27/01/11 Singapore

Getting out of the airport in Singapore has been a nightmare. No bus, train or taxi was willing to take us with our bikes out of the airport and we were not allowed to take the highway. After a good two hours running in circle in the airport, trying to find a way out, we finally met Martin, a guy in his minibus who was waiting at the airport for clients that finally never showed up. He nicely offered us to drop us at Anne's place (a Krystina's friend who has kindly accepted to host us for a couple of days) on his way back to the hotel. The way she welcomed us was as warm as the weather here.

Freighter boats waiting to dock, Singapore is the second buzziest commercial harbour after Guangzhou

Singapore is a really surprising place. In the city-state, Western, Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures seem to get together apparently without any friction. We were expecting an autoritative, martial, very organized and cold atmosphere but really, people here are laid-back, nice and friendly and the city itself is much more chaotic than what the people were telling us.

Market under the rain in Chinatown

Like in Hong Kong, the whole city seems to be driven by money. International bank headquarters, sport cars, huge shopping malls "à la Champs Elyssées ", nice architectures and Louis Vuitton, Dolce Gabbana, Channel and Prada boutiques are everywhere. 

This building interacts with the street with its dancing lights.

On the other hand, Singapore has some very interesting popular neighborhoods, offering public housings were people actually want to live, green spaces, dynamic city centers and good transportation networks. State-of-the-art urban planning examples that are well worth seing.

Public housing in Singapore, nothing to do with their French, Russian and North American equivalents. Following Le Corbusier idea, those buildings are surrounded by green and public spaces. A good example of public housing not to forget.

On the third day, we leave Singapore in the rain and cross the Malay border at Johor Bahru. This is greatly facilitated by the motorcycle lanes (even the border office is designed for motocycles).

25/01/11 Hong Kong

First sight of Hong Kong, a city always hidden in a thick smog. We arrived by boat from LianHuaShan South of Guangzhou, a cheap and comfortable way to travel from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, especially when you are carrying two heavy bikes.

In Hong Kong, we had the pleasure to stay with Colin, Krystina and "The Bean", a very nice family leaving in Stanley on the South shore of the island. We spent a fair amount of time with them, talking and learning about Hong Kong, Singapore (where they had been living for a couple of years) and Asia in general. Thank you for those fabulous days spent with you. I hope we will meet again!

 A temple in Hong Kong. Large incense spiral coils hanging everywhere

The famous laser show, not very impressive compared to "Le moulin à image" in Quebec City

Rouler en Chine

Rouler en Chine

Rouler en Chine est un défi de taille. Premièrement. tout le pays ressemble à un chantier de construction gigantesque. Les camions, grues, ouvriers sont à l'ouvrage partout et la poussière est omniprésente. Plusieurs routes ne sont pas pavées et quand elles le sont, elles sont plus souvent qu'autrement pleines de bosses, de craques, de trous et parsemées de gravier, de sable et de flaques de béton que les camions ont laissé tomber dans leur sillage.

La main d'oeuvre non qualifiée est clairement un problème. On voit des routes flambant neuves, souvent même pas finies, pleines de craques, du béton mal curé, de mauvaises pentes, etc....

Oubliez les règles de conduite. Ici, on fait ce qu'on le veut, y compris rouler en sens inverse (ca va quand c'est une moto sur l'accotement mais c'est un peu moins drôle lorsqu'il s'agit d'une bétonnière sur une autoroute). Le plus agaçant de tout, c'est que tout le monde conduit au klaxon. Le plus bruyant l'emporte. Les camions n'utilisent jamais leurs freins (de toute façon ils ne fonctionnent pas). En entrant dans un village, ils klaxonnent de toutes leurs forces et tout le monde a intérêt à se tasser car ils ne s'arrêteront pas. Et s'il vient à l'idée d'un automobiliste de rouler en sens inverse en plein traffic, tout le monde va klaxonner, d'un sens comme de l'autre!!!.

Heureusement, la plupart du temps, il existe de larges accotements pour les vélos et les motos et les conducteurs sont habitués à voir des vélos dans leurs pattes. Jusqu'a maintenant, aucun incident à signaler mais honnêtement, je songe à faire installer un klaxon de bétonnière sur mon vélo. Amélie suggère plutôt une grosse trompette en plastique du genre "go Habs go". J'hésite.

20/01/11 Guangzhou

Below, a couple of pictures of Guangzhou, once named Canton. Walking this city can give you an idea of how much money flows into China. Sport cars, luxury hotels, Gucci, Channel, Louis Vuitton and modern buildings built by star architects are everywhere. Even the roads here are good. It is a huge contrast compared with third world country we discovered in the mountains.

The city is also very polluted. Although a jungle of skyscrapers spreads for kilometers, we can usually only see the first ten in a row since all the other ones behind disappear in the smug.

19/01/11 Guangdong

Guangdong is known to be one of the most industrialized place in China especially in the Pearl River Delta squeezed between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. However, Guangdong still have nice and natural mountains and lakes to explore.

People are also charming. Here, the owner of a restaurant who served us tea, prunes and olives and an excellent meal.

Soil in Fujian and Guangdong is orange-red and very loose which allows Chinese to literally level mountains in order to transform the whole area in an industrial park. 

This river leads to a gigantic lake at the root of the mountains in a very remote area of Guangdong that may be compared to the Abitibi in Quebec, lakes everywhere and a strong wood industry.

Rice terraces in Guangdong

At some points, we found ourselves biking in really poor and devastated areas. On the picture below, a sample of a 20 km bike ride on an Irak-like road where houses on both sides of the road have been cut, leaving half rooms opened to the street and hills of ruins. It is sometimes difficult to understand what is going on. In this case, we figured out that they were trying to enlarge to road to build an highway but for some reasons they have been stopped in the process.

Despite of that, these houses still inhabited by enthusiastic people. Here a man inviting us for breakfast in his half house. Look at the round doors on the second and third floors that have been walled up and reconverted into windows.

Biking in a dusty industrial town in the delta of the Pearl River near Guangzhou

12/01/11 Chaozhou

A couple of pictures of Chaozhou, a small but culturally very important city in Guangdong protected by an impressive wall.

11/01/11 Hakka Tulou

In the Fujian mountains, we visited many Tulou, those round and inward houses buit by the Hakka people. These amazing buildings often are three stories high and have two or three concentric rings of houses. The ones we visited may be inhabited by up to a hundred people but we heard to the biggest of all regroups more than 300 souls.