31th May - Guangzhou to Sanshui

Off on adventures again.....

Biking into China PROPER......

Not the best way to start biking though China. I was up at 7 to get packed and get on the road.... But it did not quite work out that way.


Yesterday I had bought a sim card and a data pack for using the internet. I had called the service center and they were very efficient and texted me the settings I needed for the internet in English. When these settings did not work yesterday I called them again and they said that as it was a new sim card it would be activated for GPRS over night and so will work in the morning. Unfortunately it did not. As I am in the middle of a city and very few people speak English I knew that it would be really hard to find my way out without google maps and GPS (almost impossible in fact). I spent a good few hours surfing on the internet trying to get the right settings and then phoning back the company a couple of times. I also looked for trains out of the city as I knew I would get lost without GPS. It turned out that the settings that they had sent me yesterday were the wrong settings and once I got the right settings it all worked fine.

When I went to put my bags on the bike I found I had a completely flat back tyre which I needed to change and also my front pannier rack was broken. I think that the damage must have been done when I had the bang in Nepal. The metal has bent and because of the at the screw had worked lose. I managed to do a temporary fix but it will need some duck tape at some point as well (cable ties).


I had been told yesterday that I could post my important letter to the UK at the hotel but as it needed to go to England on special delivery I found out this morning as I was leaving that this was not possible. Fortunately Lin from yesterday came to my rescue again and took me to the Chinese post office to sort it out. 30 minutes of paper work and 30 minutes of walking there and back and I was finally in a position to leave....

Lin really was incredibly sweet. She typed into her phone and showed me the message "I admire you". Bless..... She carried an umbrella (as a lot of women do) to keep off the sun. She said it hurt her arm to told it as I am so tall. I carried it the rest of the way. I felt even more silly than usual in biking clothes, holding an umbrella walking down the street.

We saw this crowd of men playing Chinese Chess on the walk to the Post Office.


I knew that the ride out of the city would not be the most scenic and I did contemplate getting on a train to get out of the city area so that I would have more time seeing the more scenic parts of the country but I decided that I wanted to see the city and the suburbs as well just for the contrast and to learn more about the country. For me traveling is not just about seeing beautiful parts of the world it is about learning about different cultures and seeing new places.

I did not end up actually getting on my bike until 2pm. I was really glad that I did have the GPS as within the first 10 minutes I found out that the road that I was planning on to get out of town does not allow bicycles. I had to change my route endlessly all day as I came across more and more roads that did not allow bikes. It really slowed me down getting out of the city. There is no way that I could have done this without google maps and GPS! The route that I had planned for today was 110km to Zhaoqing. I ended up doing 80km today and only traveling 30km of the original route. I was supposed to be Couch Surfing in Zhaoqing tonight but I had to postpone until tomorrow as it just took so long to get out of the city.


There are so many new buildings being constructed everywhere around this area. It is absolutely booming. I was surprised by the quality of the roads and infrastructure. In many places the quality was much better than the UK and about 1 million times better than India. When I was not having to stop to check my direction and find alternative routes where bikes are allowed I was managing a really good average speed.


Although there are many roads where bicycles are not allowed there are alternative routes which are well sign posted. China is good for bikes as there are so many other cyclists. The other cyclists are often transporting goods.

I love the fact that some cyclists have an attachment for an umbrella to cover them and the back of their bikes. I need to get a photo of this sometime.


The first few hours getting out of the major city were very busy and there was lots of traffic (but no traffic jams). Leaving the city center though the quality of the roads was as good but there was no traffic. These are photos taken between 5.30 and 6 on a Tuesday evening. 3 lane motorways and no one there at all.... There has been so much investment in the infrastructure it is incredible. These roads feed a large business district. They must be expecting significant growth.

I found it very interesting to see how different China is from India. The two countries have boomed in the last 10 years and they are often discussed together in terms of being economic super powers and developing countries. China feels much richer.

China seems like an old mix of the old and the new or poor and rich. There are still people transporting their goods on bikes and carts going slowly down newly built, perfect condition 4 lane motorways. You can by cheap food and accommodation in places opposite grand 5* hotels.

I have not seen a single building in the old style of Chinese architecture since I arrived - only buildings that have been built in the last 30 years or so. Over 70% of the building look like they were built in the last 15 years. There are construction works everywhere.


I decided to stop in Sanshui/Foshan about 6.15. I had checked on google that there were some hotels and hostels in town beforehand. It is only a small town though and so I was not expecting to see really, really posh 5 star hotels everywhere...

Again there were loads of construction sites on the outskirts of the town and the area is booming. I looked online to see how much it was to stay in one of these 5* places - only £70! They were really grand hotels as well....


A lovely girl that I met walking on the street helped me to find a cheap hotel. She spoke fantastic English and helped me to check in and then showed me a small part of the area. This is working out really well. Women and girls are totally different in China from India. They are very happy to talk to you and extremely friendly. In India it was very rare for a woman to even start up a conversation with me (with the exception of upper middle class Indian women - I did not meet many of those in rural India).


My hotel room is lovely and big, with internet access and was £8. This is over budget and I will need to find cheaper places as I continue through China, however, I will be couch surfing again in China and so this should keep the cost down. It was such a lovely room that I was surprised that they only have a swat toilet... I hate them.

Once I had checked in a showered I popped out for a little wonder and bought a rice, veg and chicken take away for £1. I also bought a large pot noodle for breakfast - 35p! :-)

Even though it was not the best day in terms of biking today and distances and I had a morning of faffing, I actually had a really good day. It is really exciting to see a completely different country and right now I am finding the communication issues funny rather than frustrating. People have gone out of their way to help me - particularly girls.

For more photos click here.