Jeremy, Ben and I traveled with a group called Bohdi Bikes (the organization with which we went to Moganshan). We left Friday night and drove 4 hours to our location at the top of a mountain. It was just starting to rain when we arrived to our guest house at 1am. We were greeted with hot green tea by a women, her husband, and their mother. They were so happy to have us.
unloading bikes
A misty morning on day 1. The view from the top of our hill.
We woke up Saturday morning at about 7:30. The second we stepped outside we could feel and smell a huge difference in the air quality. It was so nice to be out of the smoggy polluted city, even if it was overcast. Our hosts served us a homemade Chinese breakfast. Everything was family style. Our group was 9 people in total: an American guide, a German couple (who were more experienced mountain bikers), an older French guy, a Dutch girl, an Australian guy, and us, the 3 Americans. We were threatened by rain, so bundled up and head out down a steep hill to begin our journey. This was the first time our guide had ever been to this area, so we were doing a lot of exploring and winging it, which was fun. We started on the roads which were pretty crowded, so we moved off of them to smaller areas. We were climbing up STEEP mountains and racing down them in drizzling rain. It was scary!Scenes from Day 1:
When we got to the top of the hills we'd leave the bikes and go hiking for a short distance. Everyone was so excited to see us! We were able to converse with all the locals, all of whom informed us that it was raining (obviously) and invited us in for lucha (green tea) and lunch. Jeremy, Ben, and our guide went even farther up the slippery slopes and were greeted by a women cooking lunch. She insisted that they stay and eat and when they politely refused multiple times, she gave them bao zi a common bread dumpling type thing with pork/bamboo in the middle. However, this bao zi was not so common, because they could not stop raving about how delicious it was!
The rain held off until our last down hill just before lunch. It started pouring! We could barely see while zooming down winding mountains! When we got to safety we found a place for lunch and stripped off the wet layers and sat in a heated room. Jeremy and I brought a change of clothes, which we were thankful for, since we were soaked to the bone. However, they only went so far, since our shoes and helmets were drenched. Lunch was incredible the food was so fresh and so much less oily than it is in Shanghai.After lunch, the rain let up, and we continued to explore the area. Our first day was primarily spent on small country roads, most of which were paved. The wetness and the cars added to the overall fear and intensity of the day. At the end of the day when we were all exhausted we still had to begin our climb up the mountain that our guest house was located. This was the most exhausting part of the day. It was so steep and halfway up it started down pouring again! For the majority of the uphill we were biking slower than we could walk! Some Chinese people came out when they saw us and informed us that it was raining and we should come in their home for lucha. We couldn't say no! We were beat! So we sat under their hut and rejuvenated enough to finish the trek. Little did we know, we were just about home.
Look how high we are!
They were harvesting the bamboo forests.We made it! There waiting for us at the guest house was the friendly family that owned it. They made us a fire to warm ourselves and try our clothes. It felt so good to sit down in the warmth. After we were warm and dry, we enjoyed another fabulous home cooked meal. After dinner, we sat around the fire and drank beer together. It was really fun to exchange stories with all the travelers. The only thing missing was s'mores, which we learned are completely an American thing and no one else could even visualize them! We told them they were missing out!
dinner family styleDay 2:
The next morning we woke up with sore butts and legs, enjoyed another Chinese breakfast and were off. This morning the van took us and our bikes to a new location, and by the time we got there the sun was out! It was a beautiful day! We spent this day biking through more remote areas with very small towns. The scenery was gorgeous and the people were so friendly. I'm pretty sure we were the only Westerners they'd ever seen in person and definitely in their hometown. Once again, as we biked passed homes, we were invited in for tea and lunch. Everything was really muddy. So this day was more difficult because of the terrain. We got off the roads and into the mountains. We road along paths that were about a foot and a half wide that lined a river and then circled up across the mountain. I was in the back with the German and the Australian and took a small spill about 3 feet down the side, which was scary enough, but hot doggin' up in front were the American boys. They crossed a bridge over a gravel drainage path down the mountain. The leader and Ben made it across, and as Jeremy crossed it it gave out and Jeremy fell about 15 feet down the mountain as his bike tumbled after him. He cut up his forearms pretty badly, but he was mostly just shaken up. The German women took care of him, and we continued on, a little slower this time. There were some serious downhills and rocky terrain, but we made it out alive.
The scariest parts were over and from then on we just cruised through towns. We saw a tomb along the road. Jeremy and I stopped to walk though it to see up close what this holiday was about. As we were walking through there was an old man lighting firecrackers on his families tomb. Half looking at us, he asked (in Chinese) "Is your family here too?" "Not here," we replied. Then he turned around, looked at us, and exclaimed, "You're not Chinese!" We smiled and said, "No, we're American." He smiled to reveal his 6 teeth, 4 long yellow teeth on the bottom and 2 long yellow teeth on the top. Again he exclaimed, "You're not Chinese!" He spoke with such strong dialect that we could barely understand him, and he could hardly understand our formal-western accented Chinese. So he wrote the Chinese characters on the ground for Chinese and American, and he understood. Then we told him, we had to leave and it was nice to meet him. He followed after us telling all his friends that we were American. It was really funny.
We found another delicious restaurant for lunch and had another amazing meal. After lunch our guide got a couple hotel rooms for us to shower and change, and we got back on the bus to come back to Shanghai. It was a great trip!
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