Cycling to Gdog’s – One Last Time In Shenzhen
Having spent Christmas and the New Year with my brother in Vietnam, I flew back to Hong Kong and crossed into Shenzhen to be reunited with my bicycle for my final visit to China. I had a week before flying to Australia, so made the most of my time in Shenzhen (pronounced Shen-jen). Originally, I thought little of Shenzhen (it has a similar population to London) but now regard it as one of my favourite places in China and definitely somewhere I could see myself living. It represents the best in modern, fast-paced Chinese development while still retaining some heart and Chinese culture.
Cycling to Gdog’s – China Completed
Cycling to Gdog’s – China (Part 5 – Yangshuo to Kunming)
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
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)
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.