Tuesday, March 7, 2017



World walk blog China 19

> 12,353 kilometres for 314 road days.
> A tough 46 kilometres walking across a steep mountain pass. For most of the day I walked past construction sites and a road widening project. Hardy women  dressed in high- viz vests, hard hats and sometimes an apron mixed it up with the lads. They worked harder lifting blocks, mixing concrete while many men stood smoking cigarettes. At the top of a mountain pass I was pleasantly to find a vendor selling fried potatoes and hotdogs. There was drizzle that day, combined with many roadside gravel piles which were scattered along the road it made for a muddy day. Even though the nylon shell of my waterproof walking pants are easily cleaned with a damp sponge, they just get mucked up again. Mud is perhaps the most embarrassing consequence of such a journey. I am regularly eyed up and down by smart dressed people who have just jumped out of a car or meet me when I stop. One can only feel dirty, no matter how one tries to stay clean, a splash from a truck and I am a mess again. That night I camped at a petrol station just six kilometres north of Zunyi City.
> In the morning just before I cleared the city a boy of perhaps ten years of age ran out in front of me. He was lucky that a careful bus driver slammed on his brakes, the boy also missed being hit by a truck by an arms length. He was shouting and running across that wide road to get to his friends. To me he seemed oblivious, almost like a dog that wanders out in front of traffic.
> I stopped at a roundabout to check my bearings. I was leaving route 210 which I had been on for over a month. I was looking for route 205. I noticed a white mini bus parked on the opposite side of the road. He made a u-turn and stopped to show me a message he had prepared on his translate app. It read: " If you betray us I will find you wherever you are."
> A strange person in deed. I was so taken aback that I didn't make a note of his registration number.
> I was to spend a long time mulling over that unusual comment. Who and what was he, I wondered.
> Does he do this to every foreigner he meets, well there are not many here. To be honest I was a bit hurt at the suggestion, for I love the Chinese people. There are many autonomous regions in this part of China. One reader emailed me to say it is populated by the Han people. Further on up the road a rat ran out in front of me as I approached a rubbish bunker. Village people burn their waste in them.
> Soon I was following a new road which was not on my google or on my maps.com. It was definitely more direct than the 205. Foolishly I followed it for over an hour but then it ran out. I was now walking alongside the expressway which I can't walk on.  I could see on my GPs that if I could walk another four kilometres then I would be back on the 205. But there was no more road. To cut a long story short I ended up on a trail. However, the map was not complete. I have noticed this a lot in China. My mobile data was also not working but I was able to open an email which my friend Benjamin had sent me with directions and thankfully Chinese characters. I copied and pasted a nearby town called Shenxi which was near the  route 205. From that I was able to get a ' pin drop ' location and find my way towards a house. Beside the house my gps directed under the expressway. However, as there was a little used underpass the homeowner used it as a garage. He was obviously a carpenter for there were stacks of planks and posts beside his truck. All the while a fierce dog who was just out of my reach was straining on his chain. The owner came out and was too lazy to move his truck. With fading light I was pretty stressed at that stage for I had no food and little water.
> Still he continued talking to me in Chinese. I was sure he was asking me what I was doing I was asking him what he was doing blocking a public pathway. I moved some of his planks and poles and managed to push my way through to the other side. With much effort, and trying to stay out of reach of the barking dogs teeth, I found my way through the underpass and onto 205 again. I made my way to a Shenxi and found a hotel. After paying for my room the police came along and after much mishandling of my passport I was told I couldn't stay in that hotel. I walked through town following the patrol car, for they offered to help me. Two more police vehicles joined in and a total of eight officers looked on. I walked to three more hotels before I was allowed to stay. My terrible day was not complete for I then had to go to the police station with them for a passport check. I had to explain why I was walking  towards Vietnam as I had an entry stamp from there from my visa run a couple of weeks ago. It was suggested that I was already there and didn't need to return to China. Spare me!! I felt I did well to manage 32 km that manic day.
> Next day I was feeling a bit lazy and when a man gave me two bags of fruit I accepted his invitation to dinner in a restaurant in Tuanxizhen. I had intended to walk on but I didn't instead I camped under a tented area outside the restaurant. 28 kilometres.
> Then a tough day in the mountains up and down steep inclines followed. I didn't stop much walked 38 kilometres before dark. On the way a group of six men and women stopped me on the road and informed me they are government workers.
> That's great I said, and walked on.
> Once again I planned to walk on but when I saw that the restaurant where I had dinner had a nice cheap hotel attached, I stopped. Once again after going through the usual passport being mauled routine the police were called. Luckily after a lengthy examination of my visa and information I was only asked for my name in Chinese; that's all!
> The officers accepted my answer when I ran my name through google translate. I have been told that hotel owners are afraid of misbehaving. That possibly includes accommodating foreigners. So they call the police for reassurance. The police, trying to regulate the order of things, want foreigners only in assigned (unmarked, but collaborative) hotels. Therefore the hassle.
Private people are not allowed to host tourists. If they asked the police for permission they would get hassled. So they don't ask, because they are still kind and hospitable. Camping outside is neither forbidden nor allowed. Officials don't know what to do. Ignore or hassle are the two possibilities.
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