Deryk
Deryk Anderson Joined: October 26th 2008
Logged in: December 18th 2011
Logged in: December 18th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
The View from the Top
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 et a glimpse of the road through to Bohai and beyond. It looks much thr same as what we have ridden on. It is a pity that we did not have another day to explore ... read more
Road S216
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 right. This will take you back towards the Badaling Expressway. The road, has been rising slightly for some time, now starts a gradual (no more than 5-10% grade) into the mountain area. The climb is ... read more
The Road to Huairou
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 unnamed, but it follows an aquaduct that is on the South side of the road (This is clearly visible on Google Earth). This road is narrow all the way along. There are no shoulders, and ... read more
Changping Circle
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 the Badaling Expressway into Changping is (very) approximately 30 kilometres (18.6 Miles) from the 4th Ring Road. You can turn right at the Olympic Cycling Velodrome (Laoshan), or keep going straight on past until you ... read more
Perils of the Road
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 Deryk's Bike - an Azzuri Opal Enough stuff four four days crammed into a MTX TrunkBag Karen carries a backpack but says she would have preferred a TrunkBag to lower her centre of gravity. The Gear we didn'... read more
Food and Travel
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 of transportation device and vehicle. Today a most unusual obstacle appears. The entire corn harvest for Northern China has been piled into our bike lane. It is drying in the sun. In various stages of ... read more
Hitting the Wall
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 guests, no hot water, no towels and you have to make your own bed. Many hotels turn off their hot water in the "low" season. It seems to the locals like a perfectly rational action. ... read more
Which Way?
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 teacher who assures us that bike shops selling bikes like ours are plentiful, and that they all have many splendid tyres that would satisfy our requirements. He breaks down under closer interrogation, and is unable ... read more
The Gravity of the Situation
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 constant varies at different points on the earth. Anderson's theory says that this constant doubles whenever I get near a hill on a bicycle! I had to ride uphill today. Karen and I had planned to ride to the ... read more
