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Published: December 11th 2006
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Beer & Fireworks - Deadly!
The Chinese bought us a big box of beer and a big box of fireworks to our mountain camp spot deep in the bamboo forest. And then filmed the results for state TV! Day 193, 10th December
Pingyang - Luiyang (10 miles north of)
Maybe the rain will never stop on this trip - I don’t know? When we set off on our bikes at 11am, a Chinese camera crew began to follow us - in the rain. But this rain seemed special because it lent a certain magic to the surrounding hills. Unable to dry out our tents and our gear in the cold hotel room, we were now cycling in damp gear which was pretty uncomfortable.
Later in the day we did the usual café stop at around 5pm before deciding to climb the big hill in front of us, it would be getting dark soon. Then as we began to climb, one of those most surreal moments happened. A TV crew from Liuyang had heard that we were on the road heading for their city and had been waiting on the hill for us for two hours. They filmed Stephane going up the hill from their car window, asking him questions on the way. It was totally surreal. We had a job finding a place to camp, it was getting dark. We found a small track leading off
Up in the hills.
What a surreal situation - middle of nowhere and being interviewed. one of the hairpin bends and followed it to a very narrow clearing where we could camp. The TV crew managed to drive up to where we were, their headlights were a great help in the dark, and they filmed everything. Eventually, they ran out of videotape and had to go to town to get more. “Is there anything you want us to bring you back”? they said. I shouted “BEER”! and Rory yelled “FIREWORKS”!
We didn’t really expect them to come back, but they did, with a case of beer and a huge box of assorted fireworks. Now, it’s not a sensible thing to mix beer and fireworks - but it was great fun. The following scenes over the next hour can only be described as “Total War”! It was like a Vietnam movie! We had yard-long sticks that shot out 30 flares, whiz-bangs, explosives… The bamboo forest lit up with a riot of colours, good job it had been raining. Any pandas nearby are a hundred miles away by now! There were hundreds of explosions, it was Firework Heaven! During all this, we were filmed for Chinese state TV - Oh my God! After the anarchy was
Clean Up
The morning after - cleaning up after the mess we'd made! over and we were sufficiently drunk, the camera crew collected all the spent fireworks up and beer bottle, put them in the boxes, and left us in peace to crash out.
Total Miles: 9287.52 Todays Miles: 52.12 Average speed: 10.8 Time on bike: 4:49
Day 194, 11th December
Near Luiyang - Luiyang
It rained all night and morning. Our stuff was all damp and the place was stinking of sulphur - our clothes smelled like rotten eggs too. Miraculously, not one of the six tents had been burnt by the fireworks last night. We tidied up what the crew missed last night, and headed off at nine. It was a 2 mile climb to the top of the cloudy pass, and then a terrific downhill which considerably wore down my brakes. We did a village luchstop then headed into Liuyang with its crazy little yellow mini-bus taxis.
As we entered town we saw a big factory called “Santa Pyrotechnics” with a statue of Santa outside of it holding a bunch of fireworks - we were entering Firework Mecca! The hub of all firework making in China, perhaps the world. If we don’t get
Liuyang
The town of Liuyang - Firework capital of the world. our hands blown off here, then, we never will!
Negotiating town, a momentary lapse of sense took me and I ran into a parked car that was pulling into the street, an accident that could have been avoided in hindsight. Nevertheless, I came clean off my bike, wrecked my front rack and buckled my wheel slightly. I’d also fell into the path of an oncoming bus on the road, and had to get up before it hit me. I was angry! So I smacked the car drivers front wing with my hand denting it. There was a rapid exchange of angry words then the police arrived, and then a doctor who spoke English, he sorted things out ‘amicably’. I managed to get my rack sorted a bit a the shop where the accident took place. The police went, and then the secret police turned up and wanted to see all of our passports and visas. For some strange reason we felt a strange feeling to just leave and head out of town - things felt shitty. We rode off leaving the secret police not knowing what to do…
Just on the outskirts, Scott’s derailieur collapsed and shattered leaving
No Peace
The local TV crews had a right to film as they were paying for our room for the night. him with no gears. We remembered that the TV crew from last night had give us a card and said that if we wanted to stay in Liuyang, that they’d find us some accommodation. We now wanted to stay in Liuyang so we rang LYTV and they arranged to meet us in a café. They were exited that we were going to stay another night and escorted us to the local Army Hotel and paid for us to stay on condition of an interview later.
It was surreal as we had Communist soldiers helping us upstairs with our gear into one of the best and warmest hotels we’d stayed in yet. It was 3pm, the guys went to goggle at the computer screens while I dried out my stuff and had the most relaxing soak in the en-suite bath.
At 8pm our hosts met us in the hotel lobby and we were driven off for the real McCoy Chinese tea-house experience in a proper tes-house somewhere in the back streets of town. We had our own private room and a tea-master performing the ritual ceremony on an elaborately carved table resembling a Buddhist mountain-scene type of thing. Everything was done perfectly and meticulously. The teas were amazing, making your tongue tingle, and some giving you a real high feeling. It was real connoisseur stuff, however, the evening ending with our usual ritual slaughter of a case of Chinese beer back at the hotel.
Total Miles: 9303.34 Todays Miles: 15.82 Average speed: 9.4 Time on bike: 1:40
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JayGuan
non-member comment
Communist ....
Hey Guys, How did that communist beer taste like?