D26: 定州 → 正定 (双语)

October 21, 2024

Am I aware that "no photos" is born from "no flash"? Yes. Did I sneak photos of this temple with my film SLR in 2003? Yes. Were there dozens of people taking pictures with their phones? Again, yes. However.... the sign is right there and—unlike the museum—they didn't ask anyone for permission. 我知道"禁止拍照"源于"禁止闪光灯"吗？是的。2003年我用胶片单反偷拍过这座寺庙吗？是的。当时有没有几十号人用手机拍照？也有。但是...警示牌明明立在那里，而且，与博物馆不同，他们根本没有征求任何人许可。

Because it has such a big bathhouse on the first and second floors with such a huge boiler, the hotel rooms in last night's hotel don't even have proper showers installed, let alone hot water heaters.

I am, after the fact, to vaguely understand that the long padded benches in the locker room are actually the cheapest possible overnight accommodation you can get in northern China; and, that I probably could have gone downstairs after we finished filming at 11:30, but the public areas sounded like they had gone silent. So, with this being only my third ever time staying in a bathhouse¹, I didn't really know what the protocol is and decided against it.

由于一二层设有配备巨型锅炉的大澡堂，昨晚酒店房间连像样的淋浴都没有，更别提热水器了。

事后我才隐约明白，更衣室里那些长条软凳其实是华北最廉价的过夜方式；而且我本可以在晚上十一点半拍完素材后下楼，但公共区域似乎早已安静下来。这才是我第三次住澡堂¹，实在不懂规矩就作罢了。

Except for the whole part where I don't want to bother with the additional editing work that would come with having one of these, these are really cool 除了麻烦的额外剪辑工作，这东西确实很酷

The physical toll of the preceding day's very nearly 100km plus the mental toll of "just act natural" for the same action I'd already repeated twenty times also meant that—after I pushed the furniture back to its original locations—I just didn't have the spoons to do anything other than a shockingly cold sponge bath of the stinky bits and a crawl into bed.

So, of course, within 15 minutes of my going unconscious, a rightfully hysterical someone who needed comforting called me.

前一天近百公里的体力消耗，加上重复二十多次"表现自然"的精神折磨，导致我把家具归位后，除了用冷水擦一擦出汗发臭的部位，然后爬进被窝，根本没力气做其他事。

结果刚昏迷15分钟，就被某个需要安慰的歇斯底里人士吵醒。

As a result, come far too early o'clock this morning, I was a shambling zombie when I went downstairs to show the film crew that their brilliant idea of me disassembling my bike and putting it in their rental car (that had barely been able to fit four people plus the not yet unloaded portion of camera equipment on the way to dinner) wasn't going to work².

结果，今天凌晨天还没亮，我就像个行尸走肉般下楼，向摄制组证明他们让我拆解自行车塞进租来的车里（吃晚饭的路上，这辆车勉强塞下四个人和没卸完的摄影器材）的“绝妙主意”根本行不通²。

You don't have to be very good at Tetris to realize the bicycle isn't going to fit in this car. 哪怕不太会玩俄罗斯方块也能看出来，自行车塞不进这辆车。

I believe an "I told you so" is in order 我觉得现在该说“早跟你说了”。

Putting my bike in the huolala 把自行车装上货拉拉

I was still a shambling zombie during the discussion over why us going to the bus station and filming the perfectly normal bike touring experience of me getting my bike onto a passenger coach didn't fit their vision of telling a story about the people I interact with when bike touring in rural China, and how my going to the next town with interesting things should be done via renting a Huolala cargo vehicle instead.

当他们讨论"为何不能拍我去客运站正常某个原因不想骑行的托运自行车"时，我依然像个行尸走肉——这不符合他们"展现中国乡村骑行人际互动"的叙事。于是我只能用货拉拉前往下个城镇。

Also, and you have to understand that I was sleepily asking if we could stop talking about my pressing "order" on the app as a way of saving time and let me press "order" on the app already, and that I was not asking to be reimbursed for the truck, if entry tickets into paid tourist attractions and overly wasteful lunches could be expense accounted alongside petty cash items like drinks from a convenience store, the only reason for them to proactively volunteer "we can't pay the cost of the truck you need to rent because we don't like any of the other options³ caused by our own lack of planning" is because "we don't think our paying for the truck is important enough to do the paperwork."

另外，你得知道，我当时昏昏欲睡，问能不能别再讨论我在App上下单的事来节省时间，让我赶紧下单；我不是在要求报销租车费，而是问景区门票和过于浪费的午餐能否和便利店买饮料这样的小额支出一起报销³。他们主动说“我们不能支付你要租的卡车费用，因为我们不喜欢任何其他³来自我们没有做好准备的选项”，唯一的原因是“嫌走报销流程太麻烦”。

Good thing I had a helmet mount available for them to use 幸好我带了头盔支架给他们用

Good thing I had a headtube mount available for them to use 幸好我带了头管支架给他们用

As previous attempts have always been places that either don't have the service or where another option presents itself before a truck does, the drive to Zhengding was my first time actually taking a Huolala. I was warm and comfortable and sleepy enough that I don't remember any of the conversation with the driver, but I remember that there was a conversation and that we both seemed to enjoy it.

由于以往要么找不到货车服务，要么总有更好选择，这次去正定竟是我首次使用货拉拉。温暖舒适的车厢让我昏昏欲睡，记不清和司机的具体对话，只记得相谈甚欢。

Historical reasons related to the late 19th century development of Shijiazhuang as a major train hub with all kinds of manufacturing pushed Zhengding's cité into a sufficiently unimportant role that a huge amount of historic architecture survived both early 21st century redevelopment and the mid 20th century deprivations of the Red Guards.

石家庄在19世纪末发展为重要铁路枢纽和各类制造业中心，这一历史原因让正定古城变得无足轻重，大量历史建筑才得以在21世纪初的重建和20世纪中期红卫兵的破坏中幸存下来。

So, separate from it being in a really convenient location for any trip that starts or ends in Beijing—with at least three visits in 2003, a visit in 2005, a visit in 2012, one in 2018, and one in 2022—I've intentionally come here more than almost any other place in China I haven't lived.

所以，除了这里是北京起止行程的绝佳中转地——2003年至少来过三次，2005年、2012年、2018年、2022年各来过一次——在我没生活过的中国城市里，我特意来这里的次数比几乎任何地方都多。

Arriving after a bathroom stop at the first gas station off the expressway, I first visited the restored section of City Walls at the south side of the cité then the mostly unrestored west gate and partial enceinte.

Once this was done, I went into the cité, bought a bottle of water from a convenience store, and made coffee on a sunny bit of sidewalk which I was repeatedly reminded wasn't as photogenic as any of the not yet dry and not sunny places⁴ they thought I ought to make coffee.

在高速口加油站方便后，我先探访了古城南段修复的城墙，然后是基本保持原貌的西城门和月城遗址。

接着进城买了瓶水，在阳光灿烂的人行道上煮咖啡——尽管他们不断提醒"未干透的阴凉⁴处更上镜"。

I thought this was plenty photogenic as a coffee making location 我觉得这个煮咖啡的位置很上镜啊

Caffeination achieved, we proceeded to Longxing Temple. A national 4A tourist spot that has been a recognized national heritage site since 1961⁵, this place would have been pretty cool no matter what. Coming back with fuzzy memories of photographs long lost and with eyes that know a lot more about art and architecture than they did when I was here in 2003, however, made it extra cool.

One of my Core Memories from that 2003 visit was being weirded out by seeing a staff member casually taking fruit off the altar and snacking on it. Merit is achieved by giving offerings and—outside of the small temples where offerings are frequently left so long that they rot—no one actually thinks that they aren't getting eaten by someone; but such open taking of the offerings is as unusual at a touristified Chinese temple as the huge number of banners and statues and recent construction scattered around the Qianfodong Dr. M and I visited our first morning in Shaanxi.

咖啡因加持下，我们来到隆兴寺。作为国家4A级旅游景区，它从1961年起就是全国重点文物保护单位⁵，无论如何都很酷。带着对早已遗失的照片的模糊记忆，以及比2003年来时更懂中国艺术和建筑的眼光再来，感觉格外酷。

2003年最深刻的记忆，是看到一名工作人员随意从供桌上拿水果吃，觉得很奇怪。供奉是为了结善缘——除了小庙里供品常放至腐烂，没人真以为供品不会被人吃掉；但在商业化的中国寺庙里，如此明目张胆地拿供品，就像我和M博士在陕西第一天早上参观千佛洞时看到的大量横幅、雕像和新建建筑一样罕见。

Clearing the altar of offerings which are being sorted at the altar into "currently edible" and "to discard" bags 正在清理供品，分成'可食用'和'待丢弃'两袋

Two headed Bodhisattva that's been damaged by centuries of supplicants reaching out to touch the hand 被信徒抚摸数百年的双头菩萨像

The only statue that had a cash offering 唯一收到现金供奉的塑像

With both an unusually active and allowed practice of leaving offerings of fruit, flowers, mantou, and wrapped grain snacks (but not candy, cash, banners, statuettes, or tokens⁶) and food on the altars being treated as food by security guards, docents, tour guides, apparent pilgrim types, obvious tourist types, and workmen, Longxing's peculiar in that regard micro culture has not changed in the slightest. In total, I would guess I saw between two and three dozen people either actively grazing off of the altars or in the process of snacking on something that was clearly recently retrieved from an altar. I even ate a banana⁷.

隆兴寺有个不寻常且被允许的习俗：供奉水果、鲜花、馒头和包装好的谷物零食（但没有糖果、现金、横幅、小雕像或信物⁶），供桌上的食物被保安、讲解员、导游、朝圣者、游客和工人当作食物。在这方面，它独特的微文化丝毫未变。我估计总共看到二三十人要么正在从供桌上拿东西吃，要么在吃明显刚从供桌上拿的东西。我甚至吃了根香蕉⁷。

Probably one of the most magical moments during the visit to Longxing was having a "don't touch the relics" security guard tap me on the shoulder not for the expected "excuse me Ma'am, you are leaning way too far over the barrier to look at the Ming Dynasty animal powered prayer wheel" but to say "I saw you looking at the kids feeding birds on your way in, have some crackers to feed the flock" and then being surrounded by pigeons so brave and so tamely used to humans that they were willing to eat from my hand.

参观隆兴寺最神奇的时刻之一，是一位“请勿触摸文物”的保安拍拍我的肩膀，不是说我预想中的“女士，抱歉，您探过栏杆太远，在看明代的畜力转经筒”，而是说“我看你进来时在看孩子们喂鸟，拿些饼干喂这群鸟吧”，然后我就被一群胆大又温顺、习惯了人类的鸽子围住，它们敢从我手里吃东西。

Described as a "rotating library," I'm pretty sure this is a giant prayer wheel 所谓'旋转图书馆'其实是巨型转经筒

They ate it while I was holding it 牠们直接从我手里啄食

This magic was tempered, however, by the wonderful folks from [national media outlet] and their insistence that other people at the temple⁸ stay out of their shots. They mostly didn't harass the supplicants who were actively in the process of praying⁹ but no one else was off limits; and, as the target of a lot more dirty looks than I got at the museum, it was obvious that—even if no one was saying anything out loud—an awful lot of people were unhappy with them.

神奇的体验被某国家级媒体打断——他们不断驱赶其他游客⁸。虽然没打扰正在跪拜的信众⁹。而且，我在博物馆都没被这么多白眼瞪过，很明显，即使没人说出来，很多人都对他们不满。

After we finally broke for lunch (at 2:30), I had about a twenty minute ride to the riverside and then a lot of riding back and forth along the river road with an Insta360 in various locations, a GoPro in various locations, a drone, and the main camera either on a tripod or handheld.

下午两点半停下来吃午饭后，我在河边公路来回骑行，配合各种机位的Insta360、GoPro、无人机和主摄像机拍摄。

The ability to read Chinese didn't help with the atrocious level of information on the signs about these Ming Dynasty murals 这些明代壁画说明牌写得不知所云

I really ought to remember who Birdman is by now. 我早该记住'鸟人'是谁了"

Then, because neither the previous night's teeth chattering chill nor my morning wearing of every piece of clothing I was aware I had¹⁰ didn't directly concern their personal well-being, we had to go to someplace countryside-ish that they hoped¹¹ would be a good spot to act out my getting a flat tires.

然后，因为前一晚冻得牙齿打颤，以及早上我把所有知道的衣服都穿上¹⁰，都不关他们个人的事，我们得去某个有点乡村气息的地方，他们希望¹¹那是个适合表演我爆胎的好地方。

Which, forgetting how bad an idea my totally not at all superstitious self considers "tempting the Road Gods with a pretend flat tire," also required that I temporarily lose control of my bike because, even if no flat tire would ever cause that to happen, a slow speed loss of control and a crash¹² would look good telling a story.

除了我这个完全不信迷信的人觉得“用假装爆胎来招惹路神”是个多糟糕的主意之外，还得让我暂时失去对自行车的控制，因为即使爆胎绝不会导致这种情况，他们觉得低速失控摔倒¹²在故事里会很好看。

Although the English translation is terrible, the Chinese is also supremely uninformative 虽然英文翻译很烂，中文也完全没提供什么信息。

I remember being able to go up on the balconies (which, from the signage, look to have only been closed in the past few years) 记得以前能上台（看标识是近几年才封闭的）

Finally, with the sun creeping ever closer to the horizon, all my known layers and full fingered gloves back on, and my getting ever more vocally worried about us being out after darkness stole the last of the day's warmth, I got enough spine to insist that filming stop for the day and that we go to the nearest hotel.

A nationwide chain with some of the loveliest squishy beds, I don't know what was wrong with it that—after declaring my room too small for convenient filming—they decided to stay elsewhere but even if they hadn't fucked off to some other location without inviting me to join them for dinner, I was close enough to hypothermic by that point that all I wanted was a long hot shower, a hot glass of sour plum drink, and a bowl of hot oatmeal.

最后，夕阳西下时，我重新穿上所有能找到的保暖衣物和厚手套，越来越大声地表达担忧——天黑后最后一丝暖意消失，我们还在外面。最终我鼓起勇气坚持当天拍摄结束，前往最近的酒店。

这是一家全国连锁酒店，拥有一些极其舒适的软床。我不知道出了什么问题——他们声称我的房间太小，不方便拍摄，于是决定去其他地方住宿。但即使他们没有不邀请我共进晚餐就擅自前往其他地点，那时的我也已濒临体温过低，只想要一个长时间的热水澡、一杯热酸梅汤和一碗热燕麦片。

If it weren't on a slope, I'd say it's a game board 要不是位于斜坡，我会以为这是棋盘"

¹ Once in 2012 in the private rooms of a place in Dawangdian, Baoding (about 120km away from here), once in 2018 in a place in Shanxi that looked so much like a normal hotel I didn't even realize it was a bathhouse until I was checking out in the morning, and here.

¹ 一次是2012年在保定大王店（离这里约120公里）一家澡堂的包间，一次是2018年在山西一家看起来普通酒店的地方——直到早上退房时我才意识到那是澡堂，还有这次。

² With a few days from "when they decided to film me" to "actually filming me," Xinhua was able to figure out that "renting a car big enough to fit a bicycle" was a key part of filming something about someone who always has a bicycle with her.

It's been almost ten weeks since these people first called me about doing something specifically on the topic of my bike touring. Meeting me in Dingzhou was the fourth possible filming location to be tentatively set. Other than the obvious "not caring about anyone else" attitude which they constantly display, they have no excuse for the size of the car they rented.

²从“他们决定拍摄我”到“实际开始拍摄我”仅有几天时间，新华社应想到“租用一辆足够装下自行车的车”是拍摄一个始终携带自行车的人的重要环节。

这些人第一次打电话给我，提及专门拍摄我骑行旅行的事情至今已近十周。在定州与我见面是第四个暂定的拍摄地点。除了他们持续展现的明显“不关心他人”的态度外，他们没有任何理由为租来的车辆尺寸辩解。

Setting up the 360° and the GoPro for me to ride somewhere 安装360°相机和GoPro准备骑行拍摄

³ Options which included my biking to the next location (without having any guaranteed fabulous sights) or my taking a bus at one quarter the cost† and arriving 30 minutes later than I would have with the truck‡.

³选项包括我骑行至下一个地点（无法保证有任何绝佳风景），或乘坐费用仅为卡车四分之一的巴士†，但比乘坐卡车晚30分钟到达‡。

† Not that, at 120y, it cost very much

† 其实我花的120元根本不贵

‡ The biggest reason for me to take the truck was because of how much time it would save. From the perspective of the "on screen talent" watching them discuss what could and could not be done while the morning was still too cold for doing, absolutely no time was saved.

‡ 他们选择我坐卡车的最大原因是它能节省时间。但从“出镜者”的视角来看，当清晨寒冷无法拍摄时，看着他们讨论哪些能做哪些不能做，根本没有节省任何时间。

Why yes, I do want you to put some kind of spacer between your metal clamp and my handlebars without me having to point out that you've already nicked the metal 是的，我确实希望你在金属夹具和车把之间放置某种垫片——而不必等我指出你已经刮伤了金属表面。

⁴ This was people in heavy fall coats, flannel shirts, trousers, and longjohns both telling me every single piece of clothing they knew about as being with me didn't look warm enough (because it wasn't) and telling me to go sit on frosty grass in damp shadows because it was "more photogenic."

⁴ 那些穿着厚秋外套、法兰绒衬衫、长裤和秋裤的人，一边告诉我他们知道我携带的所有衣物看起来都不够暖和（因为确实不够），一边却让我坐在结霜的草地上的潮湿阴影里，只因那里“更上镜”。

⁵ I believe 1961 was the first batch of National Heritage Sites to be listed after the initial Antiquities Census.

⁵ 1961年应是首批全国重点文物保护单位

⁶ Outside of Approved Token and Ribbon Leaving Areas

⁶ 在“经批准的信物及丝带放置区”之外

You mean to tell me that your big fluffy coats and long pants over longjohns aren't enough to keep you warm? 你是想告诉我，你们的厚绒外套和套在秋裤外的长裤不足以保暖吗？

Three jerseys, a thermal vest, a windbreaker, and a thermal muff slide against each other in ways that create interference on the mic 三件骑行服、一件保暖背心、一件防风衣和一个保暖围脖相互摩擦，对麦克风产生了干扰。

⁷ I couldn't bring myself to just take something off of one of the Big Altars but this was a very small shrine in front of a Song Dynasty tomb that had been moved here after an archeological dig in the late 50s, it was gone on 2pm, it had been six hours since my "no thank you, I don't usually eat breakfast," they hadn't offered me any of their candy, and I had no idea if or when lunch was going to be.

⁷ 我无法说服自己直接从大供桌上拿东西，但这是一座宋代古墓前的小神龛——50年代末考古发掘后移至此处。下午2点时，而我从说“不，谢谢，我通常不吃早餐”起已过去六小时，他们未给我他们任何吃的1糖果，我也不知道是否或何时能吃上午饭。

⁸ People who had paid the same entry fee as us, and who had no way of knowing that they were Important Professionals

⁸ 这些人与我们支付了相同的门票费用，且无法知晓他们（摄制组）是“重要的专业人士”

Setting things up for the twelve times my GPS tracker shows me riding through the West Gate 为拍摄我GPS追踪器显示的十二次骑行经过西门的场景做准备

⁹ They also didn't ask† any of them if they minded being on camera

⁹ 他们也没有询问†任何一位是否介意入镜

† It's kind of funny/sad how many of the "why does this resonate with people" or "why are people always saying this" statements that are regular occurrences in my comments section have turned out to be descriptions of the film crew's shitty behavior.

† 有趣又可悲的是，我评论区里频繁出现的“为何这能引起共鸣”或“为何人们总这么说”的表述，最终是对摄制组恶劣行为的吐槽。

¹⁰ It turns out that there were two pieces of really warm base layer I had forgotten about which is my fault, but lest there be any doubt that they knew how cold I was, we'd actually had a "don't do that, it won't look good" discussion when my face got so frozen I tried to put on the N95 that's still hanging around in a side pocket†

¹⁰ 后来发现我忘了两件非常保暖的基础层衣物，这是我的错。但为避免任何关于“他们是否知道我有多冷”的质疑——当我的脸冻僵试图戴上侧兜中仍挂着的N95口罩时†，我们确实有过一场“别那么做，不好看”的讨论。

† Along with an almost certainly expired C19 test

† 侧兜中还放着一个几乎肯定已过期的新冠检测盒

¹¹ In this particular case, I'm not going to fault them for not being able to correctly guess from Maps what the area would look like.

¹¹ 在此特定情况下，我不打算指责他们无法从地图上正确判断该区域的实际样貌。

View of a collapsed portion of the west enceinte and a public phone charging point 西月城墙坍塌处与公共手机充电点景观

¹² I wasn't doing a good enough job at pretending to lose control, so one of the videographers put on my helmet and windbreaker and pretended to be me losing control. I was amused enough to take a picture of this Unfortunately, when I confronted him the next day about damaging the purple Coffee Kit Bag one of my fans custom-made for me last year, and he denied it, I didn't realize I had this picture.

¹²我假装失控的表现不够好，于是一位摄影师戴上我的头盔和风衣，假扮成我失控的样子。我觉得好笑，拍下了这一幕。不幸的是，当第二天我就他损坏去年粉丝为我定制的紫色咖啡工具包一事与他对质时，他矢口否认，而我当时忘了自己有这张照片。

Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 1,644 km (1,021 miles)

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