What’s this about?
This blog is an attempt to document my upcoming ride from Xiamen to Guangzhou. In planning my trip, I found that while there are quite a few blogs and a great deal of published information on long distance rides across Europe and North America, very little of a similar nature exists on China. So, with the intention that this might help someone making similar plans, I offer an account of my own research and experience from the road.
I’m a 57-year-old American male, currently in my third decade of teaching English in Asia. I’ve had a bicycle for most of my life, starting with a kiddie tricycle and now with a mid-range Merida road bike. Until I arrived in China in the summer of 2017, I had never cycled more than two hours at a time and had never done a long-distance bike trip. In the early 00s, I walked a 1200km hike in Japan, many days of which I slept rough, so I have some experience with solo, self-powered travel in a culture other than my own.
The idea of a long-distance bicycle trip came about through a couple of convergences. I arrived in China with a waning interest in two things that had kept me occupied for much of the past decade, Buddhism and photography. I found myself as a result looking about for something in which I might invest time and effort. In the meantime, though, I had to get settled into my new life in Suzhou, China. One of my initial pursuits was finding a bicycle. Being in the very country where many of the world’s bicycles are manufactured, you’d think finding a suitable bicycle might be a snap. In fact, you might image the choices would be overwhelming. But when you’re nearly two meters in height and don’t speak or read Chinese, the choices are in fact quite few. I settled on a bike that is actually a few centimeters short of the ideal height but seemed, after scouring numerous online stores and manufacturers’ inventories, to be the best I could find. I’ve been riding it for over a year and have had no serious issues.
Once I had the bike, I used it much like I had used my bike in Dubai, as a vehicle for photographic documentation of my neighborhood. As I had just arrived in China, there was plenty of exploring and documenting to do. Somewhere along the way, though, I lost interest in the photography and became more interested in the bicycle. That may have to do with the type of bicycle I had purchased. My Dubai bike was a semi-recumbent designed for leisure riding. My new bike is thin and light and built for speed. I wasn’t so interested in seeing how fast I could travel, but how far. I started riding farther and farther from home and within a few months I had gone from rides of 10km to rides of 60km.
I started looking around for opportunities for long rides for vacation periods. Hainan appeared to be a good winter destination. The island is known as China’s Hawaii, though the only suitable points of comparison are being islands with temperate climates. I planned to cycle the island’s eastern and southern shores for 10 days over the 2017 winter vacation but gave up after three. The combination of poor weather (with rain nearly every day), a heavy mountain bike (the only thing I could rent with a luggage rack), and lack of practice with sufficiently long rides did me in.
I did some day riding around Yunan in summer 2018, but that was not planned as a riding excursion. I continued riding in larger circles around my neighborhood, working up to weekly 80km and even the occasional 100km ride. I began reading accounts of long-distance rides and was inspired by a statement from Alastair Humphreys, an Englishman who rode from London to Cape Town and noted that along the way he never met anyone who regretted doing a long bicycle ride but met many who regretted not having done one.
I read this at a time when classes hadn’t yet begun, and a few days remained to myself, so without much forethought I started plotting a trip around nearby Lake Tai. Within a couple of hours, I had figured out that I could ride the lake’s circumference in four days of 60-90km rides and had booked nights at three hotels. A day or two afterwards I set off and three nights later arrived home. I had completed my first long-distance bicycle trip.
The new semester began and riding took more of my free time before and after work. A 20km ride became little more than a warm up. Most days I rode at least 40km and on weekends I tried to do 80-100km. Looking ahead in the academic calendar, I had to make some decision about what to do at year end and began considering a long ride. I don’t now recall how I conceived of the idea to ride from Xiamen to Guangzhou. A colleague asked why, and I replied simply because of the weather. But it’s also true that the coastal area is well developed, meaning decent roads and plenty of amenities, especially hotels, and is also reasonably flat, unlike much of China’s interior.
That’s the journey I’m going to start in just over a week. I’m confident I can make it so long as my body, the weather, and my bike cooperate -- or least don’t conspire.
I’m a 57-year-old American male, currently in my third decade of teaching English in Asia. I’ve had a bicycle for most of my life, starting with a kiddie tricycle and now with a mid-range Merida road bike. Until I arrived in China in the summer of 2017, I had never cycled more than two hours at a time and had never done a long-distance bike trip. In the early 00s, I walked a 1200km hike in Japan, many days of which I slept rough, so I have some experience with solo, self-powered travel in a culture other than my own.
The idea of a long-distance bicycle trip came about through a couple of convergences. I arrived in China with a waning interest in two things that had kept me occupied for much of the past decade, Buddhism and photography. I found myself as a result looking about for something in which I might invest time and effort. In the meantime, though, I had to get settled into my new life in Suzhou, China. One of my initial pursuits was finding a bicycle. Being in the very country where many of the world’s bicycles are manufactured, you’d think finding a suitable bicycle might be a snap. In fact, you might image the choices would be overwhelming. But when you’re nearly two meters in height and don’t speak or read Chinese, the choices are in fact quite few. I settled on a bike that is actually a few centimeters short of the ideal height but seemed, after scouring numerous online stores and manufacturers’ inventories, to be the best I could find. I’ve been riding it for over a year and have had no serious issues.
 |
| Suzhou paddies |
Once I had the bike, I used it much like I had used my bike in Dubai, as a vehicle for photographic documentation of my neighborhood. As I had just arrived in China, there was plenty of exploring and documenting to do. Somewhere along the way, though, I lost interest in the photography and became more interested in the bicycle. That may have to do with the type of bicycle I had purchased. My Dubai bike was a semi-recumbent designed for leisure riding. My new bike is thin and light and built for speed. I wasn’t so interested in seeing how fast I could travel, but how far. I started riding farther and farther from home and within a few months I had gone from rides of 10km to rides of 60km.
I started looking around for opportunities for long rides for vacation periods. Hainan appeared to be a good winter destination. The island is known as China’s Hawaii, though the only suitable points of comparison are being islands with temperate climates. I planned to cycle the island’s eastern and southern shores for 10 days over the 2017 winter vacation but gave up after three. The combination of poor weather (with rain nearly every day), a heavy mountain bike (the only thing I could rent with a luggage rack), and lack of practice with sufficiently long rides did me in.
 |
| Hainan |
I did some day riding around Yunan in summer 2018, but that was not planned as a riding excursion. I continued riding in larger circles around my neighborhood, working up to weekly 80km and even the occasional 100km ride. I began reading accounts of long-distance rides and was inspired by a statement from Alastair Humphreys, an Englishman who rode from London to Cape Town and noted that along the way he never met anyone who regretted doing a long bicycle ride but met many who regretted not having done one.
I read this at a time when classes hadn’t yet begun, and a few days remained to myself, so without much forethought I started plotting a trip around nearby Lake Tai. Within a couple of hours, I had figured out that I could ride the lake’s circumference in four days of 60-90km rides and had booked nights at three hotels. A day or two afterwards I set off and three nights later arrived home. I had completed my first long-distance bicycle trip.
The new semester began and riding took more of my free time before and after work. A 20km ride became little more than a warm up. Most days I rode at least 40km and on weekends I tried to do 80-100km. Looking ahead in the academic calendar, I had to make some decision about what to do at year end and began considering a long ride. I don’t now recall how I conceived of the idea to ride from Xiamen to Guangzhou. A colleague asked why, and I replied simply because of the weather. But it’s also true that the coastal area is well developed, meaning decent roads and plenty of amenities, especially hotels, and is also reasonably flat, unlike much of China’s interior.
That’s the journey I’m going to start in just over a week. I’m confident I can make it so long as my body, the weather, and my bike cooperate -- or least don’t conspire.
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