Wednesday, January 8, 2020

China Blog #83

China Blog #83

China has been walked! I stepped into the Yellow Sea at Kowloon Park and just beside my ferry for South Korea.
Thank you China from the bottom of my heart for a wonderful experience. I geniunely wonder if any other adventurer has had the insight and quality of experiences that I have been blessed to be selected for! 
Thanks to these two men who were wondering what I was doing today at the seafront. They kindly obliged with my finishing photo and then an even bigger favour when I asked them to walk across the sand to take one of me in the water 
Then they shook the sand out of their shoes and waved me goodbye. A dry pair of shoes and socks for me.
Time for a celebratory beer before the overnight ferry to Incheon, South Korea.
Before I boarded I had an hour of hassle at the ticket office and they even called Korean immigration. I have no idea why as a visa or onward ticket is not a requirement. I noticed that my China record seemed to be on the ticket agents computer. I even saw a picture of Karma, my cart on her screen. I wonder who took that as if it was one of the hundreds of millions of surveilance cameras that China has then I should have been in it. 
  Then I discovered that there was no sailing to Incheon that day as it was cancelled. Instead I decided on a port thats about two extra days walking away from Seoul called Pyeongtaek. I just wanted to get going that day instead of waiting for the other ferry and going through the bureaucracy again

China Blog #82

China Blog #82

Regular readers will know that I have a Spot tracking device that tracks me as I walk. Unfortunately, in China, it has been a bit of a mixed bag and hasn't always updated. Last time that I spoke with Spots customer service they mentioned that there is no service in China. So I guess that every one of my location updates is a bonus! Even before I got to China there were large location gaps and I'm not sure if it's because my device is old (about eight years old) or some other issue.
  To be honest I'm not too pushed about it.  It's still doing strange things as it manages to evade the Great Firewall of China and points out Mangans whereabouts somewhere in the humongous pleotea of people in the worlds most populous nation.
 Yes, sometimes Spot has me walking on water.. And I'm sure you would believe me when I say that.. If I could I would!
 I'm walking every road kilometre and that's all that matters. I see it more as entertainment value for my hardcore followers. 
I notice that it updated really well as I reached the end of my China route. To follow me please click on the orange Spot link to the right of the main map on my website www.myworldwalk.com

China Blog #81

China Blog #81
I was 140 kilometres away from Weihai Port and was making a big push to catch a ferry to Seoul, South Korea sometime the following week. Thanks to an Irish man called Neil Timmins for his kind invitation for a place to stay in Seoul. He twisted my arm to stay a while.
 I walked with Neils sister Lisa when I was walking in the Port Augusta region of Australia a couple of years ago.

Three big days have left me just 56 kilometres from Weihai Port. I made a massive push to get there for a Wednesday night's sailing to Incheon, South Korea. The next sailing after that Wednesday was on Saturday and I didn't want to wait around. As much as I love China, I'm fatigued and its time to move on to new unrestricted pastures. 
Saturday I lashed out a 47-kilometre day and that was followed by a 49. So many days over the last year when I got close to the half-century distance that I stopped when I found a place to stay, such a soft wimp 😂

That second night it was late and as I couldn't be bothered pitching my tent I settled down in a car shelter which was in a state of disrepair. A barking dog got me going at 5 am and that was the foundation of my 53 kilometres from west of Taocun to the west of Muping. 
Once again I had the 'sorry no accommodation for foreigners' hassle here and had four refusals. Regular readers know that this has been an occasional occurrence for me in China and it tends to come in spates and in the same town.  The hotel owners are not to blame as they sometimes say they need to be registered. I'm sorry I know it's not their fault. It's a purely racist law. Can you imagine a hotel in Europe, Australia or the USA saying no foreigners or Chinese allowed? The Chinese would be the first to scream racist as they did recently when a Swedish television show picked up on the disgusting spitting and guttural clearing habits here. This is something I just can't get used to and its everywhere. 
  I mentioned in my last update about so many astonishing stacks of cheap beer outside grocery stores in this region of China and it's only this region. I gave a quick count of one stack which had twelve-packs of 600 ml bottles to be five high, 30 wide by 25 deep😂 I would really know what they are doing with enough alcohol to fuel even a Glastonbury festival. Or even Father Jack, ( from the comedy Fr. Ted) drink drink, drink 🍺🍺🍺
Or Shane McGowan at a stretch, lol there 🍺🍺🍻🍺
  I don't see any serious alcohol abuse. I notice teenagers coming into stores and buying bales of milk or even Red Bull. Even at the low cost of 2 Yuans a bottle (roughly 7 Yuans to the $/€) that is a lot of valuable stock to have outside a store and to just pull a tarp over at night. No doubt the owners have the usual Chinese alarm system, a barking one. Still, in a state of shock at this, I was astonished when I noticed at the other side of the store another large stash, almost as large as that one!!! A sign in another store advertised a 12 pack of 600 ml bottles at 14 Yuans = two euro or Dollars! 
That day en route to my 53 kilometres I was pretty weary as I had only about two hours sleep. My pulse had been racing as I settled down to sleep in that garage and it took about two hours to fall away into slumberland and then the barking alarm clock as previously mentioned. It was a hot and humid day and hot on my hands as I pushed Karma along route 204. I now wear gloves to protect my hands from the burning sun. I was weary, almost as though I was slugging it out in one of my ultrarunning races during my competitive career, yes, I'm working off that experience and coping strategists that I garnered all those years ago. Eventually, after the hotel refusals mentioned earlier I found a nice one and at a reasonable rate. It had a two euro buffet breakfast option also.

China Blog #80

China Blog #80

Did someone drop their dentures in the salad bowl? 

Stopping in a small hotel for the night in 
Cuijiajizhen town I got talking to some of the residents there. They were bio-agricultural engineers working on a project and staying in the hotel for a month. It seemed that they were training quality-control and checking procedures for a big import/export contract for the American Wal-Mart company.
Two of the workers spoke pretty decent English. The boss man confirmed what many people have told me during my travels in China. I have heard that properties can be so expensive and the wages are so low that many people take out 99-year mortgages! He mentioned that this is more so in the large cities, and less so over in the rural areas. Obviously, this long-term mortgage is passed on from generation to generation within the same family.
  One of his employees is a 26-year-old woman who also speaks good English. We had a great chat about some social issues in China. Though she is of that tender age and she is still living at home and pretty much has to follow house rules as she said.."Mam won't allow me to drink alcohol when I'm around boys as so many of them are so bad and they try to take advantage of women! Besides I don't drink beer, I drink whiskey and wine but only at home with my parents. However, I know you are not a bad boy and I could drink with you but you would have to be in my house and in the company of my parents!" 

Lol, Yes, of course, I am a good boy 😂

Then she went on.. "I'm not married because I haven't met the right man yet. I want to get married and just like so many Chinese parents I get constant pressure from mine to hurry up and get married. They keep warning me that 'life is so hard' when you are an unmarried woman. I don't want to have children either as children are too noisy!" 
I felt that the last part of her statement was up for reconsideration. I was surprised when she also mentioned that despite her parent's protective wall that they would have no objection to her living with a man in an unmarried loving relationship.
Work is also difficult and these workers are typical of so many large corporation employees in so far as they work long hours, typically 9-9 with an hour for lunch at noon and an hour at 5 PM for dinner. Meals are provided by the company and they work six days a week. Apparently, their work is intense and there is a lot of pressure due to so much competition from rival contractors for each other's contracts. 
Just imagine the lack of social and family life that entails. Not being able to go to your children sporting or other activities unless they fall on a Sunday. 

  I took a rest day in that hotel and the nice owner kindly took me out to a delicious dinner with his brother, father, uncle and friends. That was a great fun-filled evening and our communications were totally by our translation apps. They all laughed heartily when I asked if someone dropped their dentures on a plate of vegetables! It was, in fact, a small piece of steamed corn cob!
Smartphones continue to knock communication barriers down.
Next day when I was leaving for my 31-kilometre march to Pingdu the hotel owner and his wife generously insisted on giving me a large food bag for the road. On the good boy walked,😂👣🚶

China Blog #79.

China Blog #79.

The Cultural Revolution.

Just over 50 years ago Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in China. In his time in the Communist Party, he had cracked many glass ceilings and set about ridding himself of his rivals. 
Chairman Mao called on young people (often as young as 9 or 10 years of age) They formed the "Red Guards" with a mission to take party leaders to task for embracing bourgeois values and for their lack of revolutionary spirit. Pretty soon the Red Guards were out of control and destroyed much of China's social fabric.
Mao also ordered them to destroy the "four olds" - Old ideas, customs, habits and culture. Religion was a prime target. Temples were ransacked and churches were destroyed. Religious leaders, university students and scholars were sent to factories and farms for 're-education' through forced labour. Religion was pretty much wiped out. In recent years, however, there has been a strong religious revival. Many of the temples I have walked past have been rebuilt. Some experts believe that by 2025 there will be more Christians in China than anywhere else in the world, despite the fact that religious freedom is still curtailed. 
It seems that religion is pretty much tolerated, in so far as those religious institutions are required to register. There are five recognised religions: Daoism which is the principal Chinese religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.  
Many clerics have a problem with signing paperwork which relegates their God to third place; that is after the Communist party and also Chinese loyalty. The Cultural Revolution all but ended in 1976 with Mao's death. I am sure he has turned in his grave at the sight of western capitalism, for it seems that there are more posters adorning KFC's Colonel Saunders, in Chinese cities than of the man with the red book.

China blog #78

China blog #78 

I have written about China and the OCP before. Here is an excellent article by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post on the failed 'One-Child Policy.'


 This has caused a gender imbalance where boys were favoured over girls and many women opted for abortions when pregnant with a girl. Other problems coming down the tracks for the worlds most populous nation is how to cope with an aging population.

After 36 years of enforcing this policy, the Communist government eventually eased it to a two children policy three years ago. They are now actively encouraging families to have more children. However, in modern-day China, it is now an economic issue as generally, couples can't even afford one child, let alone two. As one person pointed out that it's not necessarily an issue about feeding children its more about giving them a good standard of living and to be able to provide for them when they eventually get married.
The irony of the OCP is that when it was first implemented that the countries birth rate was already in decline.

China blog #77

China blog #77 

One day, I made so many stops, lots of chats and fun, no wonder I only walked 24 kilometres. It was smiles before miles 😂
I arrived in quiet villages and left them pumping but alas made a baby cry! 

Another three days and nights on the road. That first night I was just finishing off my dinner and I was thanking my lucky stars that I was well placed. Looking out of the restaurant window, the drizzle had turned to torrential rain. A little later thunder, followed by several flashes of frightening lightening illuminated the night-time sky. The establishment also doubled as a basic accommodation, not bad, my dinner and a bed for about eleven Euro equivalent. The owner was thoughtful enough that he brought me a basin of warm water for a refreshing foot soak. With some more warm water, I had a body wash as sometimes that's the better option to risque shower conditions. Still, I was grateful. The bed was clean, that's the main thing. If it hadn't been I would have slept in my sleeping bag. I laughed when the owner told me I could pee into an upstairs sink rather than to go downstairs to the outside toilet.
When you are walking alone and without a support vehicle one has to work with the cards you are dealt with. Even if I was a millionaire I would most likely have slept in that same bed that night.

Next day, Saturday I walked another 36 kilometres and skirted a city called Anqiu. A large proportion of that day was along the banks of the Wenhe River. Elderly couples were out walking and shared some quiet bicycle paths with me while young families enjoyed their day trips as they socialised in shaded tree-lined areas. 
The days are becoming increasingly hot and humid. Just like checking for the time of the day I rarely check temperatures but I'm sure it was over thirty °C. 
A little further on I had an enjoyable stop at a roadside vendor for a mid-morning snack. It was outside a construction site and many of the workers washed their meal down with beer! 
I drank milk and ate stale bread and onion. I notice a lot more alcohol consumption in this part of China than in any other part. There are a couple of cheap crappy brands, one called Immaculate Beer. Three 500 ml bottles set you back about a euro. There are large stacks of this and the other cheap brands outside many grocery stores and inside restaurants.
I had my usual amount of interactions with the locals including a woman who was busy picking up a few large handfuls of giant scallions. An overloaded truck had just passed our spot and after hitting a bump it jettisoned them onto the road. As she loaded them onto her electric scooter, we just waved and I refused her offer of a handful.
A couple of days earlier I decided to end my circa 6,000-kilometre double trek of China at Weihai Port. I was just 260 kilometres away from the port. From there I plan to get a ferry to South Korea. 
Pyongyang, the North Korean capital is just across the Yellow Sea from Weihai, my ultimate Chinese destination. I wondered if that was the reason that I saw some emergency shelter signage. Believe it or not, I did have my friend (Benjamin in Berlin) check out the possibility of me walking in North Korea but alas Kim Jong-Un was probably too busy for a coffee nuke or a chat over a cup of ginseng tea 😅
 I have it on good authority that there is an Irish bar in their capital! All be it only North Koreans are allowed to visit!

  At the end of that day, I camped in a playground area behind a restaurant in a quiet village. 
First light is now around 4 AM and it would be prudent for me to start swinging my feet a little earlier in the day.
 Sunday, May 12, I walked another 29 kilometres. Much of that was on minor roads and past such a diversity of strawberry, scallion and wheat fields. Also, cotton flurries, almost like snowflakes blew onto my sweaty face causing constant irritation. 
With a good effort, I made it to a Cuijiajizhen town where I am taking a rest day today. On the way, I made just one stop when I briefly rested under a shaded bridge. It was an elevated rail line. As I finished my rest break a high-speed train rattled past and above the strong smelling onion fields.

China blog #76

China blog #76


Ju County in the Chinese province of Shandong is home to the ginkgo tree which is thought to be over 3,000 years old. The area is also home to 1.1 million residents. 
One day as I walked towards a small city called Juxian I first had to reroute myself across the Shuhe River as a chunk of a bridge on a backroad was missing (see photo). Thankfully that was only a minor issue as a few hundred metres in the distance  I could see another bridge on route S335 and when I zoomed in on my smartphone Google Map.
 I decided to change direction. How did travellers manage to find their way before smartphones came on the market many people have often asked me? 
Well, we managed but we probably were stuck to the main roads more so than now; that is unless we were armed with paper maps. Such things are difficult to find nowadays. I can barely remember the last time I saw one or an atlas on sale. With a smartphone map, we can go deeper and more remote. Maps can be downloaded when we are online and then used when on the trail in the offline mode or when we have no signal. All we need to do is keep the phone charged up. 
That morning while walking on a pedestrian path I was astonished to see a man lying down on the path. First I wondered if he was injured but when I went to check on him he didn't want to respond to me. I got the impression that he just wanted to rest in a shaded area and was unconcerned about zooming scooters, thankfully there were none. I suspected this man had some unfortunate mental health issues but what could I do? I tried summoning help but I was ignored by one man. Eventually, a man stopped to help him. 
Some paths are difficult for me to walk on as they are not designed for pram pushers or wheelchair users. It's not uncommon to find lamp posts or trees blocking the way. That day there was a stupid drain design which took up almost the entire width of the path and these were spaced every fifty metres. 

The next day was a 28-kilometre stroll to Anzhuangzhen a small spread out town which seemed to consist of one long main street. On the way, I stopped for.a snack in a grocery store and got chatting to a man called Lee. He spoke good English as he previously lived in South Africa where he studied business. As always when I ask such people why they returned to their country instead of staying abroad the answers is almost always because home is where the heart and family is. 
Further on down the highway, a man in an electric three-wheeler taxi stopped for a Google Translate chat. He had a child behind the wheel as he drove and even offered to buy me lunch but I tactfully refused and walked on. A little later he returned with what can only be described as a large 'disc of bread' which weighed over a kilo. It was so enormous that I had to use a bungee cord to strap it onto Karma.
Arriving in Anzhuangzhen I decided to buy a small external speaker to listen to my music and podcasts in a bit more comfort. Inside the phone shop, I decided to test it. I scrolled through my You-Tube music list and fittingly stopped at David Bowie's Little China Girl. There were hysterics from the staff and customers when I did a bit a jig on the shop floor. Sportingly one of the women came out from behind the counter to dance with me!
There was only one basic accom in that town, above a hairdressers shop and the owner didn't want to have me as a guest! 
On the way out of town, I stopped at a restaurant and the kind owners strongly resisted my payment for my dinner. 
 Eventually, I got going again but I was also on the lookout for a place to camp. As luck would have it at the end of the then there was a small forest beside a petrol station. As I didn't want to pitch my tent in daylight I decided to pop into the petrol station for a cup of coffee. Once again I had another delightful Google Translate chat with the lovely young family who worked there. The man asked me if my wife objected to my long hike!  
For a joke I told him that I said that I was initially going for a 30-kilometre hike and she replied: "Good in three years time you will be 30,000 kilometres away from me!"
  Then I went back next door to my forest and pitched my tent. In the morning the man came over to me and woke me up... With, I kid you not... Four loaves of bread! That's more bread than I would eat in a month back home. Along with that, a packet of salami and a huge tub of tomato sauce. Between the disc of bread and the four loaves I was looking like a mobile breadman. It took all my powers of persuation to tactfully refuse this kind offer! 
On I walked and met more people and had some more nice chats. I walked past the strangely named Wang Cum Park When I got to Gaoqiaozhen I found a basic accommodation which cost about seven euro. Then a knock at my door and I discovered that I had to go down to the police station to register. The hotel owner drove me down and waited about half an hour and I wondered had he regretted taking me in that evening as his reward was this hassle. But he didn't seem to mind. The officers were friendly. They just took a photocopy of the information page of my passport and asked me for my phone number. I noted that they didn't look for my visa, obviously they are not used to dealing with foreigners. 
Then to welcome me back to the hotel the nice owners brought me a big bowl of noodles, vegetables and eggs to my room for my dinner.

China bllg #75

China bllg #75 
It was not a war zone.. But it sure sounded and looked like one. I was just west of Ganyu City. Fireworks exploded outside my hotel window after a bride and groom arrived for their wedding. Yes the Chinese love their fireworks. 

I continued walking north through Chinas Jiangsu province. It had been a hot week about 30 C and I even changed into shorts and a tee-shirt and splashed on my sunblock. Many Chinese people still wore their overcoats and even when the wind was motionless they donned blankets that are designed for covering themselves up on their scooters (see last photo).
One day I came to roadworks where the traffic was diverted. I continued on as I could see the area I had to get around was only a couple of kilometres and led to a village. But before long it turned into a sandy trail with a couple of pools of stagnant water that I walked through. I smacked the front wheel against a rock and a little later the aluminium L-shaped bracket that holds Karmas front wheel to the forks snapped. I managed to keep the wheel on by using cable ties and duct tape to hold the axle up onto the fork. These items should be every cart pushers friend. That did the trick for it rolled on well that day.
 Next day I stopped at a roadside metal fabrication shop and for the equivalent of a few euro, I had one of the workers make me two new brackets. This time with sturdy steel and it only took him a few minutes to lash them out.
I camped for a couple of nights; once at a roadside rest area called Xie Hu Great Cherry Garden rest area and another night in a small town park. 
I read an article on the BBC website about a driver who was stopped by the police on suspicion of drink-driving in the province I am currently in (Jiangsu). Apparently, he overdosed on durian fruit. He failed his breathalyser test, but was filmed by police protesting: "I've just eaten durian fruit!"
In a follow-up police testing experiment an officer was breathalysed after eating some of the stinky fruit and it was confirmed that his alcohol level directly after eating durian was 36mg per 100ml. The legal limit for blood alcohol concentration in China is 0.02% - roughly 20mg per 100ml. 
Durians are infamous for being the worlds smelliest fruit. Much loved in parts of China and especially South-East Asia. They stink so much that occasionally bus companies warn their passengers against consuming them, or receive a hefty fine.
  On the road, just as I crossed into Shandong province I met a couple of Chinese touring cyclists. They stopped for photos. Photos can take a long time as everyone wants their own photo and then there are the selfies. That's four rounds for each person!, One of me alone, one with that person and me, and as I said the selfie and the one with everyone in it! Then the person that takes that last photo wants to get in another so the camera is handed over again!
I laughed heartily when after the selfies these lads wanted the full photo so they stopped a couple of pedestrians to take a picture of the three of us. Then the pedestrians all wanted their photos, selfies, full photos et al! 
Women still want to give me their babies but I resist it strongly and hand them back after a photo 😂
I made it to a small town called Changling and found cheap basic accom above a grocery store. No television, so it's a middle of the night it was a radio job for Liverpool's match v Newcastle United. Come on the Reds, you can win the Premiership 🍀
 Down the road, I went for some street food and enjoyed the Google Translate chat with some locals and the owners of the open air restaurant. As always I showed my cancer awareness message and minutes later I refused cigarettes, Ah! The irony of it!

China blog #74

China blog #74

Next day I clocked up kilometre 29,000 - about 18,000 miles have been walked.
 It was a warm day, about 32°C. Time to top up my sunscreen. 

One Saturday night after my 46-kilometre day. I camped in a small town park. Services were pretty sparse. After twenty kilometres i found a grocery store that was open. I bought some noodles and the nice family insisted on giving me lunch. 
Then I marched on. It was another really hot day.

A few months previously an American walker called Anna contacted me. She wanted me to walk for some months with her in Africa. At first, I refused. One reason was that I had safety fears about the continent. I was also a bit hesitant when she told me she can sometimes be bad and moody company. However, I suggested and helped her research a route from Rwanda to Kenya with no intention of going myself.  Pretty soon I got excited for her about her trip. Before I knew it she had me roped in. I was going to walk a little extra walking in Africa. For weeks my instincts and sixth sense told me that this was a bad idea and I should reconsider. 
Once I changed my mind and told her I didn't want to go but when she sent me a pleading reply with a heartbreaking plea I just melted and reluctantly agreed. We eventually set a tentative date for the third week in June to hook up in Kigali, the Rwandan capital.

China Blog #73

China Blog #73

I arrived back in Wuxi, China on Thursday and the next day, Good Friday I was partying with my mate Don Kenny. 
What a night we had in the Red Lion.  Easter Saturday was my birthday but I celebrated it in some style that Good Friday.
Ten minutes before midnight Don dragged me off to a nightclub and at midnight a fantastic all women's band called me up on stage for a Happy Birthday rendition, lol!
Then a pretty lady came over and asked me to dance. Being the gentleman that I am I had to oblige but I made a bold dance movement that Don actually snapped! We danced to a funky song and then I went down on the floor and crawled under her legs!
Back in Ireland, I got some medical check-ups and all is thankfully clear. 
However, my doctor had some news for me... Good news for you Tony... Birthdays are good for your health. The more you have the longer you live

Dublin timeout

Dublin timeout  

Iy was wonderful to get back to Ireland for this break. Its been more than two years since my last visit. That was when my brother Brian died from a sudden heart attack and I travelled back for his funeral.
This time I enjoyed hanging out with my best mate Adair Cowan, and I even did a ten-kilometre canal walk!
Then a journo asked me what did I discover on my world walk and the state of the world. One of. my replies was that:
 There are so many problems out there but please remember to keep smiling and having fun. Let's keep life simple. Its just as easy to have a good attitude as a bad one. And to always dream big. If we can imagine what we want then just find a way to make it happen.

There were some other nights when I just sang along to great live music. Especially on Saturday and Sunday nights in the Brazen Head - Irelands oldest bar, circa 825 years old. 
My favourite nights are Sundays with the Brazen Hussies. The band are great friends of mine and we must know each other for about 5℅ of the time that the Brazen has been in business. 

Another day my sister Ann asked me what I did that day. "Nothing!" I said 
"But you did that the day before!" She replied.
"I wasn't finished!" I said. 
So, the world walker was given Lucky the family dog to walk 😂

Later I went out with Ann and my brother in law, John for another great music night in the Brazen Head. Thanks a million to Eamon Thompson, John O'Callaghan and the rest of the Brazen Hussies for a superb performance. They kindly gave me signed a copy of their latest CD called The Brazen Hussies Remixed Up.

Anotjer night along with my brother-in-law John We attended a fundraising event in the Aviva Stadium for Sean Cox an Irishman who is also a Liverpool supporter. He was injured last year by an Italian hooligan while attending a game at Anfield. Sean has been embraced by the Irish public and all at Liverpool football club and beyond. So it was lovely when a Reds legends team packed with stars from over the last couple of decades came to Dublin and played a fundraiser match with an Irish legends team. Many of the Irish players played for Liverpool in the past and as per true exhibition style, some of them changed sides from time to time during this game. 
As may readers will know, Liverpool is also my team and this night they made yet another comeback escape, lol.
 Keith Andrews put Ireland ahead and this was equalised by a John Aldridge penalty, a typical Aldo shuffle before he planted the ball in the back of the net. Late in the second half  Vladimir Smicer scored the winner for the mighty Reds.
Wishing Sean Cox all the best in his long battle with recovery and strength to him and his family.
Then before I returned to China I had a couple of nigjts out with my family and we celebrated my birthday early. 
I had a great timeout, just what I needed

China blog #72

China blog #72

 A 33-kilometre day to Huangqiaozhen. Followed by a 37 km day when I slept under a motorway flyover 😂 So many friendly people stopped to greet me as I walked on some backroads. 
At one rest stop I smiled over at a young woman who was a customer in a petrol station and next moment she came over to my table and squeezed me into a corner and wanted my contact details lol 😂🍀
I escaped with my noodles intact 😂👣🚶

Three more days along route S229 when I walked 44, 29 and 19 kilometres to reach Yancheng. Much of it was walked on stretches which were being widened. As mentioned before I'm taking a break from the road for three weeks when I return to Ireland on Wednesday 27th March (2019) I fly from nearby Shanghai.   I reached Yancheng on Sunday afternoon and took a bus back to Wuxi where once again I am staying with my great friend and super generous host Don Kenny. We enjoyed two great nights out on the town! 
Don, originally from Ohio, USA has been living here for twelve years. He is a marathon runner and likes to fit marathons in on his business trips. He has his own steel export company and mainly concentrates on the scaffolding sector. Donald Trump's steel tariff has become an issue for him.

China blog #71

China blog #71

I continued walking north at a pretty decent clip. As always cars and trucks overtook each other at an alarmingly dangerous rate. They take so many risks even when there is an approaching vehicle. Many drivers drive with a bully mentality, knowing well that they can force drivers out of their path and sometimes into the hard shoulder I walk on. Rarely do I see a courteous driver. I see so much stupidity and even with some slow moving vehicles with drivers driving in the overtaking lane while on a mobile phone. As always this is greeted by impatience and more risk-taking maneuvers. Cultural impatience and non-inforsement of traffic rules is behind it all.

That morning for a few kilometres I walked on a tree-lined grassy stretch which was a couple of metres off the road. I was able to walk there and off the road as I was walking with a backpack. One advantage of backpacking as opposed to pushing a cart is that I can sometimes walk off-road or hop over a crash barrier and walk along it and away from the maddening road for short stretches. It was a warm day and I welcomed the shade which the trees afforded me. 

After twenty kilometres I arrived at the south bank of the Yangtze River. This is Asia's longest river and is 6,380 kilometres long (almost 4,000 miles) It is the third-longest river in the world but the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to walk across. There is a ferry service for pedestrians and bikes but it about twenty-five kilometres to the west and off my route. Had I gone there then I would have had to walk a similar distance back to my route. As I have already walked this continent and my current walking in east China is all 'extra' walking I felt that I was entitled to take a bus across the bridge and this would not be considered cheating. Especially when it is illegal to walk across. 

I would of course restart immediately at the riverbank. Even Guinness World Records have a rule that all road regulations have to be obeyed. I have always operated to a higher standard than that of the self-appointed so-called authority of extreme sports. To me, GWR is merely an entertainment manual. They are not a governing body of any sport. 

I'm following (and even exceeding) the minimum requirements of the World Runners Association  (WRA) who are the recognised governing body for around the world runners. They also encourage world walkers to follow these guidelines. If you are interested in checking out these rules please Google WRA/constitution 

Had this been on my original route across for sure I would have gone out of my way to avoid the bridge gap but as I mentioned this is extra walking and I genuinely believe my decision was credible. 

The bus drove over the Yangtze River which is about 2.5 kilometres across. I didn't get much of view out of the crowded bus. Then I wanted to get out but I couldn't as it was a motorway. 

I had my restart location on the north bank of the river bookmarked on my map and stayed on the bus for a further seven kilometres to the next town called Jingjiang. Once I got there I dropped my backpack in a hotel and got a taxi back to the north bank. Then I walked a further kilometre until I was satisfied it was a good match with the point I left on the south side. Whatever about an unavoidable bridge gap there will be no road gap that I can help on this global walk. I was tired that night and the last thing I wanted to do was to go out there that night and walk the eight kilometres along route 229, but I did because it was the right thing to do.. Had I not have walked them nobody would have known. Only the most important person, me. I couldn't do that and just gloss over it. A lifetime to regret it and a two-hour effort to be proud of. 😀🚶👣

China blog #70

China blog #70 

Before that timeout mentioned in update #69 I had a few days walking to do before my flight to Dublin. I decided that it was best for me to leave Karma with Don, that way I could get back unburdened for my flight.

After a great St Patricks night in the Red Lion bar in Wuxi, I walked out of the city the following afternoon. My destination for this week is Yangcheng, 222 kilometres to the north. This past week the weather has improved. After three weeks of rain, it's now back to warm days. That's yet another winter I escaped without any adverse weather. Last winter I was in Australia and for a European, that doesn't count as cold! My previous winter was in Mongolia and China where I had only about a dozen really cold days. So, not too bad! 
I left Karma, my cart with my friend Don Kenny  in Wuxi as I'm going to return there on Sunday. As mentioned in a previous post, I'm going back to Ireland for a short break and to take care of some personal business. So with a backpack, it will be easier to return on a bus for my flight. I didn't take much in the backpack, just a minimal amount of clothes, a summer sleeping bag, waterproof bivvy, a phone charger and my log book. Stupidly I also took a pair of heavy waterproof boots that I bought in Wuxi.
I walked for a long time that day and after exiting the city I didn't pass any shops. Just as my belly was about to fall out I came to a roadside vendor who was selling delicious fried bread. I had my fill while chatting to the friendly woman. 
I was saddened to see the cruel sight of several cages of chicks that were squashed too closely together into small cages. They were then stacked into the underneath luggage compartment of a bus.
It was around ten pm when I reached Qingyang town. Stuck for a place to sleep and starry night that it was I slept on a bench outside the Transport Police office on the outskirts of the town. Due to my late start, I did well to clock out with 30 kilometres. The following morning I left early and before they arrived.

China blog # 69

Just to remind readers:
China blog # 69 

Visa Run to Ireland..

As I'm travelling on a multi-entry Chinese visa I have decided that I want to see more of this amazing country. However, there is only a little more than three weeks left on my current entry. So, it was time to figure out my next visa run! Those of you who are not long-term backpackers, you may wonder what a visa run is. Simply it's leaving a country with the sole intention of only leaving so as to return again. In doing so the traveller has a fresh visa stamp in their passport and the day counter is reset. 
I remember back in 2013 when I was in Indonesia on my world run that I needed another month. So I did a visa run and flew on a budget airline to Singapore. I had a burger in the airport and a couple of hours later I returned to Indonesia with a fresh visa on arrival. 
This time I looked hard and couldn't find a cheap return flight back to any of the cities near my route. It seemed to be a lot of money also. I even considered walking Cambodia as an extra and doing my Chinese visa run that way. At least that would be a bit more value than my other options. At this stage, I got the idea that it's only a little more expensive to return to Ireland. I could take care of some personal business and also pay a visit to my dentist as there is a possibility I may need some dental work done on my big gob soon. Better to have that done with the dentist I know rather than taking my chances over here. 
At this stage, I realised that perhaps a visa run to Hong Kong could have been a cheaper option to some others.. But to hell with it, once I got the idea of doing the visa run to Ireland it was hard to get it out of my mind 😂

Then trying to book the flight with crashing website pages and slow VPNs it was a pain! In the end, I handed it over to my fabulous sister Ann to book me my flight and she even helped me find a cheaper one too! Thanks a zillion, sis 😍 I luv ya! I would be so lost without you even with a GPS Xx 
I can't wait to see everyone back in the Emerald Isle 🍀💚
March 27th I fly Shanghai to Dublin. April 17 its Dublin to Shanghai and back to my route for my walk towards Beijing, the capital and beyond 😂
Thanks to Don Kenny for minding Karma in his office. I will walk about a week with a backpack before I head to Shanghai. It would be so difficult for me to do this without Dons kind offer to mind my cart until I return.