Tour de Taihu Day 3: Sanshan Dao to Nanxun

It wasn’t long after leaving Sanshan Dao that I realized the situation around Taihu was more complicated than new tarmac and blue water vistas. The southern side of Dongshan is all fish farms as far as the eye can see. Well, they aren’t fish farms, crab farms really, carved out of what used to be wetlands. Look at the Google Earth map (after the jump) and you can see the outline of them–actually larger than the Dongshan peninsula proper.

I stopped for a bit on a bridge and watched locals drive their long motorized flatbed boats out from their white houses on the mountain side of the road, under the road and out to their “fields” to tend the “crops”. I waved to them and they waved back. I went on, passing along the way a little commercial village given over to everything Biluochun tea. I had forgotten that Dongshan is a big producer of Biluochun. The shops were just opening up and I had a whole day of riding to go so I pressed on.

There’s a big oblong bay that separates Dongshan from the southern rim of Taihu. From the east end of it sweeping down past Wujiang toward Qibu there is a whole lot of nothing–for now. You can tell that it’s been flat floodplains for some time, but that’s going to change in the next few years. The bullozers are moving in along with the hard hat dudes and the potbellied ganbu clutching the blueprints of the future in their sweaty palms.

Here’s a big billboard announcing the vision:

The glorious future of Taihu! Not a single piece of stray algae in sight.

Here’s the current reality:
I spent a lot of time on highways today (thankfully I’ve been able to stay off interstates almost entirely the past three days), chucking along, brain rattled occasionally  by the odd piercing blast of a horn from a passing Dongfang truck which really does seem calibrated to get inside your brain and physically kick it. At some point I detoured off (I didn’t ride all this way to see billboards, dammit) and struck down towards the lake via small single lane concrete roads. I passed derelict shanzhuang hidden in overgrown patches of weeds and crab farms which had gone to seed. I finally came to a tiny village with a single place selling food proprieted by this nice couple from Anhui:

They clued me into why everything was so desolate down this way: the whole place is set to be chai’d in a few years. The government is running a tourist road through. Perhaps this is part of the whole plan to encircle the lake with a tourist road which was floated a few years ago. The people I talked to were all for it. And even if they weren’t, they said, “Mei banfa.” Nothing can be done. But my sense is they are genuinely happy about the project.

After I passed through the village I got a glimpse of what said project might look like: a car-less piece of new blacktop running about 100 meters from the water with a marsh in between and in the marsh were flocks of white cranes and other birds and a couple of demur looking cows thrown in for good measure. This is great! I thought.

I followed it greedily for a kilometer before it turned into a monstrous brown construction project which stretched for a good 5 kilometers. Well, it’s going to be a while before the grand vision of perfect tourist harmony is achieved. As I was cycling back to the main road I passed my first weaving operations, half glimpsed looms clattering away in semi-darkness. Visions of things to come perhaps? The southwest side of the lake is a textile machine, I was told.

After the Baipugang Bridge, the road recovers and I powered on towards Qibu proper, the lake by my side again. The main thing to note here is the massive proliferation of algae, which is visible in the photo below beyond the shack:

It’s a veritable carpet, reminiscent of the well-documented problems Qingdao has been experiencing for the last 8 years. Hmmm, come to think of it, didn’t Taihu’s algae problem also emerge at around that time?

At Qibu I turned inland toward the ancient water town of Nanxun. It was difficult push, wind squarely in my face, the road sucked, and my front axle was making funny noises. I doubted the wisdom of this move. Man, you get a kilometer off the lake and it turns into some kind of Henan backroad hell with piercing truck horns blasting from all directions and mopeds flying everywhere and old ladies crossing the street and diesel haulers spewing noxious smoke.

But perseverance pays off and I rolled into Nanxun, found the old town and stumbled upon the Qianweng Jiudian (courtyard pictured below) and I was one happy dude. Nicest accommodation I’ve had so far and all of RMB220. As the sun set, I sat at a table by a darkening canal surrounded by those ancient walls and tucked into a fine repast of braised pork, some cai and a couple of cold beers.

Ninety kilometers today. I think I’ll take it easy tomorrow as I head toward something called Taihu Paradise. For real.

What I learned today:

1. There is at least one other person also riding around Taihu right now (a Chinese guy).

4 thoughts on “Tour de Taihu Day 3: Sanshan Dao to Nanxun

  1. Ironic that environmental groups in the US are trying to restore these types of marshes south of Chicago. Progress; that’s the name of the game! Dust and algae spoors; do you have your fact mask filter? asks your concerned mother.

  2. Your pictures are beautiful and telling. The poster reminds me of the South Shore commuter train posters from South Bend to Chicago.

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