, and it is bottoms up. No sipping allowed. Then there is another, and another, and . . . You get the picture. Maybe that’s what all the corn on the road is for!
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Sometimes the best part of waking up in the morning is looking outside your hotel and being blown away by where you are…(by John Jesson)
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I absolutely love China. It is such an incredibly diverse, unique country with truly wonderful people, stunning scenery and strong beliefs in ancient culture. In some ways China is cutting edge and somewhat futuristic, on the other hand, it is stuck in its ways of centuries ago….. Travelling through China is a very challenging adventure, the pay off’s however, are worth every second of it all! (by John Jesson)
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I’m sitting there staring at the beautiful landscape contemplating my In-N-Out order when I get home.(by Mike Meyer)
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