Robert Beal

Cycling to Gdog’s – China (Part 5 – Yangshuo to Kunming)

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Robert Beal

Having visited Yangshuo before it was nice to be back. It allowed me to visit familiar sites including the Showbiz hostel with it’s awesome roof bar. Many a morning was spent up there drinking coffee, and many a night, drinking beer for 50p a pint, something I was able to re-live. I enjoyed the surrounding area, so using Yangshuo as a base, would cycle off for one day and return the next. One long day south-west to Luizhou (145km) and back the next, and then another south-east to Hezhou (120km) and back. I spent a few days cycling around the closer Yangshuo area (there are dozens of cycle paths) along the numerous cycle routes before deciding it was time to move on.

Flying From China With A Bicycle

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Robert Beal

While on my trip to Australia, I was lucky enough to be able to base myself in Shenzhen (Shekou to be exact, on the mainland near Hong Kong). Having cycled from Shanghai to Kunming (skipping a few bits in the east) I took a bus back to Yangshuo, and then from Yangshuo back to Shenzhen. My original plans were to fly from Kunming to Calcutta, but while crossing China my brother invited me to spend Christmas with him in Hanoi. I accepted his offer but it meant I wouldn’t have enough time to fit India in before Christmas. Instead I decided to reverse my schedule and go to Thailand/Malaysia first, then go to Vietnam for Christmas, then fly to India before finally ending up in Australia.

Cycling to Gdog’s – China (Part 4 – Guigang to Yangshuo)

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Robert Beal

Given the torrid time I had cycling along the coast of eastern China, I decided it was best to skip cycling through the Guangzhou area. Guangzhou has a population of nearly 13 million and is also surrounded by a number of prefecture cities, including Foshan, Dongguan and Shenzhen. The area contains around 34 million people (3x the population of London) and is heavily built up. From reading around it represents one of the worst cycling experiences possible. By skipping it I would miss out on around 200km of cycling which I could easily make up in Guanxi and Yunnan.

Cycling to Gdog’s – China (Part 3 – Village Life)

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Robert Beal

Empty sleeper bus

I decided to take a break from the bike having cycled part of eastern China, given how poor an experience it had been. I was still staying at Jingwen’s apartment in Shenzhen. A few days after I had arrived she was heading off to her home village for her mother and grandmother’s birthdays and had kindly invited me to join her. I gratefully accepted as the opportunity to immerse one’s self in local surroundings and life is often a rare one. We booked a sleeper bus from Shenzhen to Guigang, a city near her home village (at a cost of 200 yuan each). The bus left at 1900 from Futian bus station in Shenzhen. It was a typical Chinese sleeper bus, in that I was too wide for the bed (my shoulders had to rest on the frame rather than go between it) and fractionally too long to sleep straight. So it meant sleeping on my side with my hip digging into the thin cushion with my legs sprawled out in the aisle.

Cycling to Gdog’s – China (Part 2 – Fuzhou to Shenzhen)

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Robert Beal

My first day of cycling from Fuzhou to Putian was the worst cycling of the trip so far. Fuzhou was a busy city (7 million people) and to the south (the direction I was cycling) it was surrounded by industry. It took me 35km to leave the city, houses, factories etc… and get out onto the open road. It didn’t last long though as 10km further on I reached the town of Jingyang. This became a common theme and the countryside I had expected to see was hidden behind a concrete jungle of factories, mines, offices, and houses. After 40km I pulled over and for the first time on the trip so far, wanted to quit and go home. It was tempting to return to Fuzhou and take a train back to Shanghai and fly home from there.