Portrait of an LBX

By Evan

*Long post warning — this one goes on for a while, but there’s some pretty funny stuff if you hang on for a while.

(For all the great pics we took during our stay in Luxi, click here)

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It has been weeks since my last meaningful post, and so here is my shot at an act of contrition. Last time I wrote anything worthwhile, we were heading into the southwestern corner of Fujian (福建西南角) right before Spring Festival (春節).

Entrance to Shengwu Lou, falling apart in many places. By Andy

Once we had a night of sleep under our belts, we headed out into the villageside of Luxi (蘆溪鎮鄉村) to scope out the famous sister tulou (姐妹土樓) for which the city is apparently famous, even though most people had no idea where they were. Tulou #1, named Shengwu Lou (繩武樓), the first one we came across, defaced on the side facing the river with Maoist propaganda, was like a miniature Chinese rendition of the Roman Coliseum, made of earth and nestled amongst the rolling green mountains. As terribly magnificent the giant structure was to look at from the outside, it has clearly been the victim of historical stagnation (因凝滯而腐蝕).

The stucco exterior was cracked and falling apart in many places, and on the inside, it was mostly quiet, with most doors barricaded or otherwise locked. A woman emerged from the only open door and, as we were becoming used to, invited us inside her apartment within the tulou for some tea. Shortly thereafter, her husband, Mr. Ye (葉, everybody in Luxi is named Ye) entered the dark, damp, cave-like dwelling and took over tea-pouring duties. As he talked to us, his daughter of six jumped up and down from a wooden chair onto the stone block floor, and his wife tidied the tight apartment of maybe 30 square meters, dumping waste water into the slit in the floor, a feature apparently all tulou share. (more…)

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Jour 154 (22/02/10)

Huizhou(惠州)-Shenzhen(深圳)

Province du Guangdong(广东省)

- 115km -

N’étant plus très loin de Shenzhen, nous ne nous retrouvons en bas de l’hôtel qu’à 9h, et après un petit dèj un peu trop épicé, reprenons la route, sur une nationale plutôt cool, car quasi-vide. Mais après notre pause déjeuner (encore hakka), nous retrouvons la pollution des très grandes villes, avec des quartiers industriels et des banlieues où ne se résignent à vivre que les gens venus de la campagnes, ainsi qu’une circulation de plus en plus intense. Après un parcours de folie, où nous nous perdons souvent, nous nous retrouvons au milieu d’une autoroute et allons même jusqu’à prendre une bretelle en sens interdit pour retrouver le bon itinéraire!

Publicité pour une société de construction immobilière, promettant aux éventuels propriétaires une vie pépère, sans souci. Le slogan chinois signifie: "C'est au poisson de voir quand il va venir". C'est-à-dire que le propriétaire (pêcheur) ne doit se soucier de rien. C'est la société immobilière (poisson) qui prend tout en charge. La traduction anglaise, très maladroite, peut se traduire mot-à-mot: "Quand le poisson viendra, ce n'est pas vos affaires"

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Jour 150 (18/02/10)

Meizhou/Meixian(梅州/梅县)

Province du Guangdong(广东省)

Aujourd’hui, bien évidemment, c’est la grasse matinée. L’après midi, nous allons dans un café, où un jeune lbx nous crie: “外国佬！哈罗！” (« Des étrangers! Haaallloowww! »). Et là, j’avoue que je commence à en avoir marre, et commence à comprendre la phrase récurrente chez Evan: « Un jour, Alexis, je vais tuer un lbx! ». Je crois à ce moment-là que ça devient inévitable. Il va bien falloir en buter un un de ces quatre, lui ratatiner le pif, lui piétiner la gueule et faire du hachis avec ses couilles. Évidemment, lorsque l’on est dans un pays occidental, on ne se rend pas compte de tout ça, car ce genre de comportement est rare, même dans les tout petits bleds. En revanche, ici, on ne peut pas sortir sans que tout le monde se retourne, en rigolant bêtement, sans aucune discrétion, en nous pointant du doigt, en disant “老外！” (« Un étranger! ») ou “哈罗！” (« Halloowww! ») suivi d’un rire stupide, comme si nous étions des animaux. Il faut bien le dire, ces gens-là nous considèrent comme des bêtes curieuses. Mais Evan a aussi raison de souligner un point: il faut savoir se dire que ce sont des cons qui ne savent rien et les mépriser avec pitié.

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Jour 147 (15/02/10)

Luxi(芦溪)-Hukeng(湖坑)

Province du Fujian(福建省)

- 38km -

Aujourd’hui, nous allons mieux. Il est temps de partir. Nous quittons donc l’hôtel, entourés par les trois filles du patron, qui se battent pour poser en photo avec nous.

Comme hier, aucun restaurant n’est ouvert. Nous nous contentons donc de quelques pains achetés dans cette pâtisserie occidentale à la chinoise, et repartons. La première demi-heure de notre parcours est semée d’embûches: boue, trous, flaques, cailloux, mais nous avons tout de même la chance de tomber par la suite sur une petite route asphaltée. Seulement, les dieux des montagnes du Fujian, n’entendant pas nous laisser rouler sous des conditions aussi idéales, ont décidé de convoquer la pluie et de dresser devant nous des pentes abruptes. Encore une fois, c’est le parcours du combattant, d’autant que nous nous perdons plusieurs fois, à cause de la signalétique quasi-inexistante.

A peine sortis de Luxi, un nouveau tulou...

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By Evan

I just wanted to write a quick post to let everybody know what’s going on with us. The more substantive posts about our LBX activities will be coming soon. Thankfully, the weather cooperated with us on our last three cycling days (all over 100 km — real killers), and we pulled into Shenzhen right on schedule. Thanks to Andy’s friend Marissa and her roommates Arte and Alex, we had a comfortable place to rest in the old deep ditch (深圳). Yesterday morning bright and early we passed into the bright light of Hong Kong with a day to spare on my residence permit, on a dedicated mission to crank out some long term visas.

We had heard that six month visas were possible, and accordingly we cut a B line to the visa agency of Linda Hui. Mrs. Hui told us that US nationals could indeed process 6 month visas, and French nationals 3 month visas, but with one prickly little caveat: we have to leave the country every 3o days (每三十天都必須出境), no exceptions at all. In a panic, we ran to several other visa agencies, called everybody we knew, and generally freaked out. In the end, the owner of our hotel processed a 3 month, no required exit visa for Alexis for 400 HKD (~$51 USD). Being a US citizen, I was forced to accept a very bitter solution: 6 month tourist visa, 30 day stays, 1700 HKD ($220). This, of course, means that I will have to take a bus from wherever we are to Shenzhen every god$@*& #*~’ing 30 days to walk across the border, buy a sugar free Oolong tea in a 7-11, and walk back across into Shenzhen. The words “arbitrary” and “wasteful” were flashing before my eyes as I accepted the stupidest of solutions before dowsing my anger with expensive beers (what was I just saying about “arbitrary” and “wasteful”?) with Andy and our old pal Drayton. (more…)

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Jour 144 (12/02/10)

Luxi(芦溪)

Province du Fujian(福建省)

Etant donné la journée crevante d’hier, nous faisons aujourd’hui la grasse matinée. Lorsque nous sortons, les filles du patron de l’hôtel insistent pour nous accompagner, de peur que l’on ne trouve rien: ni où manger, ni quoi voir. Nous réussissons, non sans mal, à nous en débarrasser, pour aller prendre quelques baozi sur une étal du marché encore très animé, puis partons vers le tulou le plus proche.

Marché de Luxi (1)

Marché de Luxi (2)

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By Evan

Time to make up a little lost time. After our time in Anxi, we spent some really glorious days meandering around Xiamen, which I swear is China’s most charming city — that I’ve visited — bar none. If we were urbanists and not LBXists, as it were, I’d spend an entire post writing about how we got lost in the old city’s dense, pulsing alleyways the way men lose their souls in a beautiful woman’s long hair. Alas, our quest is for LBXes, and after only three days Alexis returned from his visa run to Hong Kong, obliging us to part from that beautiful city. [Andy's pics of Xiamen here]

On our first day out of Xiamen, torrential rain stopped us short in Zhangzhou (漳州), a rat hole of a city, where successive sicknesses encumbered us for two days. At least it was in Zhangzhou that I got to see my Saints roll to a Super Bowl victory via a friend’s NFL.com subscription (thanks to Weiwei and Travis!). Three days later than expected, we rolled out of town toward the northwest and the land of the tulou (土樓), or as they ought to be called in English, round earthen castles.

Inside the tulou of Xiazhai. Photo by Andy

That day out of Zhangzhou, I lost three tubes to lesions in the same spot on my back wheel (one before even riding on the $@*# thing) before realizing that my rear Schwalbe Marathon XR, “the ultimate expedition tire,” had been ruptured severely. I threw it away and put on my spare, but seriously, I want my $55 back. Needless to say, that cost us loads of time, and we got only as far as the small town of Xiazhai (霞寨鎮), where the following day I was sick to the stomach… again. As I lay in bed listening to the same five Spring Festival songs on endless repeat at max volume (there will be brutal violence next time I hear the gongxi gongxi gongxi ni [恭喜恭喜恭喜你!] song), Alexis wandered out and found a surprise: a tulou right in Xiazhai, way ahead of schedule. (more…)

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Jour 141 (09/02/10)

Zhangzhou(漳州)-Xiazhai(霞寨)

Province du Fujian(福建省)

- 65km -

Cette fois-ci, c’est bon! Nous nous levons à 7h, le ciel est clément et aucun de nous n’est malade. Nous quittons la charmante Mademoiselle Cai (蔡小姐) qui travaille à l’hôtel, allons prendre un café au Mc Do, et reprenons enfin la route.

"Payer ses impôts conformément à la loi est un honneur"

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By Evan

Yesterday as we made a rough 90 km cold, rainy push from the charming — if dilapidated — old town of Chayang (茶陽鎮) south through some amply steep mountains, the last we ought to see for probably a month, something I’ve read recently popped into my head. For background, I believe I mentioned in a post some months ago the importance of geography to politics and culture after we had crossed the desolate wasteland of the North China Plain (華北平原，古稱中原). The great flatland surrounding the Yellow River, the “cradle of Chinese civilization (中華文化的搖籃),” has apparently always been extremely susceptible to sweeping political or cultural changes since the entire area is flat enough to allow for rapid horseback transit within its boundaries. As such, the language, ethnic makeup, and culture of the areas within the plain are largely identical. While that makes trade and communication vastly more expedient, it also allows for easy conquest by armies of whatever marauding warlord happens to be strong at the time and subsequent assimilation into whatever said warlord’s imperial imagination can conjure.

I can’t speak to what China looked like a hundred years ago, but I do know that the North Plain now has been the victim of several quite overwhelming imperial edicts (詔) over the previous decades, the Great Leap Forward and Scientific Development to name the two that come most to mind most quickly. Since there’s literally nowhere to hide from such movements on an open plain close to imperial power (China’s capitals have by and large been in the plain for the last two thousand plus years), the whole place is, as we found it, a dusty, polluted Mad Max-like dystopia (with Chinese characteristics, of course). It was thus with great relief that we arrived at the northern boundary of South China’s sprawling mountain ranges (take a look at this map) after our stay in Shanghai, even if it meant slower progress. (more…)

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Jour 138 (06/02/10)

Xiamen(厦门)-Zhangzhou(漳州)

Province du Fujian(福建省)

- 65km -

Après un petit dèj de baozi et un petit café, nous sommes enfin prêts à partir. Dans une ruelle, un vieux lbx me demande ma nationalité:

• “你是哪国人？” (« Tu es de quel pays? »)
• “法国人！” (« Je suis français! »)
• (entendant cela, un autre lbx, lève le pouce) “法国好！法国戴高乐将军很棒！” (« La France, c’est bien! Le Général de Gaulle était génial! »)
• (flatté) “对，很棒！谢谢！” (« Oui, il était génial! Merci! »)
• “他们也是？” (« Eux aussi sont français? »)
• (je réponds d’un ton ironique, que le lbx ne perçoit pas) “不，他们是美国的！美国人不好！” (« Non, ils sont américains! Les Américains sont pas bien! »)
• “美国人也有好的！” (« Des Américains, y’en a aussi des bien! »)
• (encore plus ironique) “可是他们卖武器给台湾！” (« Mais ils vendent des armes à Taïwan! »)
• “哦！这个不好！不好！” (« Ahh! Ça, c’est pas bien! C’est pas bien! »)

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