Portrait of an LBX



Jour 121 (20/01/10)

Zhukou(朱口)-Jiangle(将乐)

Province du Fujian(福建省)

- 70km -

Cette fois-ci encore nous nous levons tôt pour quitter ce bled un peu fou. Aussi bien hier soir que ce matin, nous avons eu mot pour mot, la même conversation avec quatre ou cinq lbx:

• “你们是哪国人？” (« Vous êtes de quelle(s) nationalité(s) ? »)
• “一个法国人，两个美国人！” (« Un Français et deux Américains! »)
• “哦～～～，三个国家？！” (« Ohhhh, trois pays différents ?! »)

Pont au milieu de nulle part (1)

Pont au milieu de nulle part (2)

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Jour 71 (01/12/09)
Shaoxing(绍兴)-Shangwangcun(上王村)
Province du Zhejiang(浙江省)
-env. 45km-

Nous nous sommes couchés à 19h, et c’est 12h plus tard, à 7h, que nous nous levons. Après une bonne douche, nous remballons nos affaires, grignotons quelques baozi à la pâtes de haricots rouges et une galette aux œufs, et retournons au Starbucks pour prendre un café. Internet, c’est bien sûr très pratique, mais son addiction menace souvent notre progression. Ce n’est qu’à 11h que nous partons.

Au début, la route est remplie de camions et les paysages sont horribles. Nous décidons alors de bifurquer vers une petite route de montagne. Les pentes deviennent vite très abruptes, mais le décor s’embellit considérablement, et nous traversons quelques petits villages qui ne manquent pas de charme.

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Jour 64 (24/11/09)

Anji(安吉)

Province du Zhejiang(浙江省)

Ce matin encore, le réveil n’est pas brutal. Enfin… sauf pour Andy qui souffre toujours du genou. Conclusion: le départ est à nouveau reporté. Après un petit déjeuner identique à celui d’hier (nouilles au bœuf et niangao), Evan et moi partons à la recherche d’une fabriques d’objets en bambou, alors qu’Andy retourne au café pour se reconnecter sur internet.

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By Evan

Forgive me, readers, for it’s been a long time since I last posted. Before I begin, I’ll note that I have been alerted that most don’t appreciate my rants about how overwhelmingly terrible modern Chinese cities weigh on me. I genuinely do lament the way China has been constructed over the last several decades, and I wish from the bottom of my heart that something could be done to salvage what I see as the finishing off under updated pretexts (aka Scientific Development) of decent urban culture that was started back in the Cultural Revolution. That said, I’ll try to keep it to a minimum unless a particularly egregious offense forces my hand.

So back to where I left off: when last I wrote, Alexis and I were in Shaoxing trying to angle a tour of a huangjiu (黄酒) factory. Since the slackers at the biggest factory in town don’t work on Sundays (the nerve), we resigned ourselves to head into what’s left of the city’s old neighborhood and experience huangjiu the way LBXes do — 6 yuan (~$0.88) per warmed iron kettle (big enough for 4 cups full) with a big dinner. Several hours, another incredible meal (the best food of the trip so far has come from Shaoxing and its environs — I swear it’s universal that the food just gets better the further south you go), and six, seven, eight, or who knows how many kettles later, and we were on the alley after midnight with no hotel. Who needs hotels when you’ve got tents and an old neighborhood to camp in anyway, right? Anyway it made sense to us at the time, so we as quietly as we could drunkenly manage set up our tents in a courtyard among a cluster of houses next to Lu Xun‘s former house. An LBX heard us, came out and asked very worriedly what we were doing. Just camping, leaving tomorrow, we told him. “Oh, then sleep well,” he said before going back in. A few hours later at 6am when my alarm went off and the steady throbbing of my head entered my conscious thoughts, we packed up and made to head out. “Why are you up so early? You could sleep a few more hours!” said the same man from the previous night on his way out. Sometimes I love LBXes, I really do. (more…)