Biking Tour Reports

My group, led by Mr. Wong and our nurse Mrs. Nuttel-Smith, started fresh again this morning after a good night rest. Today is a relatively easy day since we only have about 25km for our biking.

We first went to a public cemetery. In the front of the cemetery, there were men chipping at marbles to make tomb stone for the deceased. The cemetery was funded and built by overseas Chinese people from Hong Kong, USA and Canada. We then went to a village and the people there told us about a hot spring not very far from the village. We visited the hot spring where people took hot baths using the natural hot water that can be as hot as 80 Celsius. We set off again and after huge hills and long fields and quite a bit of biking, we realised that we actually missed our destination so we decided to stop in a road-side restaurant to have our lunch shortly after noon. Since we had biked a lot more distance this morning, we had a very leisure ride in the afternoon where we visited a small village, a metal furniture factory and just rode between rice patties and small, rural villages before we got back to the bus around 4pm. The bus took us back to the hotel and after dinner, we went to visit the Wuxi Middle boarding school where we played a few games with the students there. It was a great day.

I woke up as usual, around 7:00 am, very quietly so I didn't disturb my wife and two kids. Going to my truck after a quick breakfast, I drove to the bread shop where I picked up my bread that I had to deliver. Heading out, I slowly drove along the road from Taishan to Dinggong (I was actually going to Duanfen). Along the way, at around 8:30-8:45 I saw far ahead of me some read dots moving along the road. I was so curious I stepped on the pedal and caught up for a closer look. As I got closer I saw that the red dots were foreign children and a few grown-ups ding something that looked like a motorcycle except without a motor but moving their feet on some pieces of plastic. I stayed behind them for awhile and watched them. I was really curious and interested in learning about these foreigners. After about 5 minutes I noticed that I was going to be late for my deliveries if I continued so slowly. I gave several honks on my horn, which I do often when I see people, drove around them, and sped off to finish my deliveries. I found out that night that they were riding bikes.

There we were riding south of Taishan when our group rode into a small rural village. With the help of an interpreter I interviewed a man who came out of his house when he saw us riding up. His name was Lu Qui Kwong. He was a farmer. In fact he started farming when he was about 15, and he has been farming ever since - for 45 years. He was born in the village, named Dong Hua, and has lived there all his life. Mr. Lu has two children, and like him they also work in the fields planting and harvesting rice. His oldest is 20. None of them have ever been in school. They work in the fields ten hours a day and then either they watch T.V., listen to music, or sleep.

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