Bike Group Week 1 April 10

Spent night 4 at Hotel Holiday Sanbu in Kai Ping - very comfortable hotel - full western standard. First stop at Allied Signals factory in Kai Ping - manufacturers of synthetic fabrics for the tire industry. A bus ride saw us into the countryside v ery quickly - something that we have come to experience often in our week in China - the countryside is never very far from the city.

An early lunch at the roadside and our team was on our bikes through the countryside. On this stretch of road, there were a lot of hills which took its toll on our energy levels. The valleys were filled with rice terraces and the hills and roadside, covered in trees.

We stopped at a few villages - friendly people as mostly was the case in our earlier village visits - at one village we experienced a traditional Chinese funeral with many fireworks and a long funeral procession.

We also saw evidence of a lot of small scale industrial development.

Twenty eight kilometers into our cycle, we were bussed through a busy section of road and then completed the final 11 kilometers to our destination - Long Shan Foreign Merchants Hotel for the final night of our trip.

PERSPECTIVE ON CHINA
BY NICK PHOUTRIDES, KENT LUI AND BRAD YARZUMBECK

My name is Ying. I am a hawk. Today I live in a bamboo basket in a wet market in southern China. I have heard from my friends and seen through the basket, a group of young humans who are touring China to learn of this place.

In my time, my flight has taken me over many places in the country.

I have seen rice paddies and hunted mice and rats in the paddy's and surrounding vegetation. I have seen man bent over a plough behind the water buffalo, sheu ngau, to till the fields for the planting.

I have seen many people on their bicycles, traveling across the countryside as these young people have and I have seen them go from village to village, from factory to factory.

I have seen old people, use their wood buckets to water their animals and fields - buckets now riding on the bicycles of the young visitors to go with them to their homes as reminders of their visit.

I have seen the big buildings housing factories eat up the countryside and deplete the fields of rice paddies and hunting grounds for me and my family.

My present place is a place of death. I will no doubt not live to see the land from the air again. My hope is that the visitors will carry my story to give hope to my family who come after me.

Crouch's Biking Group #1

After a breakfast of Chinese food (AGAIN) we set out to bike. Our first stop was an old Chinese burial ground. It was built on a terraced hill where there were around 50 terraces. On the top there was a rectangular hole with murky water in it. The purpose of the hole is unknown to us. This graveyard is the resting place for some Chinese that died in America a nd came to be buried in their homeland.

Next we stopped to talk to some of the villagers in Sha Ping, we learned that this village has been around between 50 and 60 years. Its clans are Lee and Chan and most of the villagers farm. To say thank you to the villagers we took their picture with a Polaroid camera. Their eyes grew wide as saucers as they watched the picture go from reddish to a picture of them. Then we were on our way again!

As we were biking our way to our destination we saw a muddy path leading to a place unrevealed to us because of heavy vegetation. I bet you'll never guess what we saw next... a Victorian house in the middle of China!!! As we ventured further into the village we learned from the locals that about 40 years ago the town was inhabited by New Zealanders. In the center of the city there was an old small castle, or so it seemed. An old man told us that he had no key and the building was cleaned only once in a while.

It began to rain. We biked our way along the road, taking detours through puddles, to a town called Ding Gong. After turning onto a side street we saw a crowd of people gathered around something. Our curiosity was aroused, two men were sitting in a pool of blood were de-furring a dog. At the town square we challenged a group of villagers to a game of volleyball. We kicked their rears!! After that we started biking again. (biking.qtk)

Between breaths we had the chance to take in the beauty of our natural surroundings.

Then we reached the bus and went back to the hotel where we were rewarded with a hot shower!!

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