Just a short note to say that I have arrived in the epitome of capitalism, in the most capitalistic country on Earth – yes, that’s right, I’m in Shanghai, and the end of the G312 highway, that I first started following at the Kazakhstan border.
I enjoyed Nanjing, but unfortunately the one thing I specifically wanted to see there, the Memorial to the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, was closed due to construction. So I jumped back on the bike, and rolled on towards Shanghai. There was a mix of riding along the way, some boring industrial corridors, but then some lovely riding along the Grand Canal. Watching the barges cruising up and down reminded me of Germany. Except a lot dirtier of course. Suzhou was nice enough, but all get a bit artificial now. A real highlight was finding two places selling Erdinger Weissbier – both helles and dunkel, and one had bottles, the other a tap! Not cheap, but the 50RMB (about 5 euros) was worth it for my first wheat beer since Austria.
I have said before that China continues to amaze me every day, and today was no exception. I was wandering around the Yuyuan area, which was overly touristic, and had had enough of it. So I headed off down a side street, and came across someone setting fire to a rubbish bin. A flag went up, a whistle was blown, and someone came sprinting down the street with a fire extinguisher, put the fire out, and ran back. A couple of minutes later the process was repeated. There was some sort of drill going on, and staff were being timed in how quickly they could respond to a fire. Ah, China.
And for today’s Chinglish quiz, I’d like some guesses as to what this means: “Point profess your excellency seat.” Answers on the back of a postcard please.
5 replies on “The Epitome of Capitalism”
Nice ass?
ok, my first try was pretty lame! State your job?
Nic
OK, I’ve been a bit unfair – context is everything, after all. It was seen on the emergency escape plan, on the back of a hotel door, underneath the floorplan. Make sense now?
Say did you pass thru Jiangyin, roughly in the middle between Nanjing and Shanghai? I’m an US expat working there. I was surprised how fast your progressed, given last time I read your blog 2 weeks ago you were in Qingdao. Would have loved to meet you. Also do you have any tips for the route Shanghai-Nanjing? I have ridden parts of G312 but find smoke/dust/noise due to the all the trucks quite morale sapping. Know any good detours off the main road?
No, I went a little bit south of Jiangyin, more or less following the 312.
I had followed the 312 for thousands of kilometres, so I wanted to stay on that more or less. The last 50km or so weren’t much fun, but the rest of it wasn’t too much worse than some of the other parts of China I’ve been in – and it was a lot better than the ride from Fuzhou to Xiamen.
I did find some nice parts off the 312, following the Grand Canal, from Changzhou east. Still busy, but not so much in the way of trucks, and nice to see the canal in use.
I’ve been on a bit of a big push south, to get to the warmer weather – it’s paying off now, as it is quite pleasant here, much better than what I’m seeing on the forecasts for Beijing!