Day Five
I spent the morning of day five checking out a few hotels in the Thousand Island Lake area, since my company will be taking a trip there soon. Once those tours were done, I headed up the 302 to the 320 and through Hangzhou.

The 302 was nice in parts, allowing me to appreciate the scenery on both sides of the road, but it would occasionally suddenly shift from smooth to Chinese highway version of Whoop-De-Dos and occasionally the ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ lumps of concrete that can send you airborne if you aren’t paying attention.

I transitioned from the 302 to the 320 without drama, and on into the traffic of Hangzhou. Here I was a little nervous, as I knew motorcycles are not technically allowed in the city, but the police didn’t seem to care. Mostly, I had to watch out for drivers that did their best to ignore the fact that I existed, resulting in me spending a bit of time in the bike lane while I tried to navigate out of that traffic ridden hellhole.

By the time I left Hangzhou, I was celebrating to myself in my helmet, but aware of the fact that I now had to deal with the lumpy side of the 320 at night.

On my previous trip to Wuzhen I had already become aware that the 320 does not provide smooth road surfaces. This, coupled with my fellow travelers all using their best and brightest headlights left me longing for the familiar 318. There I knew I could rely on smoother surfaces and a barrier between me and the onslaught of highbeams.

A road sign indicating the 202 would lead me towards Suzhou provided an escape. I took the exit ramp and made my slow escape, continuing to ride with caution as seeing much of anything is made impossible by a misunderstanding on when it is appropriate to use highbeams. This misunderstanding also made it difficult for me to create any distance from myself and the young local hotshots who wanted to challenge me by coming in as close and fast as possible. Ultimately, I just pulled over to the side of the road and took the opportunity to orientate myself before continuing on to the 318.

Once on the 318, all was good, and I was back in Shanghai around 10pm.