The Yangzte River and other news

I’ve lived within 10-15 miles of the Yangtze River for about 13 of the past 15 months but I had never laid eyes on it until today. I had heard that it’s possible to bike there and back so I tried it out, wearing bike shorts and long underwear under my clothing, and reached the river in just over an hour. It was an interesting ride, sharing a quiet four lane road with trucks, buses, a few cars, many motorcycles and electric bikes, a few tricycles hauling trash, and some pedestrians with luggage, either waiting to be picked up or looking for a ride. On either side of the road were factories, abandoned fields, and run down concrete homes and warehouses.

I expected it to take longer than it did to reach the river, so I wasn’t sure what to make of all the cranes, empty paved lots, and piles of sand and coal. It certainly started to look like a port and there were signs pointing to the Changzhou port and a harbor. I turned down one of the smaller roads headings towards cranes and biked until it ran into a long rolling hill with a narrow road on top. I carried my bike up the hill hoping there was a river on the other side and indeed there it was, the longest river in Asia.

It was only about 100 yards wide and there was a bridge across it, so even though it was much bigger than any canal or river I’ve seen before in China, I thought it was quite the Yangtze River. Once I got on the bridge, I realized that it went to an island on the south side of the river and most of the river was just to the north. From the highest point in the middle of the bridge, I was able to see pretty far and watch two barges go by directly underneath me. There was a port full of cargo containers and cranes and an export customs office on the island and lots of huge ships. I got a lot of strange looks by workers near the river and on the roads there and back people on motorcycles and sometimes an entire bus full of people would turn their heads around stare at me. There must almost never be cyclists out for a casual ride on those roads.

[UPDATE] Some pictures are now online.

The economic situation in China has some parallels to the United States, slowing growth and sharp falls in real estate values and inflation and the government announced a stimulus package of over $500 billion. As in the U.S., there may be an additional bailout for Chinese car companies. In other ways it’s entirely different – GDP growth may slow to 5 or 6% and cities are still growing at an astounding rate

And the largest foreign holder of American debt is now .

A couple other things of note, an oft-forgotten part of China, the expansive northwestern province of Xinjiang, has an interesting debate over ethnic and cultural histories, sparked by several mummies preserved for thousands of years in the dry desert climate.

Kimchi, which is a Korean dish of vegetables pickled with chilies and garlic, is something I eat several times a week at school and on occasional visits to Korean restaurants. In Seoul this week, 2,200 people helped make 143 tons of the stuff. Kimchi has a strong smell so I wonder if the whole city stunk, so I hope it wasn’t a hot day and it was all eaten or refrigerated.

Finally, the Shanghai Marathon is next Sunday, November 30. I signed up and plan to run the full marathon.