My plan was to go for lunch. A good lunch break makes the whole journey more tolerable even with a long tiring ride day. John and Tsevtan was surviving on adrenaline for most parts in China always skipping lunch and having only coffee and snacks.
Today was also the first time that www.drivechina.com had a lunch optional detour stop so I was 100% sure I was doing that stop.
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| From Langzhong to Chengdu |
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| From Langzhong to Chengdu |
The roads in the morning were through vast amount of countryside farmland. Beautiful cannot be used enough in China to describe the things we see every day. Information overload was more the appropriate words and while certain things become numb, the sensory bliss is somehow never ending.
The AMAP navigation though did bring me to some weird roads through the countryside and at one point I decided to really check the map to see where I was going. AMAP was trying to shove me along crazy winding and small road detour just to bypass a city in the mountains which I of course decided to ride through saving me a good 30 minutes.
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| From Langzhong to Chengdu |
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| from Langzhong to Chengdu |
It took me four hours to get 160km to the lunch detour which was at Santai County Tongchuan Ancient City. Small and not so grand the ancient city was still a sight to see for a good quick walk through. I thought I would be alone but a quick checked in with the whatsapp group and I found Etaine and his family having lunch there as well.
John & Tsevtan quickly send me private message as well to meet up and for once we all had lunch during a ride day together. In fact, it was John & Tsevtan first time eating lunch in China during a ride day.
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| Tongchuan Ancient City |
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| Tongchuan Ancient City |
They could understand now why I was always stopping for lunch sacrificing time riding in the nightfall later. That food to boost the energy makes the last stretch more bearable.
Tongchuan Ancient city was also weird that most of the buildings were empty and locked up. It felt like a new Ancient City just built and ready to be sold to the highest bidder before opening up the tourist attraction.
While I know that China tends to re-construct almost everything and label it as restoration works, this one felt really weird since almost everywhere in China are built upon Ancient City if you think about it. The main difference was if the city was somehow able to retain its authentic structure throughout the test of modernization.
Tongchuan Ancient city was also weird that most of the buildings were empty and locked up. It felt like a new Ancient City just built and ready to be sold to the highest bidder before opening up the tourist attraction.
While I know that China tends to re-construct almost everything and label it as restoration works, this one felt really weird since almost everywhere in China are built upon Ancient City if you think about it. The main difference was if the city was somehow able to retain its authentic structure throughout the test of modernization.
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| Riding from Tongchuan to Chengdu |
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| Chengdu University |
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| Downtown Chengdu |
Anyway, after lunch we rode on towards Chengdu. The roads were not as interesting as the morning route and quickly it became a pace and rest kind of ride. John blast off with his big bike and Tsevtan decided to be lazy and follow me instead of working hard trying to navigate.
Reached Chengdu at night and almost repeated the steps of check-in, food and crash but this time we all knew there was a full free day the next day so while both John & Tsevtan woke up early to catch more Panda sights, I stayed in to update the journal and chill around downtown Chengdu.
Travelled on: Oct 2024
Reached Chengdu at night and almost repeated the steps of check-in, food and crash but this time we all knew there was a full free day the next day so while both John & Tsevtan woke up early to catch more Panda sights, I stayed in to update the journal and chill around downtown Chengdu.
Travelled on: Oct 2024
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