Bike Ride

Mary and I decided that since we had a very vague sense of the Zhoushan's geography we'd better set out to explore it. So yesterday, Saturday, we headed west along the south shore of the island on our bikes. We used a map to make it across the city to a tunnel that took us under a hill and out of Dinghai. The area out there is very open with some farming and small communities of houses scattered around. There are also large industrial developments and some shipping and ferry ports along the water. We biked out to where the bridge that will connect Zhoushan to the mainland will reach the island when it's finished in 2007 maybe. There's a small port with fishing boats there. We then headed inland, biking up a beautiful valley between high green hills to a dam. Then we got a text message from our friend and Chinese tutor Yu Dan Yan saying that there was a typhoon approaching. We headed back towards Dinghai on an inland highway that was lined with trees most of the way and passed many small communities and a large temple. Once we were back in Dinghai Mary's bike broke - the crank shaft came loose and she couldn't peddle. It's fixed now, but thank goodness it broke near home and not 15 km from home. The ride was probably 35 km total (on one speed bikes that are best pedaled at a slow, relaxed pace! The whole expedition took only 5 hours. Maybe next we'll head inland and try to cross the island, or else bike east to some beaches we've heard about.