A Ride to Nowhere

Wednesday Aik Peng and I decided we would go riding. We had a small breakfast at McDonald's and decided we would try riding to Kunshan. Armed with a google printed map we were off on our adventure. We had chose some streets to head in the general direction. Since we were on mountain bikes, we decided to go off-road and see if we could find some shortcut. this idea was short lived due to the fact that the we hit the lake and there was no way to cross it by bike.

Some of the local fishermen actually live right on the lake. They're home can move to different parts of the lake if necessary. We also noticed that all the restaurants on the lake were also boats. These restaurants can also move to different areas depending on the demand of the lake food.

Our shortcut took us very close to the train tracks and we were able to see many trains passing. I was very surprised at how quiet these trains are as they pass. Nothing like what I think about when I think about trains.

After returning to the main road and getting back on track, not on the train tracks. We made our way to G312. This road is a country road and there are motorbikes, cars, and bicycles making their way between the cities. There were not to many electric bikes. Electric bikes can only travel 50 km on one charge. We made our way to the YangChengHu resort area. There were alot of brand new high end homes in this area. The homes were very beautiful and cost about 5500 RMB($803 US)/ Square Meter.

We made it to the restaurant area and we were ready for lunch. Because it is Chinese New Year, there were no restaurants open. We saw just some dried meat hanging outside of some of the restaurants. This sight is not typically something we would see in the US.

We did find a little local store and had a few snacks before making our way around the lake. We tried to take another off-road shortcut that also led right to the lake. The country side was very nice and pleasant.
We saw quite a few farms growing different vegetables. All in all, the ride was long but peaceful. It would be an 80 km ride around the lake. It was nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air and wander around the countryside. We also were able to discuss the usual male topics of business, politics, finance, sports, among other things. I really like riding, I get to see parts of China that most people who visit will never see. Below is the map of our ride courtesy of Aik Peng. The black dot represents home.