D3: 临高 → 光村（双语）

January 8, 2025

The absolute best part was the car driver coming to a complete stop and FLASHING HIS HEADLIGHTS ¹ at the ducks. The motorcycle and trike both knew that honking and driving slowly would get them to move out of the way. 最精彩的部分莫过于汽车司机停车，还对着鸭子们闪车灯¹。摩托车和三轮车司机都清楚，按喇叭并缓慢行驶就能让鸭子们挪开道路。

The leg cramps that came around 10pm the night before tell me that—even if there wasn't a sweet spot in terms of online bookable lodging at just under the 50km point—that this place would still be the best place for me to set as my destination².

What with making coffee and eating breakfast and updating social media and doing paying work, I don't leave my windowless room with it's perfect lack of intrusion from the outside world until just shy of noon. The world outside is grayer and less sunny than the previous day, as well as being colder and windier so it's no great loss to have been cooped up inside.

前一晚10点左右袭来的腿部抽筋告诉我，即便在距离不到50公里的位置，没有性价比合适的可在线预订住宿，而这个地方依然是我设定目的地²的最佳之选。

忙着煮咖啡、吃早餐、更新社交媒体和处理工作，我直到快中午才走出那间没有窗户的房间。这里完美地隔绝了外界的干扰，待在里面十分清净。外面的世界比前一天更阴沉，阳光也更稀少，而且更冷、风更大，所以待在室内也算不上什么损失。

Achievement Unlocked: First "massage services" cards of the Tour 成就解锁：本次骑行的首张“按摩服务”小卡片

Painted electric box outside my hotel, can't tell if that's an airplane or a bird 酒店外的彩绘配电箱，分不清画的是飞机还是小鸟

First time ever seeing a neighborhood Praise and Criticism bulletin board, let alone with pictures, and I can't figure out what's wrong with the house whose owners are being chastised 这辈子头一回见到社区的“表扬与批评”公告栏，居然还有配图，可我实在弄不明白那户被批评的人家，房子到底出了什么问题

Not that I expect I'll be back in Lin'gao until this time next year but, if I recall correctly, although the hotel I had been planning on staying at doesn't have an elevator³, it is otherwise more recently updated and nicer than this one.

Grumped out over the guy who argued with me that lighting up a cigarette the second he got in the elevator with me was "totes fine" because he wasn't actively in the process of smoking it, I start my morning by going back to last night's bridge to make a video about the lions. Unfortunately for figuring out anything new about the weirdness Dr. M and I kept encountering on the Yellow River Road where both male and female lions had mouth balls, only the pair on the south side of the river follow this pattern.

虽然我估计要到明年这个时候才会再回临高，但如果没记错的话，我原本计划入住的那家酒店虽然没有电梯³，不过在其他方面更新，条件也比这家好。

早上，我因为一个男的举动满心烦躁，他一进电梯就点燃了烟，还跟我争辩说这“完全没问题”，理由是他并没有“正在抽”。于是我回到昨晚经过的那座桥，想拍一段关于狮子雕像的视频。可惜，关于我和M博士之前在黄河路遇到的诡异现象，即那里的雌雄狮子嘴里都含着球，我没能找到任何新线索，只有小河南侧的那一对狮子是这种造型。

Very long handled brooms for sweeping the ceiling 用来清扫天花板的超长手柄扫帚

One of three in a row where the stencil was applied backwards 连续三个标识牌中，这个贴反了

I've run out of icyhot stickum patches to put on my left arm and hand and my hand whinges every time I go over a speed bump or especially rough patch of pavement. Of course, having decided that this means I need to find a pharmacy and buy more of them⁴, I'm already past the end of pharmacy territory and won't reenter it for another 20km.

Because I spent last night in downtown Lin'gao and because I'm intentionally aiming to take a small ferry crossing between Tiaolou where I think I may have once attended a festival in honor of the fishing season opening and Xinsheng where I've never been before, very little of today is spent on the Coastal Tourism Highway.

我左胳膊和手上贴的清凉镇痛贴已经用完了，每次经过减速带或者特别颠簸的路面，手都会隐隐作痛。当然，正当我决定得找家药店再买一些⁴的时候，已经驶过了药店集中的区域，接下来还要再走20公里才能再次遇到药店。

因为昨晚住在临高县城，而且我特意打算从调楼（我记得自己以前可能去那里参加过开渔节）和我从未去过的新盈之间搭乘一艘小渡船，所以今天大部分路程都没走环岛旅游公路。

Why no dock on this side of the water? 湾的这一边为什么没有码头？

Very nice life vests⁵ which the boatman remembers to distribute three quarters of the way across the water 超棒的救生衣⁵，可船夫直到船行至河中央四分之三的位置才想起分发

Sometimes, especially in the mangroves south of Xinsheng, I'm very close to the Tourism Road, but it won't be until I'm already in Danzhou that I am finally forced by a lack of other options to get on it and enjoy its wide banked curves, gently graded hill cuts, and "nice but not exciting" scenery.

Within moments of this happening, I'm passed by a short pace line. Over the next hour, there's another five or six cyclists. Then, because it's a convenient place for food and lodging near the Road, I will see a group of three in Guangcun, will meet two round-the-islanders staying in my hotel on my way back from dinner, and will see another cyclist carrying his bike down the stairs in the morning.

有时候，尤其是在新盈以南的红树林区域，我离旅游公路非常近，但直到进入儋州后，由于没有其他路线可选，我才最终不得不驶上这条公路，享受它宽阔的弯道、平缓的坡道，以及“不错但不够惊艳”的风景。

刚上公路没多久，就有一小队骑行者从我身边经过。在接下来的一个小时里，又遇到了五六位骑行者。后来，因为光村离旅游公路很近，吃喝住宿都很方便，我在那里看到了三位骑行者；晚餐回来的路上，在入住的酒店遇到了两位环岛骑行的人；第二天早上，还看到一位骑行者正扛着自行车下楼。

Old and new signs for the Coastal Tourism Highway 环岛旅游旅游公路的新旧标识牌

I was heading down this road to look at this old gate when I decided "maybe I don't want to trespass on military property" 我本来正沿着这条路去看那座旧城门看到了这个牌子就突然反应过来“或许我不该擅自闯入军事禁区”

According to the hotel owner, since the Road officially opened last year, they get an average of four or five touring cyclists per night, every night, year round; and the most they've had at once was a "lobby full of bikes, must have been at least 10 or 20 of them."

They also get tourists traveling by car and motorcycle, but not so many as by bicycle. The cars and motorcycles aren't as limited by geography or nightfall and have more options for places to go.

据酒店老板说，自从旅游公路去年正式开以来，他们每晚平均会接待四五位骑行游客，全年无休；最多的时候，“大厅里摆满了自行车，起码有一二十辆”。

他们也会接待自驾和骑摩托车的游客，但数量不如骑行的多。汽车和摩托车不受地理条件和天黑时间的限制，可选的目的地也更多。

Since I don't really believe in going the "normal" places that "regular" tourists go, I don't usually see just how popular bike touring has recently become, in part because of social media superstars like Hu Yuanxing⁶ and A'qiu⁷, but also because the more people do it, the more other people realize how difficult it isn't.

因为我向来不喜欢去那些“普通”游客常去的“常规”地方，所以通常没察觉到骑行旅行最近变得这么受欢迎，部分原因是像湖远行⁶和阿秋⁷这样的社交媒体红人，另一部分原因是，参与的人越多，其他人就越发现这件事其实并没有那么难。

This town name is really funny in Chinese 有意思的地名

This town name is really funny in Chinese 又来个好玩的地名

This village name is really funny in Chinese⁸ 这个也好玩⁸

I'm sure you could also say some things about the stagnating Chinese economy or the lie flat movement, but—even if we are staying at the cheaper hotels—the majority of Chinese cycletourists that I've met⁹ are at least white-collar class and the past few years has seen trends in who goes cycle touring moving farther and farther up the socioeconomic scale.

Other than it's existence in a convenient location, I'm not impressed with the hotel. At 90y per night, it's the most expensive so far this trip, the first one to have hard beds, and the first one to have "hot water" that's heated to barely warm. Combine this with an a/c that doesn't have a heat option and I'll end up taking a whore's bath of just the stinky bits.

当然，你也可以把这和中国停滞不前的经济或者“躺平”现象联系起来，但即便我们住的是比较便宜的酒店，我遇到的大多数中国骑行游客至少都是白领阶层⁹，而且过去几年，骑行旅行的人群在社会经济阶层上还在不断向上攀升。

除了地理位置便利之外，我对这家酒店没什么好感。每晚90元，是这次旅行到目前为止最贵的一家，也是第一家提供硬板床的，还是第一家“热水”只加热到微温的。再加上空调没有制热功能，我最后只能草草洗了个局部清洁澡（只清洗容易有异味的部位）。

Convention on the Provision of Rural Electricity 又一个农村用电安全

Ming Dynasty Anti-Pirate Beacon Tower 明代抗倭烽火台

¹ If you've ever read Peter Hessler or any of the writers who discussed life in China in the 80s and 90s, a very common theme is the constant and unending sound of car horns. Over the course of decades of effort, and ways of figuring out how to fine people who honk near schools and hospitals, most urban drivers no longer think to use their horn at all. Ergo, ineffectively trying to get livestock to move out of the road by politely flashing your headlights...

¹ 如果你读过彼得·海斯勒或其他任何描写80、90年代中国生活的作家的作品，就会发现一个极为普遍的主题：那永不停歇、持续不断的汽车喇叭声。经过数十年的努力，再加上摸索出了对在学校和医院附近鸣笛的人进行罚款的办法，大多数城市司机现在已经完全不会想到要按喇叭了。因此，才会出现通过礼貌地闪车灯这种无效方式，试图让牲畜挪开道路的情况……

² I have a second option that's only four or five kilometers more today and the same distance tomorrow, but it's a town that's already been marked as Somewhere I've Slept on Tour† and this one isn't.

² 我还有一个备选方案，今天只多走四五公里，明天的路程也一样，但那个小镇已经被标记为“旅行中住过的地方”†，而这个地方还没有。

† Now at over 700 unique locations in China

† 目前在中国已经去过700多个不同的地点了

Achievement Unlocked: First Mao Heads of the Tour. They're paired with a faded "Follow the Party" and a "Listen to Chairman Mao's Instructions"成就解锁：本次骑行的第一组毛主席头像。它们旁边贴着褪色的“跟党走”和“听毛主席的指示”标语

I liked the masonry on this building 我喜欢这座建筑的砖石工艺

³ I don't have to take my bike up to room. I just prefer to do so.

³ 我并不是必须把自行车搬到房间里，只是我更愿意这么做。

⁴ These aren't usually something I keep around, however, they are also the easiest way to show that I'm trying to Do Something when I go someplace that would prefer my tattoos not show up on Official Media.

⁴ 我平时一般不会常备这种东西，但当我去一些不希望我的纹身出现在官方媒体上的地方时，这也是最容易表明我在“想办法遮挡”的方式。

⁵ Not counting the time in 2021 when our boat was called back to shore by someone from the Maritime Safety Administration, I can only think of one time I've been made to use a life vest on a ferry in China. However, despite these being realllllllly nice life vests that clearly weren't bought† with the 1y per person fare‡, they were handed out more as a "don't let me get caught not having given them to you" than a "safety first" initiative.

⁵ 不算2021年那次我们的船被海事局的人叫回岸边的经历，我在中国坐渡船时，只记得有一次被要求穿救生衣。不过，尽管这些救生衣真的超级棒，显然不是用每人1元的船费‡买来的†，但船夫分发它们，更多是出于“别让我被抓到没给你们发”的考虑，而非“安全第一”的举措。

† I'm thinking government subsidy

† 我猜是政府补贴的

‡ 3y if you have a bicycle. 4y for an ebike.

‡ 带自行车的话3元，电动车4元。

My friend said he didn't think his car could fit on the mangrove road. I countered with a picture of this vehicle 我朋友说他觉得自己的车开不进红树林公路。我发了这张车的照片让他看看

A very confusing possibly modern ceremonial arch that mixes obvious use of mechanical cutting methods with chisel marks, and which isn't located anywhere that makes sense for modern construction of this type 一座令人费解的疑似现代牌坊，既明显采用了机械切割工艺，又留有凿刻痕迹，而且建造位置也不符合这类现代建筑的常规选址逻辑

Shrine to an apparently holy rock 供奉着一块疑似圣石的神龛

⁶ Last year, a friend and I had a disagreement over whether or not Hu could possibly be making any kind of living off of social media, and if his continued status as a Round the World Cycling Hobo versus any other form of travel was proof that he must not be. As a definite answer to that question, he just publicly donated CNY 3,000,000 (USD 500,000) to the Tibetan Earthquake Relief.

⁶ 去年，我和一个朋友争论过，湖远行是否真的能靠社交媒体谋生，而他一直以“环球骑行流浪汉”的身份而非其他旅行方式生活，是否就证明他肯定赚不到钱。这个问题现在有了明确答案，他刚刚公开向西藏地震灾区捐赠了300万元人民币（约合50万美元）。

⁷ Both of whom have over 10 million followers on their primary accounts.

⁷ 两人的主账号粉丝数都超过了1000万。

⁸ Respectively, they are “Zealand" (as in New Zealand), "Manicures," and "Very Big."

⁸ 这几个名字分别是“西兰”（就像国家新西兰那样）、“美甲”和“很大”。

We both ride LKLM sponsored frames 我们骑的都是开朗赞助的车架

A well and pump tower donated by Hainan Airlines Group as a "Repaying the Strength of the Hainan People" project 一座由海南航空集团捐赠的水井和水泵房，作为“回报海南人民”项目的一部分

Speaking of the speed with which things change once previously acceptable behaviors become verboten, this is the second time today I've seen people neatly lining up to get their packages at a courier station. 说到某些以前可接受的行为一旦被禁止后，人们的变化速很快，今天这已经是我第二次看到人们在快递站整齐地排队取件了

⁹ For the longest time, cycletourists were mostly retired people and recent college graduates. Prior to the social media era†, there were also a few prominent handicapped people‡ who were known to the cycling community and who spent most of the year as "technically not homeless people" who were trying to spend as little money as possible.

⁹ 很长一段时间里，骑行游客主要是退休人员和刚毕业的大学生。在社交媒体时代†之前，骑行圈里还有几位知名的残疾人‡，他们几乎一整年都处于“严格来说不算流浪者”的状态，尽量少花钱。

† Online Bulletin Boards, chat programs like QQ, and forums like Tianya were obviously social media, but they weren't social media the way it currently is.

† 像在线公告板、QQ这类聊天工具以及天涯等论坛，显然也算社交媒体，但和现在的社交媒体形式不一样。

‡ One congenitally handicapped dwarf with a custom recumbent tricycle he designed himself used to annually go the 5,000km from Harbin to Sanya and back again, and there was also a guy with disfiguring burn scars all over his face and body that could be guaranteed to be camping at two out of every three events in Southern China.

‡ 有一位先天性残疾的侏儒，自己设计了一辆定制的卧式三轮车，过去每年都会从哈尔滨骑行5000公里到三亚，然后再骑回来；还有一个脸上和身上布满严重烧伤疤痕的人，在中国南方的每三场骑行节中，几乎能保证在两场活动里看到他露营的身影。

Tile dragons on a temple that was rebuilt in the early 90s 一座90年代初重建的寺庙上的瓷砖龙

Especially when compared to the generic sailboat on the tile mural outside, I love the detail on this fishing boat mural 比起外面瓷砖壁画上那种千篇一律的帆船，我更喜欢这幅渔船壁画上的内容

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 159 km (99 miles)

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D3: 临高 → 光村 （双语）

D3: 临高 → 光村（双语）