Blackened

Blackened is the end
Winter it will send
Throwing all you see
Into obscurity

Well, perhaps not that bad, but things have been absolutely filthy on my way here, incredible levels of pollution, all those cheap “Made in China” things have a price, even if you don’t pay it upfront. Thick smog for days, you can barely see the chimneys and cooling towers through it. Valleys shrouded in smoke, just the flare of the tower in the distance…if only I could post photos here.

But in a perverse way, I’ve actually been enjoying it. Not sure I could keep doing it forever, but it’s an unusual sort of challenge. The roads have generally been OK, but for the last 100km, it’s just been a mudbath. This delayed me a bit, and it took me 4.5 days to get here, rather than the 4 I had hoped for. I was so filthy when I got here, that the hostel staff hosed down my bike, my panniers and me.

I’m now in Pingyao, a city that somehow escaped the bulldozers, and is something like what I expect much of China must have looked like – a walled city, with narrow streets, traditional architecture, really quite nice. Hopefully the tour groups are only here for the day, and it should quieten down tonight. I was only going to stop here one night, but I think I’ll take the day off tomorrow, have a rest. Then race up to Beijing, hopefully find somewhere that will have the rugby on. Local times will be shocking though, unclear if I can find somewhere that will be open.

Had a couple of students on bikes escort me the first 20km out of Xi’an the other day, quite nice since the road was a mess, and navigation was a touch tricky. Not sure what it is, if it’s me (filthy face and all), or the new province, but people seem to be treating me differently now. Far, far, more pointing and shouts of “Laowai” – can get a bit frustrating when you just want to sit and have a quiet moment of rest, eat a chocolate bar or whatever. Cars following me for 15km, cyclists riding along with me, seemingly not too bothered by my inability to understand them.

So a rest here, then the plan is to race to Beijing, hopefully find somewhere to watch the rugby. Current thinking is that I may get a flight to HK, to sort out my visa, and watch the RWC final there. Will see what happens – must do something about my visa though, current extension expires in two weeks.