Xi'an to Luo Yang, 17-23 July

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Thursday 17 July - Xi’an

Lots of people have arrived for the Xi’an-Pekin part of the journey. Some of them are cyclists, including a large contingent of teenagers, and some are wives and girlfriends of the Paris-Pekin group who will be travelling by coach and doing tourist things. We feel a bit overwhelmed, after being an isolated community for four months across so many countries.
On Thursday I woke up late and dashed down to breakfast - a very good buffet - and was in time to get the tour bus at 8.30. Before going down I sent a load of washing to the hotel laundry: I phoned down and the girl arrived to collect it in about two minutes!
We went first to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, which is set in lovely gardens where a lot of local people were doing their morning tai chi exercises. There were several nice shops and a display of wood carvings which were very interesting.
Then they bussed us off to a jade factory - the usual sort of thing for tourist bus tours - where we wasted a lot of time amid expensive ugly things made of jade in various colours. One or two people bought small items. There was, however, a little coffee shop and I got a good espresso, such a rarity in China.
Then we went out of the city to the site of the burial of the emperor Shihuangdi (more commonly referred to as Qin, founder of the Qin dynasty) who unified the warring states of China, set up a centralised system of government, built the Great Wall and instituted a system of irrigation which is still in use. Pretty impressive for someone who died at 50! There is a big burial mound, not yet explored, and of course the buried army of terracotta soldiers and horses. There is a huge tourist complex surrounding the site of the buried army and we had lunch in a restaurant there before visiting the buildings covering the excavations.
The buried army is truly impressive, but we learnt lots of things we didn’t know about it. Most of the figures were broken and have been (and still are being) painstakingly reconstructed. The figures were originally painted, but on exposure to the air the paint crumbled away. For this reason digging has been suspended till they find a way to preserve the paint, and digging at the burial mound is not being done. Eventually the archaeologists expect to find three more armies - one at each point of the compass round the burial site. Apparently the emperor originally wanted the real soldiers buried alive, but this would have left the area undefended so the terracotta figures were made. The slaves who constructed the underground chambers were probably all buried alive.
We arrived back at the hotel for a “gala” dinner - no better than usual except there was some free wine and beer - and then got on buses again for a traditional welcoming ceremony at the South Gate of the ramparts. Xi’an has several kilometers of ramparts (restored, of course), which you can walk or cycle round. The ceremony was supposed to be similar to that for merchants arriving at Xi’an, the end of the Silk Road. It was quite impressive, our leaders were presented with the key of the city and a freedom pass, and there were dancing girls and heralds and soldiers who led us in through the gate. The costumes were beautiful. Inside there was the usual drum band and dancers,
We got back quite late, but after I got back to my room the laundry was delivered. It was all pressed and hung on hangers, wrapped in plastic - I was impressed.

Friday 18 July - Xi’an

I got a wake-up phone call at 6.30 am, I think it was meant for the Xi’an-Pekin group who leave today. Other people got called too. Breakfast was more leisurely today, I had the egg chef make me an omelette. I sent some more stuff to the laundry and wrote some postcards.
Took a taxi to the main Post Office with two of the French guys and got their stuff parcelled up and sent off to France. Then I walked round the big main street - lovely shops - and looked for a foreign bookstore I had been told was there, but without success. Had lunch at a Pizza Hut in a shopping mall. Pizza and iced coffee made a nice change - and a knife and fork! I didn’t find a supermarket either.
It was a long walk back. Had a rest then asked the girl on Reception if there was a big supermarket, and she directed me to one not far away. It was a bit of a walk, but well worth it, I even got cheese. The others had gone out to a dinner and show but I had a picnic in my room and did some computer time. The second lot of laundry arrived back, what a good hotel.

Saturday 19 July - Xi’an to Weinan, 76 km

A group of 100 Chinese cyclists have joined us for the Xi’an to Beijing part of the journey. They have nice cycling kit with the route printed in the tops; some people have already exchanged tops with them, but apparently there will be a further opportunity to exchange in Beijing. We didn’t see the group a great deal today as they cycled ahead of us.
It was a fairly dull day’s cycling, mostly in built-up areas and with a lot of traffic. We had a nice buffet lunch on arrval, the hotel is good. I got an Ethernet cable and spent the afternoon with the computer. A break for dinner, then back to it. The blog is nearly up to date a last.
Sunday 20 July - Weinan to Tong Guan, 85 km
Not an interesting day’s cycling; mostly built-up areas till lunchtime. Quite hilly, especially in the afternoon. Picnic lunch in a car park. The scenery was nice in the afternoon, terraces and fractured land with trees and a lot of caves. It was very hot and humid, the sun only got through a bit in the afternoon.
The hotel is pretty poor - it took us half an hour to get some towels, and hen they were damp. A big puddle on the bathroom floor, no door on the shower. This is a small town that doesn’t have a lot to see. I found some bananas and yoghurt and left it at that.

Monday 21 July - Tong Guan to Ruicheng, 62 km with 750m uphill

There were a few drops of rain as we went across the hotel garden to the restaurant for breakfast, then by the time we set off it was raining hard. The hotel had a very nice garden for a small place - a pond with a bridge and fountains, and a little teahouse.
My Rohan waterproof jacket seems to have given up and I was wet all day. The fairly cheap trousers worked better. We arrived about noon at the first of our three hotels: I am in the second, and after a very poor lunch they transferred us there by bus with our luggage. The hotel is better than the main one, though it is small it is clean and is in the centre of town whereas the first is on the outskirts. The rain continued all day.
In the afternoon there was a visit by bus to the Yong Le Temple, one of the three most important Taoist temples in China. It was quite interesting, there is a whole complex of temples which were moved in 1959 because the original site was to be flooded by a dam. There were colourful statues of Lao-Tse and his disciples, and 14th-century frescoes showing scenes of daily life which were interesting.
Back at the hotel had a beer and then went out with Pierre-Marie to look round. Found a big supermarket and I bought some useful things. Pierre-Marie found some nice Chinese shirts to take home as gifts in a little shop. When we got back (still raining) everyone had gone off to dinner by bus, so we went to a restaurant. The menu was in Chinese and no-one spoke English, so we pointed to a few items at random and waited to see what turned up. It wasn’t bad - we had pickled cabbage, sweetcorn in a sweet sauce, tofu (excellent), prawns with turnips, and a huge fish which Pierre-Marie couldn’t finish. Rice arrived last. With two beers the whole meal came to 106 yuan - 5 euros each. Walked back in the rain and washed my muddy feet before going to bed.

Tuesday 22 July - Ruicheng to Xanmenxia, 95 km with 1025m uphill

A very nice day. Still cool and grey, but no further rain. The countryside was very beautiful and we passed through several villages where, as usual, we were greeted with enthusiasm. Lunch was in a little village at three separate small restaurants. There were noodles with vegetables and egg, very nice.
There were a lot of hills today, but none too difficult. There were some patches of bad road through villages. The landscape was the same fractured hills with terraces and many caves. These are mostly man-made, there are quite a lot of cave houses and stores. Many of the houses are now abandoned. Towards the end of the ride we circled a huge valley of the Yellow River, the first place in China that we have seen big fields.
We were met by some local cyclists who guided us into town. The hotel is quite good. There were hosepipes and I cleaned my filthy bike (after days of mud and rain) and got some new brake blocks put on and the gears adjusted by Claude.

Wednesday 23 July - Xianmenxia to Luo Yang, 129 km with 900m uphill

There was one bad patch of road with mud - spoilt my clean bike - but otherwise it was not bad. There was a big climb in the morning and I found I could not use my 3 lowest gears. I managed to find Gil - the expert on gears - and he adjusted them for me and improved matters considerably. A good thing, as it was hilly all day again. The weather again was cool and cloudy, with a little sun late morning,.
After 20 km we were in continuously built-up areas. The pollution was very bad, and as this is a coal-mining area there was a lot of coal dust. By the end of the day we all looked like chimney-sweeps. There were several coal-burning power stations. Lunch, again, was in little cafes, very nice noodles and vegetables.
Today we should have been doing 90 km to Wang Shan, but the route was changed so that we would have better accommodation. We are in a 4-star hotel which is pretty good. We certainly needed the good showers and to wash out our blackened clothes. There is an Ethernet connection so I have been able to use the internet. After dinner I went out to a local big supermarket that Claudia had located, and got the usual drinks and yoghurt and fruit. I also found some “XO” Chinese brandy, which I shared round with some people back at the hotel, and we agreed it was quite drinkable. A lot of it disappeared.

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