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Current Location: Nanjing, China
“Monsieur, do not wake a sleeping lion? (Napoleon, on seeing China’s potential)

“What is ideology? It is a kind of spirit to make sluggish people industrious and intelligent people even more capable. The spirit should be started from inside the court and then spread all over the country to as far as the remotest corner of the empire? (The Final Imperial Examination Paper of Number One Student, Confucian Examination Hall, Nanjing)

Boat from Korea to China; cycling down to Nanjing

Rob Lilwall
2007-12-01 14:42:31

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is moving marginally faster than you are... the only flaw with my attempts to do this so far in China is the headwind... when I finally managed to build up enough speed to grab something I found myself fighting to hold the bike steady. Suddenly the wind blasts my bike sideways and - like a speeded up video clip - I shoot headlong into the ditch. This is not the only time I have felt like the cycling version of Mr Bean recently. For example, the day I discarded my old boots and proudly put on my new SPD shoes. These are the shoes with the cunning metal bit on the bottom which actually locks into the pedal - meaning you can pull it up as well as push it down. To unlock your foot, simply twist your ankle sideways... very snazzy, and efficient too. With new found elegance, I come over the brow of a hill looking sweaty and athletic... I glide smoothly up to an intrigued throng of Chinese onlookers... and then slowly, heroically, draw to a halt... and - to their slight bewilderment - throw myself sideways down to the ground (the bike crashing on top of me) unable to get my feet out of the pedals.

At the beginning of April my parents arrived in China for a few weeks holiday, so - call me a wimp - I stopped where I was, dumped the bike with some friends and had a holiday with them. Seeing the tourist sights of China with a tour group is fun - the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace, the Terracota Warriors, Panda bears and the semi-submerged Three Gorges... I increasingly realise that tourist sites only interest me in so far as I understand more of the story behind them. Such as finding out that the 7000 Terracota guys were actually meant to help the tyrannical first emperor (Quin - pronounced Chin) in his afterlife, with thousands of slaves also slaughtered during his burial to help him a bit more. The other chap who seems rather reluctant to leave his earthly power behind is Chairman Mao. I waited in line in the Beijing wind in Tiananmen square, along with thousands of others, in order to file past his preserved corpse. The faithful propogandised can buy flowers on the way in to leave before his statue. These flowers are periodically picked up and resold to the people queing outside. Now if that is not capitalist initiative I don't know what is... and all in homage to a dead communist hero !?

After a good break, it was time to say goodbye to my parents again. I felt grateful for the chance to catch up with them as ability to adapt to and enjoy the slightly unpredictable and bumpy nature of travel in China - obviously their own adventurous spirits are still alive and well. In a way, seeing them made it all the harder to get going again. But quality time with family is something not to be received lightly, and if offered, I think the opportunity should always be taken, however difficult it may be to say goodbye.

So I am back on the bike and pedalling south through more blooming cities. Of course, China's economic boom is not the whole story... I am spinning through the growth zones and will soon reach the mother of expanding cities - Shanghai. After that, it will be time to hit the backroads to Hong Kong, on which (I am told) lies a different side to China - where many people do not have the luxury of hunting for meaning - they just want to survive.

As always, many, many thanks for your emails, prayers and kind donations to help the heroic efforts of Viva Network and their smart-hard work with orphans, street children and exploited children.