China 02: Dancing in the rain

From 8th June 2017 to 18th June 2017

After the 2-week-break, a new phase of our journey started. We didn’t need the tent anymore. Although, the locals still didn’t invite us into their homes, we still managed to find affordable lodging. The weather turned to a new phase as well: the rainy season began. 

View from the Yellow Crane Tower (Wuhan)

"Nomad life"

We arrived in Anqing, the former capital of Anhui. There we were searching for a park to camp in as we were doing the same routine in previous towns. We found only one park which was crowded with people, thus we asked the locals for a better suggestion. They helped in their way: they called the police on us. We explained them too, that we would like to camp, even in the police station, but they were puzzled. “Why did they come to China without money?!” After a while, they ordered us to follow one of their cars. They paid a room in a hotel for us which we couldn’t have afforded.

In Qianshan, which was the next town, we went to the police station again. We asked them to suggest us a safe park where we can camp under a roof. A police officer suggested that we stay that night in a hotel, but we couldn’t afford that. She started bargaining at the reception and landed on 40 Yuan (5EUR) which we could pay!

From this time, almost every day it was rainy which was depressing in the beginning. Our rain jackets got wet from our sweat and from the constant rain. The landscape wasn’t enjoyable in this weather but we didn’t have time to wait one month until the end of this season. 

The new weapon against the rain: poncho!

Days went slowly until the border to Anhui, as only 40-45 km were our daily distances. In the afternoons the police helped us to find safe, cheap and such hotels which accept foreigners. We paid usually 40 Yuan for the room but sometimes hotel managers liked the idea of our honeymoon and offered a room for free. The rain and our slow pace were still frustrating and Linh’s health got worse again. After arriving in Hubei province, Linh was feeling ill one morning. We ended up going to the hospital again, but this time our translators were only: Google Translate, blood test results and a few helpful doctors who knew some words in English. We were convinced by them that in a few days she’ll feel better.

Chinese like to dance in the evenings

The stunning streets of Wuhan in dark

We got our motivation back in some days and our pace was back to 70-109 km per day. We arrived in Wuhan kind of quickly, which has the population of 10 million, just like Hungary. Finally a cool city! Besides some older, dirty buildings there were many fancy skyscrapers and Chinese looked more beautiful, handsome and stylish than in previous provinces. Our host was Mr Wu from Warmshowers. We had good talks and he helped me to find a bicycle mechanic, who didn’t ask money for the maintenance after he knew about our story. Mr Wu even got us into a 5* hotel’s dinner buffet (for free)! Some sightseeing was also essential in Wuhan. The Yellow Crane Tower was to be found here where many poems were written that Linh studied in school. The city was famous for the breakfast street as well where the fusion of northern and southern cousin created many unique tasty snacks. The most famous are Wuhan dry noodles, Wuhan dumplings and Four Season Tofu. The city has the nature of a naturally developed city.

The dumplings of Wuhan

After leaving Shanghai, we noticed how the traffic got less regulated. Cars and bikes turned to the road without checking if anything is coming. Vehicles, in order to get their way on the road, were honking most of the time. They didn’t respect the orders of lanes either, thus, they drove on our way from the opposite direction. Sometimes from the inner lane, a car turned right, crossing our way, almost hitting us. The traffic was frustrating but not as bad as in India.

Chinese have no clues about the world. They get fake news from their government and they believe it. They barely have a chance to reach the news of the outside world, as the internet in China is strictly censored and people rarely speak English. This propaganda machine controls an enormous mass of people. In some cases, they are turned against foreign products or companies, which results in violent protests on the streets. We are curious to ask them about politics and about their world view but we never know if they are spying on us.

Another interesting fact is, that Chinese speak several languages or dialects but the writing of these languages are the same. They can read the same text, but they can’t talk with each other. This is the reason why they like to show Chinese writings to us when we don’t understand what they say. 

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