Adventure comes in many shapes and sizes! This one was a weird one. Starting the trip with #1 and then cycling 18,375ft in elevation over 4 days to #2 didn't seem as epic as some of my other trips, yet the weirdness found me!
Wangxian Valley was my #1 because as AI would put it "looked like something straight out of a fairy tale". And though this phrase eats away at me, it's the best way to describe a replica village filling an entire valley. Not just a street with shops selling trinkets and a few "local delicacies", but somewhere you could get lost in.
I cycled on to a couple of national parks which have mystified people since ancient times for their bizarre geology: two rock that look like a world-eating turtle and the balancing rocks of Dragon Tiger Mountain. But where things get weird is leaving the park and needing a place to stay. Out away from it all, I came across some abandoned buildings of European elitism. Sad as they were, on the bleached night sky there were two spires begging me to leave this potential campground. There had been efforts made to keep people out of it, but people before me blaze a trail. I think cows may have helped. The giant building wasn't a cathedral as I'd Quixotically mistaken, but rather an unfinished hotel. Within the hundreds of concrete boxes was a room fully furnished.
The next night, I again was at the mercy of whatever I could find and was directed to a hotel above a small shop. The upstairs had been divided into six room, each of which were full of beds. I can't imagine the income of people who get a room for $10/night (if you want the remote for the heater) split 6 ways. Upon shutting the curtain, a dead bat fell on the bed. As I was taking a video for my vlog, it began to move and show its teeth. But if you got close enough, you'd see it was cute and shivering from the cold night. I moved it outside in a cup, leaving the edge hanging off a ledge, and in the morning the cup had fallen. Probably cats.
I needed the rest became the next day I'd cross a mountain. All other cyclable routes wouldn't do me any good. The view from the top at sunset was worth it because clouds blanketed the whole thing to the horizon. But now what? Cycle down in the dark? That's the worst! Your payoff is just squeezing the brakes anticipating each turn. Fortunately, I didn't because there was a historic village without any tourists, and the locals were setting off firecrackers in the stone alleys and performing rituals involving chanting and some candles. I don't know. Didn't ask. They were busy.
The trip ended in the town of Taining, which held the much awaited #2: Ganlu Temple. A ferry takes you to the slopes where a short hike brings you to a narrow passage. On the other side, is a 12th century temple perched on the steep rock face held up by stilts. There was something oddly familiar about this place, though it's unlike anywhere else in the world... oh yeah, that's right. I've been here before.
Bikepacking across Shanxi Province