D35: 石佛寺 → 邓州

July 10, 2022

Part of the whole reason behind my wild swing to the west when the area where I want to go south through is actually east of here is because I really wanted to try to make an attempt at getting that cloisonne style tile mosaic propaganda piece from the Zhenping County Electric Company¹.

However, even before yet another someone who isn't meeting up with me (because of problems related to logistics and Covid controls) warns me that her trip to the region I am in right now has been delayed a few more days on account of there being active cases, there's something not quite right about the overall vibe and I decide it's better to bug out, cross the border into Hubei, and figure it out later.

Like indigo dyed fabric from the minority regions of Guizhou, although I've got some potential local connections² who might be able to assist me, it seems I'll just have to bucket list this for now.

In the elevator on my way to the breakfast provided by the hotel

The hotel provided breakfast isn't much of a breakfast, and it comes with a side order of being lectured by the front desk on my way back to the room because I was apparently supposed to know that, until I can provide the results of last night's (not actually linked to my name, passport, or phone number) Covid test, I'm not supposed to go out in public

The cadres from this village have been given a 5 star rating

I'll wiggle wiggle wiggle my way along tiny farm roads for the first half of the day but eventually, even though I find the old slogans and the older buildings to be interesting, the main road's ability to move me forward at something almost beginning to approach speed eventually gains enough appeal that, after a rest stop in a fortuitously located ice cream wholesalers, I stick with the truck route the rest of the way in to Dengzhou.

Free food and a bunk with every full tank of gas

Oddly enough, because the truck route—like all main roads of a certain age—has accumulated the flotsam and jetsam of decades of stop start development, it actually isn't that uninteresting. In point of fact, with the exception of the truly old buildings (like the locked up family temple marked as a historic point of interest), the fact of development having hit the deep countryside more recently than it hit the throughfare might even mean that I've got more to see and experience.

That, or I'm experiencing the effect of it no longer being solar noon and my brain no longer being fried by the heat I should know better than to ride in.

A most peculiar temple on a site that (according to the stelae) has been a temple for at least 300 years

In addition to the main sanctuary being bricked up and the statues outside the building having been removed with a sledgehammer, there's also this

I'd put this as new within the last year or two, but why is Nezha still unpainted?

My inability to get enough zoom makes this the rare image that makes me wish I'd fixed my camera strap and had my camera charged and on my back instead of in my rear pannier

The nervous signs of locally transmitted Covid cases can be seen here in the form of a temporary test site with people lined up cheek by jowl in a snake that folds back on itself three or four times. However, it's still at the stage of things where they aren't yet³ enforcing distancing or mask wearing in the queue so, with the telephoned blessing of a hotel that won't know I'm a foreigner until I'm in their lobby, I decide my previous night's test is more than enough.

This must have been quite the nice home when it was lived in

Family temple with stelae dating back to the late Ming

Am I registered?

I don't know.

Being as it's a county seat and a hotel big enough to have an elevator, I'm surprised to find that there's no computer system⁴. They take pictures of my Form and my Codes and my photos proving that my lack of a result is not a lack of a test, and say that they'll let me know if the police want anything else, but as to whether or not registration actually happens, that's a complete mystery.

Everyone who gets electricity should pay for it

Connecting your own wire to power lines is dangerous

Glorious Revolutionary Site of some sort, locked up because people generally aren't interested in visiting minor sites like this

As bathrooms go, the roofless rural variety are actually quite odorless

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¹ I mentioned this back in the intro. I have two examples from Zhenping County and, actually in a different province, a third example from this year and I really really really want it as part of my "can't be bothered to decorate or even really have furniture" home aesthetic.

² A powered hang gliding club that contacted me on Douyin to invite me for a flight that I can't take because their safety equipment isn't rated for my body weight.

Rules and regulations for religious venues

Possibly one of the worst looking pieces of Bad Art to join my collection

³ This is very much a "yet" with the understanding that they potentially went into static management (read: lockdown) by the end of the week.

⁴ Being as I first saw the computer system in 2008, and started encountering mobile phone versions in 2019, I'm always surprised when I find a clearly licensed and properly operating urban hotel that is still using logbooks.

Locked temple with three national flags out front

Halal doesn't always mean modern levels of sanitation

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,094 km (1,300 miles)

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