EcoLog14 - To Market to Market

Day 7 – To Market to Market and Over the Bridges – 25 June 08 (15km walk)

A very quiet start to the day with time to catch up on emails etc. We left for our walk at 2.30pm having negotiated a fare of 40Yuan with the latest friendly taxi driver. He delivered us to the spot at the end of the bridge that the bus had dropped us off in the middle of, so we re-traced our steps across this first bridge. There are a series of five bridges forming floodgates or canal locks all dividing a large lake and wetland area. The journey across the bridges was noisy and dusty. The bridges were pretty potholed and there was no foot path. We just shared the side of the road with the various motorised vehicles crossing.

The bridges were linking islands. The road surface on these islands disintegrated into seriously pot holed thoroughfares. It was quite unpleasant walking in the dust swept up by the vehicles whose drivers continued to honk loudly for reasons only known to them. Sometimes to encourage other vehicles out of the way, other times to let us know that they were there…right beside us! Having said that, there were a lot of trucks (most carrying coal) that didn’t honk so the horn honking could have been a lot worse!

Just before the final bridge which was actually over a canal lock, we came across a colourful market. This consisted of a row of trucks with colourful umbrellas selling caged live ducks, geese and pheasants. There were also buckets of live fish, eels, and turtles for sale along with many different varieties of eggs, either in their shells or buried in mud.

We also saw on two separate occasions small trucks passing with live dogs caged together in three tiers of cages. It was quite obvious where these poor guys were off to!!!

It was a relief to get off this road and wander alongside the bank of another canal. Great to have the peace and tranquillity of the countryside once again! We soon came to a deviation in the track where a family had a cotton-bleaching enterprise underway. The smell of the chemicals they were using was very strong and they were certainly not keen on any photos being snapped of their operation. Also came across a Chicken farm in this area. At first we couldn’t work out what the stench was and then we spied the hens in their pens!

The vehicle track became a small path meandering along the ever diminishing embankment whose sides were being constantly eroded by the farmers alongside the canal taking the soil. One wonders what would happen if the canal system flooded…serious loss of housing as the farm houses funnily enough were very close to the eroded banks. We came to a bridge and crossed to the other side of the canal as the path seemed more travelled on that side…until that is, we came to a perpendicular canal that we could not cross. Detoured down this a few hundred metres and low and behold came to a railway line that we could use to cross over the side waterways. We followed the railway for a bit and then went back to following the canal which was slowly dwindling to a small creek. After a while the track ran out and we found ourselves walking literally through the planted crops. Finally made it to a commune where once again we were instant celebrities. Konomi managed to negotiate a 15Yuan ride in a tuk tuk like vehicle (three wheel motorbike with a box for passengers on the back) down to the junction of the road straight back to the bridges so that we could negotiate a taxi or bus ride back to Peixian.

We arrived here at about 7.30pm right in the middle of dinner time for the locals. The road junction was crowded with trucks, bikes, cycles and outdoor “restaurants” in the middle of the road and of course people, people and more people. Merrin and I provided the decoy so that Paul, Yuji and Konomi could try to find someone to negotiate a fare with. They finally found someone who was willing to drive us across 4 of the bridges for 50Yuan. He drove us to the shop where had ended yesterday’s walk and here we convinced one of the family members to drive us back to Peixian for a further 50Yuan.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog13 - The 30 Second Bus Ride

Day 6 – The 30 Second Bus Ride - 24 June 08 (15km walk)

Good start to the morning with the hotel buffet breakfast and the discovery that they have an espresso machine – yum very good coffee! We then asked at reception for the location of a pharmacy to buy some plasters for the blisters that we were both coping with. One of the “Pront Desk” ladies (yes that is the spelling on the sign at reception) offered to guide us. Firstly a slight miscommunication had us in the local doctor’s surgery. Finally got the message through and off we walked to the local pharmacy. Merrin bought the required goods while Lou wandered around looking at the Western and Chinese medicines on display and snapping off a couple of pictures. A lady holding a child was buying a range of Chinese medicines. Lou took a photo and then went to say hi to the kid at which point all hell broke loose! One screaming child…obviously found it all too much having this blond blue eyed monster leering at it! Time to make a hasty retreat much to the amusement of the locals in the pharmacy (including to mother of the child)!

We decided on a later start to the walk today as it was a very warm day. Set off with two taxi driver friends of the Bell Boy – sheer luxury…two cabs instead of all five of us jammed into one. Off we went down the straight road to the north of the city sailing past the turn off that yesterdays rogue of a taxi driver had turned off for our wild goose chase, with the total journey time all of 15mins at a cost of less than 15Yuan each taxi!!!

Back at the clock tower restaurant we tried to no avail, to get them to organise a boat to cross the side canal to continue on our journey. Set off hoping to hail someone with a small boat to take us across, or heaven forbid walk an extra 5kms down the road to cross the canal then back to the point opposite on the other side of the canal. Time to project all our positive thoughts into manifesting a boat to take us across, as we were really not keen to walk extra kilometres. Within 5mins we had hailed a passing barge tempting them with 20Yuan. The wife unhooks the row boat and rows over to us and takes us across the canal. We are all happy! We have saved our feet. She has made 20Yuan and now only has to row herself back to the barge…that had motored off upstream without her!

The walk was fairly uneventful. Continued along the embankment alongside brick works for about 10kms with the view then changing to coal dumps (the coal is loaded onto barges and taken down the Grand Canal). Walked 14kms in total ending up at the road bridge across the lake that we want to walk across tomorrow. We stopped for a beer and a chat to the locals before heading back to Peixian. We could have phoned this morning’s cab driver to come and pick us up but decided to wait for the local bus. Thus began our next big adventure…

Bus eventually pulls up and the conductor lady gets off to ask the locals who we were. On she hops and off we trundle. Konomi asked for the price and first she says 15Yuan – Which we thought was the total for all five of us and would be a good price. But oh, no, no…it was 15Yuan each, which then escalated to 100Yuan for all of us. Once again daylight robbery!!! Paul spat the dummy and insisted the bus stop…which it did in the middle of a long bridge. As Paul was trying to leave the bus the woman conductor was manhandling him trying desperately with Yuan signs in her eyes, to make us stay on the bus. We eventually all managed to get off the bus with her following continuing to yell and try to force us back on the bus. Konomi was doing written translations and finally showed her the word “thief” at which point she hastily got back on the bus and off it went leaving us in the middle of the bridge. We walked to the other side and a helpful chap on a motorcycle phoned our cab driver and explained where to pick us up from. Cab turned up in about 20mins and we paid 40Yuan to get back to Peixian!!!

Todays lesson… Some people actually really believe that it is ok to try to embezzle money from foreigners. They think we have a lot of money. Greed takes over and they try to extract as much of it as they can. There is no conception that this is theft. One really needs to be fully aware of the value of the endeavour that is being undertaken at any one time when travelling off the beaten track in China. Thankfully for us we are in the back blocks with Paul and Konomi, who after 10 months of walking from Hong Kong en-route to Beijing, know very well cost of the various forms of transport and accommodation etc!

We went out for a meal with Andrew that night as a way to thank him for his efforts the night before. Paul, Konomi and Yuji had headed for another restaurant. Had a great meal with Andrew while learning more about the local area.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog11 - China’s Imperial Way

Day 4 – China’s Imperial Way - A.K.A. The Long March - 22 June 08 (20km walk)

Today was all about endurance rather than enjoyment. For starters the newly developed blisters were a bit of a worry. But the blisters turned out the least of our worries. We walked for 20km along a stop bank serving as a gravel road between The Grand Canal (part of a major canal system that is known as China’s Imperial Way) and a lesser canal. This embankment was lined with poplar like trees so there wasn’t too much to see apart from occasional glimpses of ferries chugging across the Grand Canal and the odd bridge leading to the communes across the lesser canal.


The great part was the trees provided wonderful shade. There were a few dilapidated farmhouses alongside the embankment with either chooks ranging around or herds of goats being closely monitored by their bamboo and whip wielding herder. On the wildlife front we saw what looked like woody woodpecker and cuckoos, which was rather cool.

The end of today’s walk was a cross roads connecting a ferry crossing the Grand Canal and a bridge crossing the lesser canal leading to a large commune, judging by the amount of traffic passing us by at the end of the working day. This was about 6pm. We sat beside the road intersection of the lane up and over the embankment and waited for a likely looking vehicle that could take us back the 50 odd km to Xuzhou.


We tried haggling with one guy deciding his price was too high at which point he decided ours was too low and drove off. A local chap was helping us and insisted that he could get us a good price with his mate. Well….it was a good price, but was it worth it we asked ourselves 1.75 hours later as we finally pulled up outside the hotel. After driving all the back country lanes, through communes and past rice paddies we ended up circumnavigating the city and coming in from the total opposite side from the hotel. The time that it took however, was not our main worry. This guy was a real horn hog. Every 10 seconds or so he was leaning on it…until that, is it got dark. Then it was a flickering light show from low to high beam….not as one in the western world would expect, dipping your lights as you come towards traffic. Oh no!!! On to high beam as cars come towards you so that they know that you are coming…and of course they are retuning the favour. So here we are blatting along weaving in and out of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and various other two or three wheeled farm vehicles (mostly with no lights on) flashing and if we were really lucky tooting as well. Then he packed a sad on the outskirts of the city, pulled to a stop and insisted we catch a taxi from there! We finally convinced him that we could show him the way to the hotel, which we did, safely arriving after another eventful day in China!

Made it to the restaurant before it closed at 9pm. We discovered that most restaurants close at that time.

Grow well
Dr Merrin

EcoLog10 - Rice Paddies and Mud

Day 3 – More Rice Paddies and Even More Thick Mud - 21 June 08 (16km walk)

Today started with another attempt to exchange New Zealand dollars. After two banks both saying no we got the impression that New Zealand may have a free trade agreement with China but someone has forgotten to tell them that we have our own currency.

The “walk” started with a taxi ride back to where we finished up yesterday. Konomi had negotiated the journey with a friendly taxi driver whom she and Paul had used before, so we set off all hoping that he had understood the written notes from the end of yesterdays walk. Off he shot down a different way from which Paul expected which caused a little bit of concern. We soon recognised that he was getting on a major road which was going to be quicker than the way Paul had planned, so we all relaxed and let him get on with it. Made it to said road intersection and off we walked. It was a very muggy day although plenty of cloud (and pollution) cover. Didn’t take long before we were all sweating away! The roads’ today (when we were on them) seemed to be long and straight. From the start point we were following a large pipeline along the road. We eventually we got to its source which was a very large coal fired power station with five cooling towers which they were also generating steam and pumping it off down the road to goodness knows where and for what.

We left the roads soon after the power station and walked along a track alongside the rice paddies. It was such a relief to get off the road away from the constant horns. We are walking on the Yangzi flood plain so the land is very flat with wheat fields now being converted into rice paddies. Walking along the rice paddies is very peaceful. We passed duck farms on the edges of canals between the paddies plus many, many people working on the farms planting out the rice and throwing fertiliser and weed killer out of woven baskets. As people see us going past they all look up at these strange apparitions walking through their communal land sometimes laughing mostly just staring in awe.

Paul had navigated the route that showed a small bridge across a narrow stream between the paddies. Unfortunately it was no longer there, so rather than wade through not knowing quite how deep it was, we set off to find another bridge. Thus began the theme for the day - mud, mud and more mud!

This detour took us almost half a kilometre off our planned course. We were right in the middle of the farms. Either walking across the burnt stalks of wheat fields waiting to be flooded to become rice paddies or along the slightly raised mud banks along side the rice paddies. Eventually we came to a shop at one of the communes and sat having ice blocks and watermelon on the side of the road. Very much appreciated in the heat.

We finally made it to The Grand Canal. The original plan was to carry along it for 4- 5kms but we all decided to call it a day here. At this point on the canal a ferry hauls people from one side to another. We jumped on thinking we could get a ride back to Xuzhou on the other side but that was not the case. We then had to wait on the ferry before we were allowed to cross back when a vehicle wanted to cross.


The driver of the vehicle that eventually came gave us a ride to the nearest town amazingly for free. (This was the first free ride that Paul and Konomi have had during the 10 months that they have been in China). In this town we once again became celebrities with quite a large crowd forming. Eventually negotiated a ride back to Xuzhou for 150Yuan which was a little over the top but it was becoming clear that the options weren’t going to get any better so we took it.

Back in the city and we went straight to dinner at a Japanese restaurant (Chinese style) with even more mud on our boots than the night before.


Walking back to the hotel from the restaurant we came across groups of children having outdoor rote English lessons so we joined in …although the teacher did not seem too amused. Was also tempted to join an outdoor Tai Chi class but it was only with old ladies and men…ha, ha maybe should have joined in.

Grow well
Dr Merrin