Day 9 – Plant a Tree in China - 27 June 08 (19km walk)
This morning our friend Andrew, the HanYuan Hotel Assistant Manager had organised local TV coverage and a tree planting in the hotel grounds. This was great publicity for Paul’s Greening the Olympics walk and for the hotel, which is very new. The interview took place in the hotel gardens. We all took part in planting a Gingko tree (which Andrew, who at very short notice had to find a tree, had donated from his own garden) and were all filmed doing so.
Then the hotel wanted some pictures of us taken at the front of the hotel so we all lined up with the hotel owner and all the department heads – chefs, bell boys, reception staff and housekeeping etc to smile for the camera in front of the hotel. It was great…everyone was happy. Also check out Paul Coleman’s blog about the tree planting on 27 June at http://blog.myspace.com/earthwalker_paul_coleman
Said our goodbyes to Andrew (who has become a good friend) and headed to the next town to check into a new hotel before beginning today’s walk. Had organised two taxis so travelled in a bit more comfort! The traffic jam at the start of the bridges was even worse than the day before. On our side we were five vehicles wide taking up the whole width of the road all facing the on coming traffic leaving no space for it to pass. The Chinese solution to this problem is to turn off the car and sit and wait. As soon as someone moves all the engines burst into life again and everyone vies to move into any available gap and so the problem continues. There is absolutely no logic and certainly no-one wants to be the mug who gives way. He would probably still be waiting to get back into the traffic flow the next day as no-one would let him in! Finally as we made it on to the bridge the police were turning up to try to sort out the mess. During this time I had got talking to the local powerline boys. They invited me into their van, which had great air-conditioning. The others were amazed to see me wave at them from inside another vehicle. Rode across the canal bridges with them until they stopped to pick up their fellow workers who got a shock when I jumped out of the van.
We finally arrived at our new hotel for one night which was an older government hotel on the outskirts of Tengxian. After checking out the room price on the internet and having it confirmed by reception the price suddenly went up when we went to look at the rooms. The price we are paying is not much less than the HanYuan however this hotel is very tired and quite grubby really. Having said that the service is very good and the meal we had at the end of the day was also very good.
Today’s transport options worked very smoothly and did not create any more adventure for the day. Hailed a cab and showed him a picture of where we wanted to go and were delivered directly there. At the end of the walk a taxi driver pulled up behind us and delivered us straight back to the hotel. It was all too simple!!
The walk was long and hot. We are walking due north and apart from a slight deviation to the west to cross a bridge were able to follow roads alongside the fields (only sometimes having to walk through the fields) in a direct north/south line. We have walked out of the coal mining area so did not feel as grimy as yesterday. We passed many farming communities and the few times we stopped were able to converse with the locals. As always we draw a crowd. We passed mothers with toddlers in their bottomless daks (no need for nappies in the countryside), old ladies passing the time of day sitting on the street outside their homes and many, many people working in the fields.
Finally reached the journey end for the day – the junction with the main road, which we will be walking along for the last two days of the walking part of our intrepid Chinese adventure!
The driver that we had organised to pick us up the evening before did not turn up so we phoned our friendly taxi driver and he was there in a shot. Off we set on a longish journey complicated by a traffic jam at the bridge where drivers try to sneak through the wrong side of the bollards and everyone ends up sitting facing one another! Made it to our destination and off we walked…..and walked and walked. Through the communes down back lanes past and through fields of corn/maize. Every bit of the land is being used. The corn fields are edged by different crops sown right up to the road edges.
The land is very flat so as we walked along we could see either coal fired power stations or the coal mines to feed them. We walked closely past a coal mine through the village next to it. All the trucks transporting the coal are piled high with the low quality coal dug from under the village and corn fields. It has a sludgy look and is patted down on the trucks so that it does not fall off as they are bouncing along the roads.
All the fields had been double cropped. Before the corn wheat or barley was the main crop. Along the village lanes we came across farmers drying the wheat on the road. They lay the stems out on the road and force vehicles to drive over it to break it down eventually to just the grain. Old men and women sweep it into piles to grade as it is broken down by the traffic. Finally shovelling the grain into the air to get rid of the last of the husks and pouring it into bags.
As always getting back to the hotel was more of an adventure than the walking. Today after negotiations fell through with someone with a van we jumped on a bus to the nearest city. Here we were shown by the (friendly) lady conductor the bus going to Peixian and told it left at 6:40. There was one slight hitch…the bus did not leave until the next morning. Probably just as well because if there had been a bus it would have complicated things as we had left our Peixian taxi driver waiting for us at the start point of the days walk! We then found a local taxi to take us back to the start point. This guy was an absolute maniac. He spent most of the journey either on or over the yellow centre line leaning on his horn passing all and sundry at great speed. There appear to be very different road rules in China. It is every man for himself! Everyone wants to get there first and no-one will give in or give way. We made it back to our Peixian cabbie in one piece and set off on the final leg of the journey to the hotel.
Headed into a local restaurant opposite the hotel for a meal. Once again the best way to determine what you wanted to eat was to head into the kitchen.
Had a chance to catch up with Andrew that evening and he was very keen to hear our suggestions for improving the service at the hotel. Nice to be asked. He also told us that the local TV station was keen to interview Paul. We suggested that the hotel try and do a tree planting. So Andrew put his creative talents to work and also got the approval of the Hotel’s General Manager. What would happen tomorrow we thought as we began another wonderful night of rest.
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.
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.
Day 5 – Taxi Tours – The Good the Bad and the…? - 23 June 08 (15km walk)
Today was moving day from Xuzhou to Peixian. Konomi negotiated a good deal with our friendly taxi driver and a mate to drive us to Peixian in two cabs. The hotel staff in Xuzhou to recommend a hotel in Peixian…but unfortunately when we got to it it was an over priced Karaoke or KTV Hotel. They wanted to charge us 280Yuan for substandard rooms and the very real chance that we would be treated to the boom, boom, boom of many Karaoke revellers till the wee hours!!! We decided to go looking for another hotel….and oh what a find! With the help of a friendly staff member at the Karaoke Hotel we stumbled across the newest hotel in Peixian, which looked from the outside like a palace.
The HanYuan has only been open for two months. It is huge and sits on the edge of a lake looking across at a temple and park. The staff went out of their way to look after us and we quickly made friends with Andrew, the Assistant Manager, whose English was very good. Andrew gave us his card and said to phone him if we needed any help. Little did we (or he know) that he would be of great assistance to us later in the evening!!
We set off for a late walking start at about 4pm. Standing at the gate Paul say’s “let’s choose a friendly looking taxi driver” so, of the four or five drivers who pulled up we chose a chap with a big smile on his face and showed him the hand drawn “map” of where we wanted to go. After a bit of concern when he headed north instead of south, we got him on the right track and without too much hassle arrived at our end point of the day before. He seemed to be an honest type with a little bit of English and lots of laughter so we got his number saying we would call him to pick us up after our walk for the day. No 1 warning sign…this guy did not want us to pay the fare?? This felt very odd but we all just thought, hey what a lovely guy (and proceeded to pay him)!!
The start of the walk was along a re-formed part of embankment so instead of walking on fine gravel we were walking on hard packed mud. It was a very pleasant afternoon – actually early evening as we set off walking at 5pm. It was not too hot and we could see the surrounding countryside as there were no trees along this new part of the embankment. We made good progress and finally came to a side canal which we needed to cross but could see no bridge. After asking someone we found the transport across, which was a little lady who hauled us across on a small barge - very quaint and peaceful. On the other side the road was gravelled again and after a short break we set off at a good pace. The plan was to walk until about 8pm and phone the taxi driver to pick us up. Darkness was falling. We were walking in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden we hear, and finally spot a well lit up clock tower striking 8pm with Westminster Chimes. It was very surreal!!!
There seemed to be no-one about so Merrin headed off down to the clock tower and found a floating restaurant - as you do, with people who could help tell our friendly taxi driver where we were. They proceeded to offer us tea and beer (warm) and a meal if we wanted it (which we didn’t as they specialised in local game, birds and fish from the local potentially polluted waters). They were lovely people who looked after us well until our taxi driver turned up about 30mins later – note the time - warning sign No 2! Off we set waving happily to our restaurant family for what we thought (and what the family had told us) was a ten to fifteen minute journey back to Peixian. We asked the taxi driver to take us to a restaurant when we got to Peixian but he informed us that all restaurants closed at 9pm. He then offered to phone the hotel to arrange a meal for us, but we declined saying we would sort it when we got there.
After about 20 minutes we started questioning the driver as to where we were as the kilometres and taxi metre were ticking by and there was no city in sight! At this stage we were driving on back country lanes through muddy potholes and past small villages. He rambled something in Chinese that Konomi (who has self taught herself written Chinese and a small amount of spoken Mandarin) thought he said another 4-5kms but then he changes his tack and said another 20kms!!! We happened to be passing a police outpost so we insisted he stop so that we could get some help. There were no police so we phoned up Andrew the Hotel Assistant Manager for help in translation.
Andrew is a very cool person. He acted as the go between negotiating between us and the taxi driver over the amount we should have paid (about 20Yuan max). The meter was now sitting on 50Yuan still with 20kms to go). Taxi driver was pleading innocence saying he couldn’t go the “quick” way because his car would bottom out (not sure what he thought it was doing as we were bouncing through the muddy pot holes to get where we currently were?). Then…low and behold a Police car turns up. Now began a very interesting series of dynamics between us - the tourists, taxi driver, Andrew as translator on the phone and the Police!!! The Police were extremely casual. They immediately ‘got’ that he was trying to rip us off by taking us on a circumnavigation (haven’t we heard that word before) of the whole area but they did not want to do anything about it except shake a finger at him when they thought we were not watching!!! Eventually they offered to escort us back to the hotel with one of us in the Police car. We immediately volunteered to go in the squad car which proved far more comfy than five up in a taxi (plus this added another dimension to our story of travel in China).
Now we witnessed a maniac for a taxi driver. Firstly driving up the bum of the police car and then once we hit the highway (a very long way south of the city!) passing at speed and proceeding to speed off into the distance. The police were laughing away at his antics (as were Merrin and Louise) but it was all very odd. They didn’t seem to give a hoot about his petty lawlessness and seemed to be content to casually observe the dynamics between us and the taxi driver.
We finally made it to the hotel with the metre reading 70Yuan (more than we had paid to get to where we started walking that day) and our watches reading 11pm!! Discussions continued. By now Andrew who had been at home when we called was at the hotel to help us conclude the situation. Police just stood around waiting for us all to come to an agreement then buggered off and left us to it. We eventually agreed to pay 60Yuan. Then the most amazing thing happened…the taxi driver shakes Paul’s hand and says give me a call tomorrow and I will take you out to the clock tower restaurant!!! We all just about fell over laughing and couldn’t believe the audacity of the guy.
You would think that this would be a logical place to end the story for the day…but oh no, no!!!
Remember the taxi driver ‘offering’ to organise dinner for us, which we all declined!!! Well, we were very surprised when Andrew asked us to follow him to have the dinner that the hotel had specially prepared for us. It turned out that the dirty rascal had ordered the most expensive banquet in the house to be served in a private dining room. More negotiations and Andrew offered to drop the price to 60Yuan and provide vegetarian food for Konomi and Paul instead of the very meaty menu that had been ordered. We did enjoy a most sumptuous meal, waited on hand and foot by the many staff. We also enjoyed Andrew’s company because he insisted on staying with us until we retired for the day, walking with us to our rooms (in spite of the fact that he was actually off duty after the previous shift being nightshift!!!)
Thus ends day 5 of our adventure in China, having met friends and foe…which we are beginning to understand is the essence of China!!!
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.
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.
As a passionate conservationist and entrepreneur I used to be caught between stopping development to save the environment while creating new business to generate income.
Now as an Ecopreneur in the Asia Pacific region I connect businesses with nature conservation projects so that conservation projects have the funds to continue their awesome projects and business owners have the opportunity to experience how they can improve the world that they live in with their staff.
I have a Bachelor of Surveying and a PhD in Geodesy. My career has taken me from the equator to the South Pole. Had the thrill of using GPS since 1990 and recently laser scanning techology. The best part is assisting others to become confident in using new techology themselves.
Grow well from
Dr Merrin
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