New Post has been published on Crossing China
New Post has been published on http://crossingchina.com/hebei-and-the-little-engine-that-couldnt/
Hebei and the Little Engine That Couldn't
Our quest to be the first morons to drive across China in a sanlunche has come to an end almost before it really even began. On one hand it’s a relief, we are now fully compliant with the rules and regs of China and no longer need to worry about what would happen if we couldn’t “ting bu dong” our way out of a sticky situation. On the other it’s obviously disappointing, however we assumed from the outset that our little tricycle probably wouldn’t survive the journey and we would need to find other means of transport at some point. We reached that point at day 5.
After traveling nearly 300 km, most of them slowly up and equally slowly down hilly or maybe even mountainous terrain at times, our sanlunche decided it no longer wanted to start about 80% of the time without a push and some praying. Add on the radiator problems from day one cropping back up again and our days of actually making progress Westward on a tricycle seemed to be numbered. After looking at the map and deciding we didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere miles from civilization between either Hebei and Inner Mongolia or Shanxi Province, we decided to try and sell the sanlunche while it was still functional and while we were in a relatively large city. We took it to a number of places around the city of Zhangjiakou before finally finding a group of middle-aged Chinese dudes (some true 哥们儿 to say the least） that took some interest outside a second-hand car emporium. The group squabbled amongst each other and drove a hard bargain with us, but eventually an older fella and his younger friend pitched in together to buy the sanlunche for about half what we paid for it a week before. We took a loss, but we were glad to be rid of the worry that came along with the ride. Not a glorious ending, and not a fiery crash, somewhere in the middle I guess. We’ll take it.
What you see when you get off the bus in every Chinese village
After ditching our sanlunche we grabbed a bus for 14 rmb and headed out to Zhangbei to see the famous Hebei grasslands. The sky was a bright blue and punctuated with fluffy white clouds that raced quickly across the sky. The wind was strong and people and buildings were sparse. We negotiated a fee of 180 rmb with a taxi driver to take us around the grasslands and be our tour guide for the entire day in Zhangbei, then to take us back to the bus station when we were ready to head back to Zhangjiakou. He was middle-aged and smoked a lot, but he was friendly and knew his way around the bumpy dirt back roads as well as the silky smooth and nearly empty main roads. First he took us to a ranch that appeared to be empty aside from a bunch of horses tied up and a few camels seemingly wandering at random. When we pulled in to the lot the workers popped out of the buildings and began pitching their products to us. Horse rides, camel rides, ATVs, motorcycles, air guns, and more could all be experienced here in what seemed like China’s equivalent to the American Wild West. We wanted to ride the horses and pretend to be Genghis Khan for a bit so got strapped up and hopped on some horses and headed out to the prairie.
The horse shifu slowly led us out far into the open expanse of the grassland while the wind howled around us. To our left ominous storm clouds seemed to be approaching. I asked him if it was going to rain and he assured me that it wouldn’t. I told him that I was worried about my camera but he said it’s not a problem, it won’t rain. We dismounted our horses near a stream that ran through the prairie and took some pictures while wild horses grazed around us. We were technically supposed to be able to ride the horses all day so we took our time chilling on the grass, taking photos, and generally goofing around, while shifu continued to assure me not to worry about the rain. Suddenly it began to rain, light at first but the storm was clearly moving our way in a hurry. He told us to hop back up on our horses. He explained quickly to Jasmine how to ride the horse alone and without his lead. He told her how to make it run, turn, and stop. I didn’t understand much of what he said and didn’t really have time to. I figured the horse was smart enough to know not to stand around in the rain while his friends galloped off back home so I told shifu that I was ok to ride alone too.
We galloped in as fast as our little Mongolian horses would take us, or at least as fast as I could get mine to run. It was my first time riding a horse that moved faster than molasses and it was pretty exhilarating, if not a little bit scary, especially when the horse took a bit of a stumble over a dip in the earth. As we raced across the plain I felt my inner Khan emerging and let out a primal scream… actually just kidding I didn’t do that, but I did say lots of “oh shit oh shit oh shit” as my butt bounced up and down on the horse and my back rattled into a million pieces. We made it in just as the worst of the storm hit. It poured down rain for about 5 minutes before the fast moving winds pushed it past us and the blue sky emerged once again. We were done with horses for the day by that point however so we told our driver to take us somewhere interesting.
As we drove to somewhere interesting, something else caught my eye out of the window. What appeared to be an abandoned amusement park stood forlornly against the empty plains. I asked the driver to stop and let me out for a bit. Jasmine and the driver sat behind as I wandered around the amusement park. A few people milled about, but everything looked to be in a dilapidated state of disrepair. I found a group of young men painting some rails and asked them about the park. They said that it wasn’t abandoned and that it would be open in about 10 days, sometime in the first week of April. As I stumbled through the park carefully avoiding the garbage strewn about, taking photos of the broken down rides, and peering through the dirty glass of the seemingly abandoned buildings, I realized that I was having fun with the current state of the park. Most people aren’t as simple-minded as me but I figured that if they even clean it up a little bit that most people would be able to find something fun to do.
“Abandoned” amusement park
Empty and in disarray convenience store yurts
After poking around the park awhile we headed to a small village outside of Zhangbei where we stopped to eat some local specialties. Not much to say except stay tuned to our YouTube channel for some hopefully entertaining food reviews and other things coming very soon!
She was shy at first, but then took a lot of photos with us
Girl in Zhabei with XiangCai
Finally, we asked the driver to take us to see some tufang (土房) aka mud or dirt houses. There are a few villages in the area that still have people living primarily in homes made of dry earth and/or bricks. Many of the homes here were abandoned and doors were chained shut, but we were able to get in a few of them and take photos as sunset quickly approached. There were no teenagers knocking about in the village, but we met a handful of old folks that still are residents and are keeping the village alive at least for a short while longer. Most if not all the young people old enough to be autonomous here, and across many similar villages around China, leave these places for the big cities and the villages disappear into the sands of time. Here are a few portraits I took in the village:
After a full day we caught the bus back to Zhangjiakou to crash for the night and plan our next course of action in our journey across China. Remember to like or follow on Facebook and Instagram if you like what you see!
