With the knowledge that it was only a short trip into Beijing today i took the opportunity last night to enjoy a beer and take some time out to reflect on the trip. My thoughts got a bit blurred after the second beer and i went to sleep relatively early. I didn't wake up early though and having been told by my family not to arrive too early i casually got up and ate a nutritious breakfast of crisps and marshmallows before packing up and lugging my kit downstairs for one last time. I wheeled my bike out of the office where it had spent the night and didn't reach the front door before my heart dropped, hard.  The back tyre was flat. Flat as a pancake.

I couldn't believe that i was standing 7500 miles from london and less than fifty from beijing and for the first time in the trip i was faced with a problem that i might not be able to solve! I had no spare inner tubes. I had patches that were designed for inner tubes twice the width of mine. I had a flat tyre. those were the facts and i stood in the morning sunlight wondering what i should do. All manner of thoughts crossed my mind, I knew it was only about 40km to beijing, and figured that that should be walkable, i wondered whether my family who were arriving in beijing shortly would be able to bring me a spare and i wondered whether or not this isolated town would have a 700x32c presta valve... all seemed like unlikely options and so with some enormous courage i decided that the best tactic would be an old favourite. A tactic that has seen me recover from some unlikely situations in England and a tactic that is the darling of underprepared mountain bikers across the world... 'pump and go'.

I laughed out loud at the fact that i was so close and for the first time in about twelve months i was using a non-sustainable tactic. I was aiming to reach beijing by pumping my tyre up, cycling until it was flat, and then repeating the process until i reached central beijing. There was logic behind this theory, no matter how desparate it seems, my tyre was definitely hard when i left it last night, and so it followed that the puncture was a slow one... probably! The other logic was that i had no other option and there was a finish line within site.

Once the tyre was pumped and my bike loaded with kit I cycled through a firework display (presumably in my honour) and got started on the road to beijing! For the last time i reminded myself of the need for a safe and successful ride, for the last time i got hungry after a bad breakfast and stopped for eggs, and for the first time i entered the suburbs of Beijing. The smog wasn't as bad as i had thought it would be and i decided that it wasn't neccessary to get my gas mask out and kept going until i saw a man by the side of the road repairing bicycles and stopped and asked to borrow his pump. My tyre wasn't flat but it was good to give it a second blast of air... i was surprised however to find that he wanted money for the priviledge of using his pump. Today however i didn't want to argue and paid him the six pence that he was asking for and got going again.

I'd been in textual communication with my sister for the last twenty four hours in order to meet at the finish line and after much texting to and from we arranged to meet 'at three, under mao'. i was a little early for the meeting so stopped a few kilometres away to have a final icecream and cold coke and to clean the worst of the mud off my bike, to make it respectable for the finish line photos. 

At 2.55 i got a text from my sister saying that the family were waiting the in the central square and i should come meet them. I got on my newly cleaned bike, newly fuelled with icecream and cola and cycled towards tianamen square. I reached it quickly and entertained a traffic controller who was trying to stop me with his whistle by whistling back with mine. After a quick lap of the square i returned to the same traffic controller and asked him 'where is mao?' he pointed to the other end of the square and i set off, again.  I saw him a mile off and after negotiating a one-way system i entered the final straight and saw my family waiting. I sent a load of blasts out from my whistle and they saw me too. Just as i was approaching my younger sister ran across my path holding a finishline banner (made of toilet roll) and i broke through it just before a policeman told us all to get the right side of the fencing. We were happy to obey. i was there.

stats 35.00 - 7544 - 2h45

7544 miles from london i had reached the final destination. My family fended off questions from curious tourists before we headed to the hotel and had a banquet in the evening. The important fact of the day was that i was now in beijing. job done.

james.x 

Fortunately I recovered from last night's headache before going to sleep and woke up feeling fresh and ready. I checked out of the hotel and then began loading my kit onto my bike with the unwanted help of one of the girls from reception. She insisted on trying to help me load my kit onto my bike despite me telling her that i didn't need her help, but once the kit was all on i was she helped me some more by helpfully pointing out that my back tyre was as flat as a pancake. This was a serious problem for me as i had no more inner tubes that would fit my tyres and rims and I had spent the last few days looking around various towns in a fruitless search for a '700x32c presta valve innertube' which is surprisingly hard to find!

I took the busted tube out and found that the temporary patch had eventually given up and it was in need of another patch. I pulled out my new patch kit that had been bought in Urumchi, many miles ago, to find that the patches were too big for my inner tube. Things weren't going my way, but i satisfactorily patched the hole and put the whole show back together again and started pumping up the wheel but i didn't get too far before the valve, which had been looking dodgy already, gave way completely and the air flooded out. This was seriously bad news as my only spare tube was a fatter valve that didn't fit through the hole in my rim... atleast not yet!

I told the crowd that had gathered that i was in need of a drill to widen the current hole and they leapt into action, two men cycled off in one direction and another went to visit some builders and within a few minutes a drill had appeared and after rejecting the first drill bit another was produced and we got to work. Initially i tried myself but found that i was too tentative and there was no way that i was going to exert enough pressure because i was too scared of breaking my rim, so a chinese man took over and i looked away and closed my eyes. It really felt that there was a good chance that i was going to fatally weaken my rim or that something somewhere was about to give but after spending a few minutes with my eyes closed there was a shout of success and the valve fitted through, after a bit more sanding and smoothing i was ready to pump up the tyre, and once it was nice and hard i was on my way, after just a brief delay.

I was now conscious that i was cycling without any form of spare tube or any suitable patches and so cycling on extremely thin ice. But after a pleasant day i arrived quite tired in a big town where i searched out a hotel. The only one i could find was sponsored by Petrochina and i couldn't get the message across to the staff that i wanted to stay at there and so left in a bit of a bad mood.

20km further up the road was a small town with a friendly hotel where i decided to stay for what will be my last night on the road before reaching beijing tomorrow! I ate a good meal at a restraunt on the other side of the road and returned to the hotel to find that ballroom dancing had taken over the hotel lobby but i managed to get through without having to dance and retreated to my room for what is hopefully the final night!

Tomorrow? Beijing!

James.x

It has been a long time since I got an early start but today we were

told to check out of our room by eight, and so Amin and I packed our

stuff and went downstairs to meet the friendly onion merchants and as

I loaded my kit onto my bike we said goodbye and they left for their

8.30 meeting. I was left, bleary eyed, to cycle out of town on what I

assumed to be the right road. It was dubious for a long time but

eventually came to a junction where the road I had trusted met with

the trusty road (107) and I chewed on some fairly stale bread while

still waking up.

I had forgotten the benefits of getting an early start, but at ten

o'clock when I finally woke up properly I was amazed to see that I had

already cycled over twenty miles! I lifted my head from where it had

been resting (nearly) on the handle bars and looked around me in the

hope of finding somewhere to eat. I was rewarded for my efforts with a

cafe with cars outside. I don't think I was wrong to assume that I

might be able to get some food in such a place but as soon as I

entered a man came towards me saying 'no no no', and telling me to get

out. Under usual circumstances this would have annoyed me somewhat but

today I was happy to let it pass and to carry on, partly because I

still had some stale bread in my pocket, but also because I was still

quite sleepy having stayed up late the previous night watching tv,

drinking beer, and discussing experiences in China with my new

Bangladeshi friend, a man who shares some very similar views.

After my failed attempt to find some food I had more luck the second

time and got myself some scrambled eggs with relative ease. I turned

down the offer of beer however, and was keen to get back on my bike. I

was cycling quickly and saw no reason not to make a serious indent on

the 220km to beijing that had been left infront of me this morning.

And so I continued cycling, stopping periodically for cool drinks and

icecream refreshments until I arrived in a town that was about 100km

from where I had started and a little more than that to where I will

(hopefully) finish. I found a nice hotel as I thought I would treat

myself, having just had two free nights, but was disappointed with the

pricetag of the room, and the subsequent room, however it did have

airconditioning and there was a hotwater machine to make my coffee

with so I didn't complain but had a nap instead to catch up on some

sleep that I hadn't had last night before heading out into town to

try, again in vain, to find a spare inner tube. I'm walking on thin

ice at the moment as I don't have a suitable spare... but i've got my

fingers crossed, it's only 120km, right?

Unfortunately the great start to the day was ruined late in the

afternoon when I developed a headache and struggled to find anywhere

which sold me anything I wanted to eat, but eventually I found a

'no-hassle' place where the staff were happy to help me and I ate

quickly before retiring once again to my bed as the migraine worsened.

It wasn't so bad however that I was unable to pick up some drinks and

snacks before I got back to bed and spent the evening listening to

music, watching a huge thunderstorm, and eating a chinese version of

pringles!

stats 65.68 - 7455 - 4h46

A good day and I'm now within one day of Beijing, although I'm

splitting it into two to arrive on the correct day to be met by my

family. I've been thinking about how the last big challenge in china

isn't so much a physical one, like I have encountered in almost every

other country, but a mental challenge, it's difficult, while sitting

on the saddle, to realise just how far away london is, and my current

string of successes have made me forget some of the hard times and

almost fooled me into thinking that this trip has been 'easy'! but

still, nothing can stop me now!

james.x

Today started fairly normally, I loaded up my bike, took some pictures and got on my way. Somehow my bike has developed a squeaking sound overnight, perhaps a protest against being left outside (although undercover) in a frightening thunderstorm, but aside from the noise everything was running smoothly and I rejoined the 107 and headed north. My confidence about the road seemed to be a little premature as I entered a village where the road was underwater for nearly fifty metres, but based on the fact that I hadn't seen any potholes for the past 40 kilometres I felt quietly confident as I pedaled cautiously through the water.

I was going fine, the road felt smooth below the muddy water and I some of my fears eased and then I found a pothole, a really big one, it swallowed my front wheel whole and my bike began to plunge headlong towards the centre of the earth. Fortunately I used my quick thinking and feet to halt my descent before much more of my front panniers became fully submerged, but the water still swallowed at least a foot and a half's worth of bike!

Having escaped from the hidden entrance to the underworld I pedaled onwards and before long I reached Dingzhou where, with the help of my new found phrase, I reached the city centre and a what I thought was a hotel with relative ease but where usually I would expect the day's excitement to end it was really only just beginning.

A helpful chap took my quick reference phrase card and disappeared inside the building. While waiting for him to return a young Chinese man came over to me and greeted me with an enthusiastic 'Hiya mate'. Not the usual 'hello' but I was still surprised when he followed up his initial comment with some more fluent English. It turned out that he was educated from the age of ten in England and that he was in the region as part of his uncles onion export business, furthermore he was willing to pay for my hotel for two nights if I would spend tomorrow helping him pitch their plan to the local farmers, I explained that I didn't speak any Chinese but he was adamant that the fact I was English would be enough. I still had another day to spend in a town before Beijing and decided that this was as good an opportunity as any so accepted his offer.

Will (the Chinese man) then left me to shower and sleep, I showered quickly and then used the opportunity to run out and send some quick emails before returning to the hotel to be picked up and taken for dinner where I met his uncle, some more members of the business, and a Bangladeshi man who was in a similar situation to my self.

We ate heartily and then we all went to a place where Will, the Bangladeshi man (Amin) and myself had massages, and the rest of the group played mahjong. After the massages I was ready for sleep and having been warned of an early morning the following day I retired to my hotel room, which was now shared with Amin, and we both went to sleep, still unsure of what lay in store for us tomorrow.

Stats 42.78 – 7389 – 3h20

James.x

I woke up and left the hotel quite early this morning, partly because I was keen to get back on the road but also partly because I was growing more certain that no toilet existed, which hastened my exit. After yesterday's exhaustion I had decided to make a shorter trip today, first East then North for however long I felt I should go. The road was much friendlier today and it wasn't long before the 307 brought me into Shijuazhuan, an extremely large and busy city that I was keen to escape from with none of the problems that Tiayuan had created! I followed some signs and some instinct and ended up on a road that seemed to point north, it was crammed full of cars and cyclists and I traveled slowly stopping regularly to ask at the many bike shops for a spare inner tube in my size, but none was found.

I trusted a man selling fruit and continued on the road which he said would lead me in the right direction and sure enough within a few minutes I spotted a sign that labeled the road as the 107 and pointed onward to 'Beijing', it was a big moment as it was the first time that I have seen a Beijing sign and was prepared to follow it wherever it pointed!

Once safely out of Shijiazhuan I had time to admire the scenery, which was pretty non-existent, the only major thing to look for was the kilometer markers which I can only assume are counting down to Beijing. I got down to number 260 before turning off the road to take a look at what my map calls 'beautiful ancient town', I didn't see much evidence of it at first but then I had a brainwave, I reached for my phrasebook and found the words 'city centre' in the dictionary at the back. I have been in china for six weeks now and every day struggled to find the centre of towns and cities, but no more! If only I'd thought of this sooner…

With my new found favourite phrase I reached the city centre where there were indeed several tall pagodas and some other old style buildings, despite the ancient buildings being few and far between I actually found the town to be quite nice, far more realistic than Pingyao, the tourist trap that I had stumbled into a few days ago. I found a welcoming hotel and a place that only served black noodles and decided that this would be a suitable place to stay for tomorrow, (the town, not the noodle shop)!

Stats 37.56 – 7346 – 3h26

Despite it being a rest day I still managed to get up early and took my bike to go and see some pagodas before being turned off by the arrival of tour buses around noon. When they arrived I gave up and decided to give the final pagoda a miss and take lunch instead. The afternoon was spent searching for a suitable spare inner tube, with no success, and dodging a large thunderstorm, which hopefully doesn't mean bad roads tomorrow…

James.x