Weekend Trip From Shanghai -- QianDaoHu

[felix]

Thanks for posting milton! Qinadaohu is one of my favorite weekend rides too. Can't believe they're building a bridge across there, it must be quite an undertaking. I thought the lake was hundreds of meters deep!

Euphonius is looking pretty short in this pic. Doesn't seem like you miss him that much...

[milton]

Euphonius is looking pretty short in this pic. Doesn't seem like you miss him that much...

Since Mr. E has a bad shoulder and a non-reunion bone, we made him sit. Believe me that it was a real effort to squeeze out that smile. We did indeed miss him. His many text messages helped us do that as well.

Mr. E, please get better soon.

[milton]

When we got off the ferry, we intended to go to FenKou 汾口， the west most town of the QianDaoHu loop. The sign was clear and unambiguously pointing to the left, so we did the left and follow the small village road all the way, again with breadthtaking scenery (pictures in last post). Then after about 1 and half hour, we reached a dead end and saw no Fenkou. I made a map for this wrong but fantastically beautiful bike route at: http://ditu.google.cn/maps?f=d&sourc...,0.307274&z=12

It turned out that the first sign we saw right off the ferry pointing to FenKou was unambiguous but totally wrong. It was 180 degree wrong.
It was getting dark when we reached that dead end, so we quickly turned around and traced back where we came from, not knowing where we were going to go next. We couldn’t get back to ChunAn as we took the last ferry in and there was no going back that day. Fenkou was still quite a bit away. Riding in the total darkness on country road was probably not wise.
So we decided to settle at the first town that offered lodging, LiShang 里商。
LiShang is the mini-center of local tea trade with 2 facilities to accommodate visiting tea traders. The rooms are small and old with concrete floor and walls. It actually was quite clean if one ignores the water stains on the walls. For 15rmb a night, we also got the following views right out of our window:





After super, we walked around the village.






For some reason Motokai always attracts people even without his JH600.


Motokai applies his charm.


The visiting LaoWai Motokai made quite an impression on villagers and became an instant celebrity. Our landlady works in a grocery store and her husband wanted to take a picture of Motokai holding their son. I don’t know why and how but the picture ended up looking like this:


Well, we are all families, aren't we? Needless to say, I received no request for pictures taking with me in it.

For safety, we were told to park our bikes in the local tea market:


Didn’t know what this banner meant at first. Then it dawned on me, it says: LiShang market of machine-made tea by “immigrants (移民)”. Why did they immigrate? Well, QianDaoHu is actually a huge dam created originally by flooding a large number of villages covering a vast area which obviously displaced many villagers and forced them to migrate. LiShang is one of the new villages built for relocating those displaced people.


Looking out of the tea market:


We had an awesome time at LiShang, the accidental destination of our trip. One can truly enjoy the day only after one releases oneself from the strain of aiming for a target and the pressure of time.

[Fred]

Excellent RR so far, keep it going !
Nice trip you did there...

[ChinaV]

One can truly enjoy the day only after one releases oneself from the strain of aiming for a target and the pressure of time.

Very true Milton, no reason to get wrapped up in the mileage and destination if you're not enjoying the moment. Great ride report, guess you guys decided to show me that there's good riding just outside the walls of Shanghai.

Motokai and I share the same views on fish . I never touch the stuff. I'm sure there are times he enjoys the extra perks of being "the lowai", but sometimes it would be awful nice to just blend in and avoid the attention.

Keep it coming.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[milton]

After a great night at LiShang, we decided to skip the QianDaoHu loop and go straight to WeiPing 威坪 to make sure we can get back to Shanghai before the day is out. We left LiShang early in the morning so we can catch the first ferry back to ChunAn at 7:30am.
The plan is to go to SanYang三阳 in AnHui from WeiPing through a route recommended by some friend. The ZheJiang side is again marvelous, but the AnHui side is bumpy and in disrepair like always. I will only show you the Zhejiang side.









Motokai coming around the bend:

[milton]

The reason that I started posting before Motokai is due to the realization that my artistic bent is a lot less developed than his. If I didn’t jump the gun, nobody would look at my pictures after viewing Motokai’s.
Now I will slow down a bit as my presentable pictures are about exhausted. I need to give Motokai a chance. He took many marvelous pictures along the way. Motokai is capable of taking photos while on the saddle, which is beyond my grasp. Besides, I look great in many of his pictures.
I am also as anxious as you all are waiting for his rendition of our expressway run-in with the cops.

[MotoKai]

This is the photo you leave off at and give me "a chance" to jump in on this thread?? Pretty tricky Milton!

Okay I'll play along. Moments before this photo was taken, we pulled up to this mountain ridge to take a breather. As Milton was dismounting his JH600 I thought I saw his wheels turn a small bit and asked if he had his bike in gear. Milton asked, "Do you think I left it in neutral?" We both laughed.

Milton took his camera out to shoot the Anhui mountains which were vastly different from the Zhejiang rolling hills we left behind just an hour before. I decided to use my camera to see what Milton's cool carbon fiber helmet would look like on Motokai's head:



Then it was time to move on. Getting back on my bike, I fired up and was about to pullout when I noticed the twisties below that we would soon decend upon. Cool Photo I thought. I threw the kickstand down and jumped up on the roadside wall to shoot. With eye in viewfinder I heard a loud !CRASH! behind me....WTF? I turned around to find my bike on the road with a third of the clutch lever broken off. The guy so concerned about not leaving a bike in neutral did exactly that moments later (rather than killing the engine and putting it back in gear).

I was busy yelling #%^&&!#@, and Milton put his PR helmet on and placed a positive spin on this incident. "Look how lucky you are to have a partial clutch lever to ride back to Shanghai with. It would be terrible to be stuck on this mountain ridge, right?" Motokai could smile again and ride on - ride on to the expressway. But that story comes towards the end of our journey. So let me first rewind to Saturday morning....

[MotoKai]

As Milton mentioned, the Friday night ride got us out of Shanghai enabling the start to a more scenic ride on Saturday morning.
But weekend traffic (even in the country) can still be a bitch, as this photo depicts:


Was quite the challenge to find the right timing to pass this guy~

We finally hit a bit of open road - Milton tearing it up....




Then it was time for a pit-stop (they weren't all for my caffeine fixes!).

Besides, I look great in many of [Motokai's] pictures.

[Steve_R]

The suspense continues .... what about the expressway cops