Quand je parlais de difficulte sur la route dans mon dernier message, il etait aussi question d'adaptation au pays. Lourde tache lorsqu'on est fatigue du voyage, la Chine aurait peut-etre du etre le pays departure because it takes a lot of energy to understand, understand in the broadest sense. Language, writing, the Chinese life. Recognize a grocery store and internet cafe to a restaurant to a shop when you are on any road. The doors are vertical strips of plastic or you do not see inside from the road. And when you do not know the signs ... We know now recognize Binguan (hotel). It is also adapting to food. You can not do entirely ... this is not the same feeling we had for Turkey or other countries or even Latin America ... We can not be passionate about the dirty-sugar-spice, chicken pasta or gizzard vacuum snack ... It sometimes falls over very good food, more and more over time anyway, but say you never know what to expect when it relies on the image of the menu or what the next person eats. And not necessarily by the smell that we can be attracted. It was also the difficulty of finding what we wanted in the grocery stores. In short, this stage has passed. We now live fully in the Chinese culture, but not integrated course.
All the senses in action, yes!
Smell: On the road, you are in contact with the exhaust gases of any type of vehicle. In tourist areas, it may be incense in Taoist and Buddhist temples. In towns and villages, perhaps the food at the market the food kitchens in the streets, restaurants, sewers, stagnant green water of small rivers, the dirty water flowing into the Chinese street, garbage cans, and the urine! Urine, I'm in diapers!
Sight: A great brand ecological involuntary. Children do not layer! Imagine the number of layers saved for those billions of Chinese. With the opening to the West, we find Pampers and Huggies. Good for us (and yes still ...), but I hope the Chinese will not only taste! How do they do? We are jealous because children are specific to 18 months. They wear clothes with seam between the legs open. So, when the mood takes them, hop anywhere in the street, they are ready to act! If the restaurant or on the bus, parents glide fabric under the buttocks. The hearing
: Of course, understanding the language. I always have trouble recognizing the repetition of questions. In other countries, I guess eventually the questions over time. Here, I can not recognize the sounds. The only question that I understand and we are asked every time is the first in the age of Oceanne. And I can answer 3 years in Chinese! We should also probably ask his name, or you come from, etc. ... I answer randomly Canada, I speak french, it just goes to Beijing and Xi'an, we (now Lanzhou). It does not say it goes further, because to speak of the west (Xinjiang Province) is not necessarily a good thing. Moreover, it was so big now they do not understand and it is not good enough to be clear in Chinese! It thus gives a step at a time. Hearing, inevitably, it is really unbearable horns on the road. Rare are the times where we hear the birds or the sound of wind in the trees. The Chinese do not really run fast on the roads (even the national), max 80km / h I would say, but they honk for everything and anything. Just to prevent that they arrive, asking to grow even if you're not on their way to prevent someone who crosses even very far ahead, and anything time. And there are varying degrees of volume and variety of sounds ... It's something we really happen!
Taste: Basically the food of course. That may be the one that made the least evolved ... a bit conservative for that! The taste of sand and dust as we receive on the road. The first week of cycling in Beijing was hard leaving for that: it was the time of the explosion of pollen from beech trees, combined with dust and sand, I was having trouble breathing, feeling of all a sudden asthma. Allergies have passed and I'm used to the sand crunching under the teeth.
Touch: "Baby Picture" by grabbing the arm of Oceanne to take her picture. It a classic! We do not pinch it's cheek as in Turkey, but it touches her hair and it takes her by the arm to install it in front of the mobile phone - camera that has any Chinese. Even the farmer working in his field of wheat is one and laughing at us who do not have!
Besides the 5 senses, we learned from our first pass at the hotel we could not sleep or we wanted. Always register with the police and in hotels, they are the ones who care. Some hotels do not have the abilites to do, "not good enough for foreigners." The first time was at Baoding. We found a hotel first. She says yes, we removed all our bags, organizers our bicycles, everything goes upstairs. And Finally, she tells us (via a translator on the computer) that the police does not want the rest. Or are asked. She sends us into the 3 star hotel in town! No choice for our first experience. The night is a 180 Y (18 Euros) then we could have had a 90Y. OK ... Second experiment has Shijiazhuang. We tell ourselves this time we go directly into a grand hotel. The first, on the outskirts of the city, called International Leisure Hotel. We tell ourselves it's for us! Well no! Not a word of English at the reception and they send us more in another city. The second does not want us and sends us into the city center. The 3rd accepts. It is here that says he need a "certification". And they say does not register not every time we sleep in tents. For each hotel, we asked where we come and we will. It always refers to the last place we stayed in a hotel! Finally, the third city Xingtai. A Chinese sent us in a cheap hotel. Super! We accept it without the usual registration. Weird ... Also in this town that we try a first time to renew our visa. We go to the office of the Public Safety and we are asked or sleeping. We request the name of our hotel. Oops, you have no right! The officer wants to be part of and gives us another hotel. We can not, we are leaving our wash and start again the next morning. The police phone at the hotel (we always hoped he would not a problem because of us ...) and can stay. So he himself made the recording. Whew. Since then, whenever we stay in a hotel is always a room for around 150-200 Y. And the breakfast is included. And sometimes there is a computer in the room. For cons, the breakfast is really Chinese food that I blocked! It's also a meal consisting of the other 2, it's a hot meal buffet. I can eat small steamed buns filled with mashed black beans, but that's about all ...
I spoke earlier of horns, but the Chinese do it with great calm! You watch them drive and they do not get upset! With us, when we honk, except to say hello, is that we are frustrated. Not here. I sometimes saw the Chinese quarrel (in town), but very rarely. By cons, campaigning, probably because of all these sounds on the road, they talk very loudly! So when we talk and we do not understand, they talk louder and it seems to be arguing! Yet this is not the case! The Chinese are always very cheerful (or at least hide their bad mood).
They are also very curious. It takes 20 seconds for someone to approach us when there Oceanne visible, and if not, by the sight of bikes, it takes a minute! It is therefore very quickly surrounded by about twenty people when we prepared our bikes in front of the hotel or when purchased in 4 liters of water in the store and they are transferred into our bottles. It is often around 16h, snack time. Oceanne then attracts the children and play with them during this time. The same thing when we stop to camp at the bottom of a field of wheat, the shade of trees. There will always be a Chinese somewhere to come and see us install. Sitting crouched (very flexible same age a Chinese!), We look until supper is ready and we leave alone eat. From this, I can link to their top form. Everywhere there was the old outdoor fitness equipment / gym / stretches that most people 50 years or more uses. The older people are often in elderly 10-20 years more than what they seem.
It is true that in the countryside, they work hard. Wheat is grown in the north and rice in the south. That's why the meals are more than a noodle or rice we pass by. So now the harvest time (or even nearly complete). We saw the work manually, first by digging the earth, harvesting wheat (they use harvesters but not for all plots of land) and then transporting it has drawn carts on arm's length (or on 3-wheeled motorized), and beating. Now, wheat dry everywhere, on every available space as the shoulders of all roads. Work is mechanized by location, but for most, many of them are working together manually in the fields.
It was surprised at the difference between the city of Beijing and other cities. First, we did not expect to find as many cities on our route. Our journey was to end in Xi'an, the coup was a large map of the entire China for the Beijing-Lanzhou section, and all cities are not included. It was first rolled on a national highway (G107), and sometimes we had a city (up to 1-2 million) every 30 kms. Difficult for us in these cases to find places to camp. There are just people everywhere. Beijing is a clean city, quiet, green expanse in area, not too crowded in the streets. Elsewhere on bike paths, it's like the Tour de l'Ile de Montreal permanently. And despite all this world, the traffic is in the quiet even if everyone is required in front of everyone. Front of stores, there's music blaring. In grocery stores, it is committed with their microphone touting their products and therefore speak over their neighbors. Customers themselves have absolutely not seem to be bothered by the hubbub. Us, we attacked and we're trying to get out as quickly as possible ... We had not lived it in Beijing.
To return to the road, we were very happy to fall for a section on a provincial highway (vs. national) between Xinxiang and Gongyi. We crossed the orchards of apricots, peaches, nectarines. Tastings on the road. And no traffic, no horn, no trucks, no vehicle has three wheels without muffler exhaust! Lots of bikes including one evening a group of 20 children following us a bike and wanting to perfect their English. So, we had to continue until they join their village and they camped beyond the home to prevent them follow us all in our camp. We try all the same to be discreet ... A
Gongyi, we have tasted our first ratings. Since Beijing, it was only in the middle of flat fields of wheat. Excellent for us reshape our long break and to get used to the heat. This being so, we embarked on another national highway (G310). We first had a sequence of coal mines. Dust on the road became black and so are we! Then, a line of trucks stopped on a highway for 30 kms. I promise 30 kms! So the rest of the traffic on this road was on a single track! Cars and buses in opposite direction depace trucks on our way. On a winding road, mountain circulation could not be done in 2 directions. The road was even ended up being blocked. A truck wanting to depace another failed completely blocking the road. We're really dodging all this. We've had it for 2 half days. We jamai Why was the explanation of these trucks were all arrested. Then after that, until Xi'an, it was a traffic or cars and trucks drive very fast, we never had this before in China. Really respect for cyclists (there is so little on the hilly roads). The black cars with tinted windows have full priority.
We have also been surprised by Xi'an city yet to flat topography, which has absolutely no bike, and even very little electric bike or scooter. Nothing to do with the other large cities, nor with Beijing. There are plenty of cars, lots of congestion, the main avenues are just storefronts to the west, airconditioned loud with doors wide open. That's 4 days that we are here and we go after tomorrow. 5 days off for having the energy to climb up to 2000m in Lanzhou 35C ... A Hua Shan, we were surprised to have so hot at the top of the mountain as above. We know what awaits us. During those five days, we visited the city. The Muslim quarter or live Chinese Hui gave us an idea of what lies ahead for the rest of our trip. We visited the Great Mosque as well as 2 smaller ones that we found in the streets. The architecture has nothing to do with that of Turkey. It's very Chinese style such as Buddhist temples or thaoistes. This trip is very interesting for the way in which we are in contact with all religions (except Judaism). Oceanne remembers the Protestant and Catholic churches. She knows that in the Orthodox churches, people kiss icons. She knows that in the mosques, the women put a scarf, people kneel down, and there is a call to prayer "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest). She knows that in Buddhist temples, people kneel and pray before a statue of Buddha and are burning incense.
In Xi'an, we also went to work on fortifications renovated, reconstructed, which encircle the entire city. Nothing spectacular, the city is very modern. There are a few hutongs, most Rebuilt, tourist shops. We drove around the steps. We went to a park for children. Oceanne was alone! The Chinese have recently had 3 days off for Dragon Boat Festival. Unfortunately, there was no dragon boat because it takes a body of water. This place has more in eastern China. For cons, the streets of Xi'an were crowded. We were at the park yesterday, the holiday was over. It is often returned to the hotel in the afternoon after a nap in the cool. At this temperature, we walk slowly and not doing a little bit at a time ... Today, we went as it should, visit the Army buried. At least 6,000 soldiers buried terra cotta to accompany the First emperor of China, 2000 years ago, toward the heavenly way. This archaeological site, 2.5 km from the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin, was discovered in 1974 and it continues to unearth them soldiers. What is impressive about this is that it dates back over 2000 years, 210 BC! still surprising the Chinese.
My message ends. I send you another message with 5 other pictures. If this bothers some, tell me more.
Happy holidays and / or been good to you, Dorothee
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