31/7/25
Shaded and safe, but inefficiently undulating, the cycleway next to the Min river led us out of the city. Heavily canalised still, the river headed north towards larger, more monotonous conurbations. Breakfast had made up for the lack of effective room air conditioning. The lobby and corridors had tricked us.
Heads down we were pounding along the flattest route we’d had in weeks. On good cycleways we zoomed past Pengshan, crossed onto the east bank to end our short affair with the Min, and soon found ourselves near Huanglongxi. An ancient town with a history of 2000 years. As usual it was impossible to tell the old from the new, the impressive gallery bridge lured us in with its ancient looks. But it was built in 2023.
Coloured lines and large stamps of ‘Tianfu Greenway’ accompanied us on the quiet-ish roads. Leafy neighbourhoods with ample, though not constant, shade shielded us from the worst of the heat. It was an exciting feeling that we were nearing our next grand destination. Miles away for weeks at a time, they suddenly they would sneak up on us.
Goal fever was the only motivation we had left. Such a beautiful place to cycle, but not in this bloody heat. At least 5 to 7C above the long term average. The world is turning into an unbearably hot shit hole, if anyone hadn’t noticed the easiest way to find out was on a bicycle. Now we just wanted it all to be over.
Entering Chengdu we passed some stadiums, probably where the Chengdu World Games would be taking place. Having reached the mega suburbs made us feel like we should only have a few kilometres left. It was actually no less than 10km further, and was just to the southern edges. There was nothing but endless skyscrapers and gigantic traffic light organised junction. Inventing roundabouts would be smart, they could turn it into Milton Keynes. Cities are usually a hellscape and this one was no different. Shade was some kind of sick joke, tarmac and concrete and McDonalds. Death permeated our eyes.
Our insane plan was to stash the bikes in a self storage unit. Typically, the branch of ‘Kaihe Self Storage’ we’d arrived at didn’t have any availability. No people manning it, the whole thing was WeChat based. After sitting outside debating our options we went to a Luckin coffee shop. Several hours passed. Slowly and quickly at the same time. Another cyclist sat outside and we chatted, very slowly, using the translate app. It was tough going.
When a younger man arrived and we said “hello” with little expectation of more, he turned out to speak excellent English. He was a coder who worried for his future chances of a decent job. Conversation covered the low wages of many Chinese in gig economy jobs, the inability to protest anything at all and the hilarity with which people in China had learnt of the roaming gangs of knife-armed young people in the UK. “Why don’t the police do anything?” We didn’t have a logical answer.
Skirting the edges of political dissent over, we reluctantly boarded our steeds again. No longer was it the hottest part of the day, it was just slightly after. And also rush hour. It took a little defiance of the traffic to join the ‘cycle ring road’. A complete encircling of Chengdu was possible without ever having to use a road.
Typically, there were plenty of scooters to contend with. While parts were excellent, much of it wasn’t as good and had been allowed to deteriorate. Leaving the route also proved difficult. We ended up in a park doing a big loop to find the road.
The self storage unit was in a little industrial estate. As we pulled in some other people were unloading and we triumphantly marched in. Locker H906 was nowhere to be seen. Up and down we walked, hunting for our box to no avail. Eventually we tried the automated app-based door unlocking mechanism and discovered there was a second door, which was completely unmarked and invisible.
It was late enough that it was pitch black. We took the bikes into the second room and there it was. A bike sized metal box with included pitiful padlock. Shoving them in and grabbing our overnight stuff didn’t take long. Soon we were out of the sweltering warehouse and walking in the ‘cool’ air, quickly picking a hotel.
Chengdu East train station was surrounded by a thriving hub of activity as expected. Homeinn Plus was a tall skyscraper, our room was on the 25th floor. Rushing out after our shower we went to the local supermarket to buy some celebratory treats. Chocolate, cashews and of course durian. On the way back we stopped at a barbecue and picked up some skewers of kaomianjin, tofu and mushrooms.
Midnight struck before we finally put our heads down. Absolutely exhausted we fell asleep, comforted by the loud but effective air conditioning.
Surly They Won't Make It 