Portrait of an LBX

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

*See all the great pictures Andy’s been taking in Fujian here

At the time of my last update, we had just finished exploring the ancient city of Tangyin back in Jiangxi. Since then much has happened (while at the same time not as much as we’d like due to the infernal rain).

Fujian has been the only province to care enough to put up a more glorified marker at its border than just a small blue sign

The last day of Jiangxi and first two days of Fujian were a veritable comedy of errors in navigation and planning (Andy and Alexis found it less funny than I did). Having had our appetite for ancient towns whetted by Tangyin, we decided to target another such town just over the border in Fujian only 170 km from Nanfeng, where we took our last rest in Jiangxi.  So we set out to make the trip in two days, except that on day 1 we missed a turn and ended up tacking an extra 30 or so km to our day’s ride through steep mountains and narrow dirt roads. Having at last rejoined the correct route, around 4pm, we were treated to an awe inspiring surprise. The provincial road snaked around and up a terrifically high mountain, so high that we could tell the switchbacks would continue well after we could crest the highest point then visible. Alexis disappeared out in front of us as he is wont to do, and Andy and I pressed in lowest gear slowly for an hour at least, before finally at the top of the slope we crossed the border into Fujian. After the obligatory picture next to the entrance stone (incidentally, to this point Fujian is the only province to mark its frontier with more than a small, simple “Now entering xyz province” sign). After the border marker, the first thing I saw in the new province was an old, thin man wearing a Mao hat in the middle of a terraced field with two water buffaloes. As he looked up, his smile stretched as wide as the look of wonderment in his eyes, and he waved emphatically at the three foreigners creeping steadily upward in the dusklight. If there is a value in omens, then our prospects in Fujian seemed most auspicious indeed. (more…)

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