My name is Mike Gibson. I exploit my nationality's perceived ability to teach English as a second language and use that money to finance my excursions all over Asia. Now I'm 29 years old and seem to be getting older all the time. I have been in China for about 4 months during this trip. Altogether I think I could say I've spent about one year of total time to date in the beautiful big red machine. I have limited speaking, writing and reading Mandarin capacities (anyone want to give me a real job?) and I use these to aid my travels throughout china.
At Present in China I have visited,
Shanghai, Suzhou, Xuzhou, Suqian, Handan, Beijing, Jinan, Qunzhou, and now I am living in Qinzhou.
If I have time and if my memory hasn't been damaged badly I will try to add my thoughts about these cities along with some pictures that I snapped along the way. However this blog will primarily be dedicated to recording my travels through Guangxi, Yunnan, Hainan, and Guangdong on my 48cc Chinese motorcycle.
The beginning of life in a new place, I have landed in Qinzhou a small city on the coast of the gulf of Tonkin, 75 km North East of the Vietnamese border. Life here is good. The pace is relaxed and the people are friendly. The thing that amazes me the most about Guangxi in general is the clean and clear skies. I really never thought I would find anything like this anywhere in China, let alone in a city centre. Every day holds a hundred pictures to take and it seems there are really not enough minutes in a day to suck in all its beauty. The question most often asked of me is, "Where the hell is that place?" Well hold on a minute and I'll show you.
Qinzhou itself is a really unique place. The city itself is a minute of the old, the pseudo new and the very new. All three parts are in different locations and will be chronicled here through a photo diary. I have had my camera out a few times since arrival but I've been too busy sucking in the sights to bother wanking on my magic picture box. My following entries will provide more details about this amazing place along with, I hope some reasonably nice pictures.
I will try my best to keep this blog updated on a daily basis. I need a venue to share my experiences with everyone instead of calling my friends all over the world to tell them about the amazing life they are missing.
Qinzhou is one of these rare finds, rich with tradition and amazing architecture (amazing in the fact it is about 80 years old and never been renovated or painted). Now don't get me wrong the whole city is not some old dilapidated shit hole waiting to fall down and keeping people needing daily tetanus shots, but unlike most Chinese cities is the old is left to the old, the reasonably new is left the reasonably new and the new is just that new. In most cities in China a lot of the cool old shit most people come to China is being ripped down at an unrealistic pace. Places like Beijing have there small little preserved districts, but the heart and essence of the old city has been lost and turned into a tourist mecca that is now being used to suck money out of people's pockets and portrait a false picture of how life in this place actually functions. It is kind of like a Disneyland for tourist6s who want to come to China and take some pictures with out really coming to China. I'm sure most of the stuff you could experience in a place like Beijing or Shanghai could be experienced in most China towns in most places of the world.
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Qinzhou on the other hand is unique. All sections of the city function as one, not changing for the sake of tourists (yet). The old city is a time capsule, unpainted and surreal. It is like a weird movie set or really like stepping back in time. People go about their daily business there as if nothing has changed in 80 years. It is refreshing not to be hounded by people trying to sell me fake Rolexes and fake bags. Really when I am in the old city it is like walking though and old photograph.
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You can even grab a shave right on the street for 2 rmb (about $0.30 US)
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One of the problems with deciding to live anywhere in any part of the world is transportation. Larger city centres like Seoul, Korea have excellent mass transit systems to shuttle people from their over crowded, small apartments to the Korean companies that exploit them like slave labour until they have a nervous breakdown, die at work or through some miracle of life actually reach retirement. However in a smaller city like Qinzhou transportation is soon realized to be something we had to often taken for granted.
By Asian standards Qinzhou is a small city. although not really geographically small the city comes with a small population of about 260,000. This is a little hard to believe when you venture into the city centre and find streets upon streets upon streets to purchase the necessities one can't possibly live with out, but the many kilometres of streets seem empty in comparison to even the smallest Chinese cities I have visited. Buses are here and are cheap, but seem to move at a snail's pace. Taxis are also here but are few in numbers and waiting for one in the centre of the city is an exercise in one of the best ways to waste one's time. The other option is a Cheap taxi which is basically the front of a motorcycle with the rear of a small truck. You climb into these things through the back and pray that their lack of suspension will not break your back while travelling to your desired destination.
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My choice of these three was obvious, none of the above. After all this is China and things are cheap. I thought it might be worth my while to take a trip to the local pawn shops and check out the motorcycles that people have ransomed to fulfill their majong debts. well a white face in a Chinese pawn seems to be nothing more than a big money sign and I couldn't seem to find anything I wanted at a reasonable price. Most bikes in these shops were alright but nothing to get me excited and the prices were about the same as buying a cheap new motorcycle. So I decided to talk a walk though the new motorcycle district and found the perfect little Guangxi cruiser, a 48cc moped-esq bike with a real 4 speed motorcycle transmission and a top speed of about 80km.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're probably thinking, "How can a grown adult that is 183cm look cool riding this bike?" Well I'll tell you how. The bike new cost me 1800rmb that works out to about $250-$270 USD comes with a one year warranty and a year's insurance for no extra cost and because it is under 50cc I don't need to go through the process of getting a Chinese driver's license, pay any road tolls or get a license plate for the bike. Pretty cool huh?
After 3 days of riding the bike now had 470km on it and had achieved near 70km per litre of fuel. 70:1 is pretty good.
The bike also affords me the freedom of going where I please when I please and not having to worry about taxi availabilities or overly slow an inconvenient buses.
Ok... Onto trip one
Sunday July 22nd. The date of my first 48cc journey. Sadly I didn't take the camera with me on this one because of the rainy weather forecast. At 10 am I hopped on my bike and began the 80km journey to a reportedly nice beach. Now I live near the ocean and I really love to sit and relax on a nice tuff of white sand and go for a nice swim in the ocean. The day before I had asked my coworkers where I could find a nice place to relax and the answer I got was San Yuan Yan.
The ride to the beach was amazing, a little rain to keep me cool in 35+ degree heat and long empty smooth roads in front of me. I couldn't believe the beauty rolling by me as my 50 chewed up the Guangxi roads. Trees, greenery, hills that look like Shriner's hats, rice patties, Chinese field cows, Chinese field cow shit and a few old buildings to round out the works. What an amazing ride. Sure I got a little wet, but the sun came out and I was dry in no time.
Upon arriving at the "beach" I was once confronted with the new China's lust for the Red Mao Head (the 100rmb note). For me to even pass through the gate I had to lay down a good 30rmb per person (enough to feed myself and a friend for a day), but I thought I rode all this way and it can't be much worse on the inside. Well I was wrong, upon entering the gate and riding my bike 1 km to the beach I was bombarded with people selling things, trinkets and souvenirs. My lunch set me back another 80 rmb for and then when I wanted to relax on the beach I had to pay again. What an uncomfortable experience. Trying to put all the greed behind me I decided to hop back on the 50 and try to find a nicer place, one with out the ridiculous amusement park prices.
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The ride home was much the same as the ride there, beautiful scenery and few to no cars on the road. At least on the bike I had found peace for a few hours, but that peace came at the price of the worst motorcycle tan I have ever experienced. My chest and back are now the colour of a tub of glue while my neck arms and face will leave you wondering about my ethnicity. Now I have a new reason to find a comfortable beach and that is to unify the colouring of my body.
I'm sad to say that after 480km on the road I still haven't found the place. I've read about one and I'll let you know more about it later
Trip #2
If you leave the school's main gate and turn left and proceed to drive straight along one road for about 2 hours at 40-50kmph you'll reach the Chinese Vietnam border. I have looked at Google Earth extensively and I do know of one beach that lies between myself and Vietnam, now I just need to find the road that gets me to that beach.
This trip was uneventful. Nothing more than kilometres and kilometres of fresh new tarmac. I saw a few small Chinese towns and after about an hour and half and looking at the map and realizing I was no where near my intended destination I decided to head back towards Qinzhou and check out the coast line closer to the city. So I turned around and headed back up the road until I got to an intersection and decided to turn right an head to the coast. Upon reaching the coast I was a little disappointed but at the same time impress by the old fish farms and large seawall I was presented with. I then proceeded to ride along the seawall the rest of the way back to Qinzhou. Sadly I can't seem to find the pictures from the trip, but I will be going out that way again just to take some pictures.
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