Visit to Angkor in 2007 [View Full Entry]

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The ride up to Mutianyu section of the great wall is a mild 5-10% grade (except for the last 500 metres, which is a bit steeper). It is a constant pattern of climbs and short flat runs over a distance of about 20 km from Houairou. The road is wide, with good, clear shoulders and it is (mercifully) free of traffic; then again, this is the "low" season. With legs burning, we arrive at the bottom of the great wall. I feel like I have hit the wall in more ways than one. The ride up is definitely worth it. We [View Full Entry]

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The route to Juyongguan (Juyong Pass) and Badaling starts at the Changping Circle. Take the western exit from the circle to follow the Badaling Expressway. Follow the Badaling Expressway about 4 km (2.5 miles) past a new theme park (was being built in ctober 2008). Shortly pat this point, turn left under the Badaling Expressway and then turn right tohead North West towards Nankou. You are on the S216. At times (it seemed) the road was marked G110? Ride through Nankou, straight across the first roundabout that you come to, and then under the train line. Look for a sweeping turn [View Full Entry]

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Today's intended route was through the hills behind Changping. With a poor tyre, we opted for the less researched, lowland route. We(OK - I) end up taking a route too far South. We take the Sunsha Highway (S321) through Xiangtanshan. At a large roundabout at Xiangtanshan turn left (North) to Xingshou. This is marked the ANSI Highway. Continue to a T-Intersection that is actually just west of Xiangshou. Turn right and follow the road marked Beishecou and Huairou. This will join the road I should have taken in the first place! The lowland road that I had intended to take seems [View Full Entry]

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Cycling from Beijing to Changping follows the Badaling expressway. The outer road has bike lanes in both directions. While it looks like the expressway itself also has a bicycle lane, I have never seen a bicycle on it. I don't think it is possible to get a bicycle on to the expressway; this will cause us a couple of problems over the next few days. Things get chaotic on this road around the Shahe Railway Station. Watch for opening car doors. Karen finds out the hard way. The route to Changping is marked to the Changping Urban Area. The turnoff from [View Full Entry]

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This is a document of Deryk and Karen's experiences travelling North of Beijing by bicycle over a period of 5 days in Late October and early November 2008. The Gear we took: Map International Travel Maps BEIJING China1:20,000 City Map 1:100,000 Region Map was accurate and more than adequate for the task: Karen's Bike - a Bianchi Camaleonte II [url=http://www.azzurribikes.com/product_03.php?mid_class=A001&small [View Full Entry]

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An uneventful ride back to Beijing. After the hills, punctures and disorientation of the past four days, the ride back to Beijing is 60 km of uneventful bliss. The first part of the trip is familiar and a retrace of our route from two days earlier. The last part is new, but a direct ride into Beijing. Most of today’s journey is on dedicated bicycle paths, that only feature the occasional donkey cart, motorcycle and eighty seater bus, oh and lots of corn...... We have encountered a lot of obstacles in five days. We have had to navigate around all manners [View Full Entry]

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Another uphill ride and a climb up the wall. With a new tyre and a good night’s sleep, yesterday's problems are forgotten. After a breakfast - which is a most ridiculous fiasco that defies written description (look for a guest blog from Karen on this) things look even better. In the light of day, we find our way to the Goose N Duck Ranch. We are the only residents in this huge facility . It is two days into the "low" season. This is a bit the same as the "high" season. The rates are the same, but there are no [View Full Entry]

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In which we get lost ........... (no really!) China is really, really big. We are tootling around such a small part of it. There is really no excuse for losing our way, but you see it's like this ....... After a day of uphill riding and climbing the great wall, it is time to depart Changping for Houairou. I still have a dicky front tyre on the bike from yesterday's debacle. I try my best to repair the tyre, including internal patching, glue and prayer. It seems hopeless. A search for a bike shop is futile. We meet a local English [View Full Entry]

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Our first encounter with China's Great Wall, and a thousand steps to pain ...... Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla all made serious studies of gravity. I curse them. If we understood less about this phenomena of attraction between mass bodies, then perhaps we would not be so affected by it. Weight, science tells us, is determined by the acceleration of objects under the influence of the Earth at its surface. This acceleration is generally accepted as a standard average constant of 9.81 metres per second per second. There are numerous theories that state that this const [View Full Entry]

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