„Biking into Beijing will be a piece of cake: first we go west along Interstate 102, then we hit the sixth ring-road and there’ll be a biking lane all the way till Tian’an men square.”- explains Volker. It sounds good enough to me. Nothing could possibly be worse than our …
There stretches a long beach, deserted on this windy afternoon. At its southern end the Head of the Old Dragon, the easternmost end of the Great Wall, juts out into the Bohai Sea. To the north the beach reaches the shipyard docks in the Economic ＆ Technical Development Zone. Both, …
We approach the county city of Xingcheng with considerable reservations. Xingcheng contains an ancient town, allegedly one of the best preserved Ming towns in China. Merely 6 km away from the ancient quarters is one of the finest beaches in Liaoning. As if these were not enough, Xingcheng is also …
The irony of our present situation becomes especially apparent amidst the booming new Yingkou. We took this long northern detour in order to avoid the over-industrialised region of Tianjin that would have laid on our way to Beijing. Instead, we landed from the fire directly into the frying pan. Here …
Having reached the new shores of Liaoning, we make a fresh start and agree on two basic precepts: from now on the family stays and bikes together; and we take it easy, without sticking to any strict plans or maps. The last would be anyway impossible to do, because we …
“Mama, is there a medicine for homesickness?”- asks Sarah. If there was, I would need a double dose of it right now. Sarah has her blues, Nora misses her Suzanna, and my Wanderlust slowly but steadily gives away to homesickness. After Volker departs for further two days of solo-biking to …
At the foot of Mt. Tai we review the present state of our journey. The prospects for the next days are bleak. The planned biking through idyllic countryside in Shandong won’t happen: the side-roads we were supposed to take are either undergoing repairs or have dilapidated, as we have learned …
After two non-biking days it feels good to be back on the saddle again. It seems I’m becoming a cyclist, after all. We leave the hometown of Confucius quite early and in high spirits, planning on a noodle brunch somewhere on the way. Volker has mapped a route of side-roads …
When the family is reunited after two days, I tell Volker of my Tai’er zhuang experience and we make a brainstorming. If Yaowan was Toontown, then what Tai’er zhuang Ancient Town should be? Chinese Disneyland? – Fitting, for the whole “ancient“ town is newly built and it displays some historically …
“Have you already been to Tai’er zhuang?” – asks us the owner of the small restaurant where we had dinner in Yaowan. “No? – You should go there, it is much better than here!” “That’s true,” – joins in one of the guests at the neighbouring table, a young local …