Fujian for beer

[ChinaV]

So Felix mentioned something about hitting Fuzhou, and then something about the possibility of beer there, so I figured what the hell, let's give it a go. Four days of riding and roughly 2500 kilometers took me over the following route.



Many months since the Wee Strom had seen action, I was so happy to be back on the road with her.



I've never seen traffic as bad as what I experienced in the first few hours of the ride. Multiple traffic jams, accidents and thousands of vehicles stuck and going nowhere. Sometimes I could see the toll highways as they passed overhead and even they were at a complete standstill. Something terrible is happening to the roads here in China, and I live in fear of having to drive anywhere in my car as traffic has reached a crisis level.

It took me a few hours to get back in the groove of China riding, but I soon returned to the flow of dodging obstacles and incessantly honking my horn. Finally I made it into the countryside, and stopped for a little break. Seems like the countryside has gotten so much further away than it used to be.



Tried to make the trip mostly X and S roads, and enjoyed a nice mix of sweepers and twisty's as I made my way north out of Guangdong.



I spied a group of large bikes and decided to join in. We eventually stopped for a chat and they invited me to tag along. I'm not a big fan of riding in large groups, but it was late in the day, and I figured it would be fun to hang out for the evening.



We made it up to the town of XiaYang, just over the Guangdong/Fujian border. All of my new found friends were local "Guangdongren" so they quickly located nice accommodations and delicious food.



And plenty of ice cold beer! Splendid group of people and a fun time was had sharing tales, as all bikers do. Thanks for the great dinner guys.



It had been a long day for everyone, so we were off to bed fairly early. I went back to my humble abode to swim some laps in the ridiculously huge bathtub. It's quite amazing what a couple hundred Yuan gets you for a night



The next morning was sunny and warm. (note to Sabine... I don't think it ever got bellow 20ºC all four days.) Felix and I had agreed on meeting in JianOu, so I was up early and rolling by 7:00.



I decided to stick to my plan of S and X roads which started out well enough as I passed through the rural countryside. This was a nice little sugar cane farm that I stopped at for a peek.



Fujian is quite mountainous and I was pretty much going up or down all the time.



Then the roads got bad, and I mean really bad. Lots of construction and mud with plenty of obstacles to keep things interesting.



I passed this cool little covered bridge, something I'd never seen before on previous journeys.



The scenery was good, but the roads were really taking their toll on me. I figured I had plenty of time to get to JianOu, but at this point, I was struggling to make 30-40 kilometers in an hour.



Stop for a rest.



Finally reached JianOu and was happy to find Felix and his friend DaoFei had only been waiting about 10 minutes. We found lodging for the night and then hit the town for some beers and boasting.



JianOu is a river town, and lots of local people enjoy eating crayfish. I'm not a fish fan, and I had also seen the condition of the river, so decided to pass on the local delicacy.



None the less, we manage a big feast with plenty of cold brews and lots of good conversation.



That was the trip up, try to get the return journey posted soon.

Cheers!
ChinaV