August 2, 2021
Day 13: Sunshine and Discounts
Humen to Shekou (Shenzhen)
The hotel last night was a winner. Besides the amazing breakfast, there was also a 7/11, Starbucks, McDonald's, and a Walmart downstairs if the mood struck. After a leisurely sleep, I got moving and stopped off at another Starbucks maybe 10km out.
Much to my surprise, the covid test was directly linked to my health code. With a 48 hrs negative validation, I could also use that for checking in at the airport tomorrow if they asked for it.
The news indicated that they were doing mass testing at all Shenzhen arrival points including train stations. But when I entered the city border on a bicycle today, nobody was checking or testing anything. Maybe it was lunch hour?
I booked one more hotel and scored an insane 50% discount. With a negative test I'd have no problem checking in. This only confirms that people are listening to the recent advisories not to leave their local provinces and besides, schools now are threatening quarantine for anyone who isn't back already before the next semester. Maddening to say the least So this domestic trip is pretty much as good as dead by now.
The idea was to squeeze out as many extra kilometers as I could and ending the trip in style at Sea World with Mexican food and alcohol. But not before doing another HIIT class of course.
The hotel was lush, and I made sure to set the alarm the next day so there was supposedly plenty of time to make my flight. There was not. I miscalculated the time involved in checking in due to all the extra requirements with health codes, security, covid tests, and so forth. But the biggest delay involved checking in the bicycle as oversize baggage. Shenzhen airport is very high tech and I'm not used to it, so I wasted over half an hour at the check in desk when that could have been avoided with the machines. When it was finally sorted out, it was too late to catch the flight so I had to buy a new ticket. Anyways, I made it back.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,051 km (653 miles)
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