I managed to take a break from finals this week to explore new territory beyond Xihua to the northwest. Fugou is the largest small city in that direction that is a day’s ride out and back. (About 90 miles round trip) It rates a 1 1/2 Dicos according to my criteria using the fast-food chain as an indicator of the size of the city. Usually my internal coffee homing beacon takes me directly to the […]

It’s been tough getting away to ride much during final exams, so I’m going to share some of the variety of transportation I’ve seen here. Cars simply are not the best choice. Most people get around on electric scooters and three-wheelers. There is also quite a variety of electric micro vehicles that don’t seem to know what they are. They even pass through the bike and pedestrian gates at the campus entrances. Bicycles here are […]

I had so many unanswered questions from last week I decided to ride back to Taikang to learn more. Also, there are some better county roads up that way, in good condition and not too busy. I found a nice little piece of single track to connect some pieces together, too. There was some dusty double track that claimed to be county road, but to call it that was a stretch. I took a little […]

This week I’ve been focusing on the northeast, the area above Huaiyang. Thursday’s shorter 52 mile loop introduced a little new territory, but it was chilly and my feet are always what suffer most. Wool socks and thinner outer socks with a plastic bag layer between mostly worked, but I need to find my toe covers. I took some new county roads, and one “T”ed in a village with a lively winter market going on […]