小兒郎社長-- 成都郊區單車行

A cycling trip to distant Chengdu suburb Our friend Peter Cao organized a year end bike trip to An-ren, so a group of sixteen went there in two separate days, I happened to be the only one who participated in both groups. I enjoy the trip and the friends I first met, I'd like to share my experience with you all. Since I didn't bring my camera with me this time, if someone likes to share your pictures or some of your thoughts about the trip with us, it will be wonderful. The first trip of six took off at almost on time at 9:00 a.m. as planned on December 31st, 2005. Captain Peter led Edward, Mark, Kristen, Julien and Larry taking off from Ren-min-nan-lu section four, circling into Sichuan-Tibet road heading Shuang-liu. Julien rode a one speed bike enjoy this not too hilly journey, happily rode in front of our team most of the time. Julien came from the seashore village of the northwest of France, I taught him a fisherman! 's folk song while we were riding, he said he is going to use this melody with a French lyric and sing it while playing his mandolin to his French students in a French language school in Chengdu. Kerstin, born in Germany, brought up in many cities of the United States, works for British business journal in Chengdu, specialized in broadcasting the business opportunities of Southwest China. She enjoy taking pictures with all the rural farmers and willing to develop the pictures for them free. This 63 Km ride was quite a cha! llenge also for Mark, an English gentleman, an artist and philosopher, performing arts lover. Edward, an American consular, resided in Chengdu Consulate, hardly ever took such a "long" distance ride since his high school years. After a while our team divided into two groups. While Captain Peter enjoy his "banana break', Larry abandoned his "sweep" position took the lead, went with him were Julien, Mark and Kristen. On the three quarter mark, they missed the important right turn.But, fortunately enough they stopped to wait. After almost half an hour, without seeing Peter and Eddy's appearance, at the time of taking off again, consulting with the small shop owner, they realized the mistake they had made. Larry bought a huge brass gong to help the local economy and enjoy the freedom of making din dong din dong. After a total four hours' riding, we got together in a restaurant for lunch before going into the mu! seum. The show is quite expensive for its performance. The originality of early Republic is okay, but the lighting, English translation and attitude of service left much room for improvement. The only thing quite meet the standard of the market economy is the ticket price. It took us less than two hours to finish touring the exhibition. Considering the fatigue condition of our ! group, Peter took us strait to the bus station and fix most of our bikes into a very tiny luggage compartments. He is such an amazing bicycle expert and loving person. The second of the same destination group took place on the 2ND of January, 2006. I had the contact with Simon at 8:30 right after I finished my daily routine of morning swimming. I met Simon two days ago before the departure of first group, he told me that the second group might need some help. Katherine was the first one arriving Jin-sha Bus terminal on time at 9:30. After thirty minutes,we have another six arrived and decided to take the next bus without waiting for the other late comers. We got on a full bus with all our six bikes loaded on the bus with a rooftop rack. Kathy, from Australia, speaks Mandarin very well, I caught her even fighting the justice with the non-English speaking offici! al in front of dozens of innocent farmers as I arrived the terminal. She is specialized in teaching technology English in Electronic U. in town. Later on I found she is a fast rider with average of 30 Km per hour and prepares a trip for Burma and Laos in a week. Dan is also from Australia, he told me his experience of opening a baked chicken fast food restaurant while teaching in Shuang-liu before moving to the City. Now he's engaged in a file sharing software company through the web and also teach at the same time. Jeff from New York City,with his newly wed wife, Zhong-tao, moved from Ji-lin, Northeast of China, recently. Jeff owns a psychology and a philosophy Master, quite a thinker. Derek came from England, enjoyed chattering with other Chinese passenger by his side all eighty minutes while on the bus. We arrived in the front of the ticket office by 11:30 and got the got a message from Simon that they'll arrive in another hour. At 2:30 we all had our Lucho together, toasting for the New year of 2006. Our bike trip was completely different from the group one. Due to the delayed service of the meal, we started out journey towards Da-yi city, which is 15 Km away at 3:30. After we arrived the city, we took a circle ride around the city and got the bus terminal at 5:30, one hour ahead of their last bus schedule to Chengdu. But, we aren't too lucky to hitch a bus with a proper luggage space or rooftop rack to carry our ten bikes. After a long bargaining time, we finally got a chance to hire a "racked" bus with more than double fare with 20 RMB each, taking us only to Shuang-Liu city. The bus took off at 6:30 and dropped up on a pitch-dark highway at 7:30. On the bus, Simon from England sat next to me, we talked about the subject of what we can do for the local Chinese from the background of our past experience. He said that through his teaching experience in China, he found the majority of his students were living in a vacuum, there 's lots of things we can do for them. I agreed with him that education is the key to make people of all ages to reach a better state of living condition. To the end, he hoped that we should make a time table to materialize our philosophy of good thoughts of sharing. Guy, from Australia, also sat nearby as a silent partner, talked to me later with his agreement to us. I am so happy to meet so many generous friends in a cycling trip besides leaving the crowded city and enjoy the green fields of the country yard in a winter day. Our last moment of going back to Chengdu became a very unpredictable affair. It's really too dangerous to ride on that dark highway with hundreds of big bus roaming by. Dan told us he used to live in this neighborhood and knew how to take us to find a better and safe way home. But it turned out to be another section of wider highway but without lights. At this moment, there was a patrol police car parked by our side, very surprisingly, the officer was willing to escort us to pass that rather dark section. He did drive by our side, back and forth for at least next fifteen minutes to protect us from danger to pass the whole area and waved good-by with a bright smiling face. After this rather difficult passage, we were riding on a service road alon! g the freeway from the airport to the skirt of the city. The fifteen minutes car riding distance took us an everlasting cycling to reach the end. It was nine thirty when I finally reached home. I received a message from Simon yesterday, asking for (another?) guide service to take many of our companions to purchase the same sort of bike I was riding unde! r two thousand RMB(Quai). I'm doing a res each now to find a good place to assemble custom made bikes , it will take another day or so for me to locate it. Once done, I'll send you guys another public notice then I'll take time to guide you over. By the way, Chinese Lunar New Year's eve is approaching, I'd like to invite you and your friends to my house to celebrate it together. Lots of food, beer and fireworks will be ready on my rooftop garden that evening. I'll send you another invitation closed to the date of ( January 28,Sat) Just leave your date book! blank for that date for the time being, please. Sincerely, your friend Larry Wang.