Revolutions for Relief
  • Home
  • Mission
  • Team
  • Journal
  • Photos
    • Media
  • Donate
  • Sponsor
  • Stats
    • Individual Country Stats
  • Contact

Up for air

4/4/2011

4 Comments

 
Kellen Smetana
Both figuratively and literally.  Figuratively in the sense that we’re checking back with the western world after our first three days of cycling in China and all is well.  Literally in the sense that Guangdong province has to be one of the more polluted areas on the planet.  This afternoon we closed out a 125 kilometer day to finish in Wuzhou, the first major city in Guangxi province, and appear to be just starting to exit the industrial mess.

Over the last two days we passed through both Jiangmen and Zhaoqing: two cities you’ve almost certainly never heard of.  Each of these has a population of over four million, about equivalent to the entire Atlanta metropolitan area.  Guangdong province is strewn with generically named entities like the Wing Yuen Lung Garment Company Ltd. and Cinese Plastics Company.  If you ever want to know where half of the products you buy are coming from, you’ll probably find these companies at the base of the supply chain.  I mentioned Hong Kong has a lot of construction; this place has more.  There’s road work, bridge work, mining trucks, and scaffolding everywhere.  The air pollution in Guangdong is bearable; the noise pollution is not.  Every car, bus, truck, and motorcycle honks as they pass to make sure other vehicles (including touring cyclists) don’t jet out into their lane.  Since buses are the biggest and fastest, they pretty much ride the horn the entire time.  It’s amazing we have yet to witness any road rage.

Even as dirty-looking as we were after two nights of camping along the side of the road, we seem to be quite the spectacle here.  While stopped, we often have to smile for a photo or waive to anyone shouting “Hallo” from passing motorcycles.  The first day Ben had some problems with his gears and an entire team of passing cyclists stopped to lend a hand (and photo-document the ordeal).  With the little communication we’ve been able to have, the people have been friendly, helpful, and welcoming – all I could ask for!  So I can’t bash Guangdong entirely, but let’s just say if there were an NCAA tournament of places I would like to live, it might match up in the first round against somewhere like Bavaria or Provence.

Into Guangxi tomorrow.  Photos continue to wait until I can get my computer connected to the internet.
4 Comments
Poggiolo
4/4/2011 08:18:38 am

Can we please get things standardized here...a traditional K2 rating scale would be ideal.

Reply
Colleen
4/5/2011 12:42:16 pm

Cannot wait for the pics...love the updates, keep them coming! :)

Reply
Jack Schinasi
4/7/2011 12:43:52 pm

Kellen, great mileage already! Keep up the good work. I'm pumped to see those pictures. Just read an article online singing your praises. Fun stuff.

What are you doing for food? Keep up the great work.

Reply
Dating in Topeka link
10/10/2013 06:26:07 am

Was browsing through Weebly when I stumbled here

Reply



Leave a Reply.



    Countries

    All
    00. USA ~ Trip Preparation
    01. China
    02. Kazakhstan
    03. Kyrgyzstan
    04. Uzbekistan
    05. Kazakhstan
    06. Azerbaijan
    07. Georgia
    08. Turkey
    09. Greece
    10. Macedonia
    11. Albania
    12. Montenegro
    13. Croatia
    14. Slovenia
    15. Italy
    16. France
    17. Monaco
    18. Andorra
    19. Spain
    20. Portugal
    21. USA

    Archives

    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011


    RSS Feed


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.