passagevoyage

A Pékin, le parc BaÏha et sa grande stupa blanche sur un îlot au centre

Les Hutong, véritable labyrinthe de ruelles étroites. Cet héritage de la vie traditionnelle chinoise est en train de disparaître, nombreux quartiers de hutong sont détruits et remplacés par des building


       
































  


  





















                                                  
















                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
     


















                         







               





























             Pour les JO les hutong restant font peau neuve, les vieilles briques sont couvertes de peinture, ça devient difficile de trouver un "vrai vieux quartier", quel dommage ....
   






















Un grand marché couvert :       




















Scorpions, sauterelles et autres bizarrerie chinoises à déguster ....

Un dicton chinois dit : "Un chinois mange tout ce qui est sur terre sauf les voitures, tout ce qui est dans l'eau sauf les sous marin, tout ce qui est dans les airs sauf les avions"

    


























Dormi, dormir, dormir .....

     















                                                                                      
               
                                            




















          

               






                                                                                    







Rues commerçantes de nuit :                             
                                                                                                            

























     






Près de Tian'anmen, une rue commerciale trèèèès chic ....
     


















Des galeries marchandes verticales .....  jusqu'à 10 étages de boutiques de fringue

     

Je trouve Gana guest house située dans le quartier du monastère gandan. Les mieux lotis pourront profiter d'un lit en dortoir dans des  yourtes installées sur le toits et les moins chanceux  d'un lit dans le grand dortoir glauque du sous sol de la maison.

Quand j'arrive la guest House est vide, je profite pleinement de la yourte, de la terrasse et  du bac à sable !

La Mongolie compte (parait-il?!) 27 jours sans nuage par an !!  Sur une superficie de 1 565 000 km² seulement 1% sont cultivé. A cause du changement culturelle le pays  ne peut pas subvenir à ses besoins alimentaire. L'importation massives de denrées contribut à son endettement. En 1992, après l'effondrement du régime communiste le âys subissait une inflation de 325%

Oulan Bator n'est pas d'un charme fracassant, architecture à la soviétique, mais c'est tranquille. La moitié de la population vit dans la capitales et les centres provinciaux.
La ville où les building poussent comme des champignons grignotte les quartiers populaires fait de baraques et de yourtes ubaines

Quand les températures glaciales cèdent la place aux chaleurs de l’été, comme les Hommes, les yourtes, dans lesquelles vive la moitié de la population, adoptent une tenue de circonstance, elles ôtent les couches de leur épais jupon de feutre et par des après midi brûlant elles remontent même leur dernière épaisseur à mi hauteur de leur parois tressées, les hommes, eux, roulent leur t-shirt jusqu’à leur poitrines laissant à l’aire leur gros bidons.


Une rue piétonne,

Au centre d'Ulaan Baatar se trouve l'énorme place Sukh Baatar, avec la Maison du Gouvernement au Nord et une statue du héros national Genghis Khan au milieu

Un grand marché couvert,  accueille des centaine de petits détaillants. L’atmosphère est calme, pas de vente forcée, de sollicitation oppressante, de vente à la criée ou de voix pinçante annonçant des tarifs attractifs.




Le monastère de Gandan



Ruelles près du monastère

The days are "hot" (10-15 degrees), the evenings are cool (-5 degrees) and nights are cold : -15 degrees in the tent. The air of the earth go through my mattress, and even dressed in all my and my polar and jacket and curled in my duvet I FEEL COLD.

My map acquired in France includes gross errors mileage (80km indicating when there are almost twice); Furthermore, I crossed villages where I intend to fill up on water and food but they are ruined and abandoned,  the few rivers that I cross are all still frozen, but like by miracle, sometime, one river sing :

But I am fine, cycling purrs without creak, I can ride and bivouac as i like, then menus identical to lengths days are no longer important: it is porridge with dried fruit every morning, peanuts and noodles crispy every lunchtime anddiner. The noodles, it's the only thing I foundcan find in the hamlets of this "inter-three-desert" between Gommud and Dunhuang.

My tent folds under the violent gusts of wind, I am a little worry for the pole… In warm in my down, I spend the afternoon to repair clothing, reading and writing. I was frustrated not being able to cycle more, but eventually this day "rest-tent" is very well and even fun! What is less funny is that I am, once again, short of food and water: I have 3L liquid left, I eat the rest rice and the last package of noodles in the evening and it remains only a cup of porridge for breakfast… I must therefore absolutely cross the mountain Manshan Tema by the Danglin Shankou pass at 3648m and then ride 40 km more for reaching the village before tomorrow evening.

My cough which had almost disappeared goes back, it is painful, I do not sleep at night. 
 At 5 am, I wake up, it is -10 ° C, the wind is scathing, I return immediately warm in my down. 2 hours later, the wind dropped a little, I am forced to move. I am tired, aching everywhere, I feel feverish and shivering, and even wrap in all my layers i fell cold. Even in the effort, I wear all my clothes and I am cold.

I barely crossed the pass, which normally would haven’t been difficult and i start descent, hoping it will last until the next village, on my map : Aksay, 40km.
My obsession is to reach Aksay as soon as possible and go to a bed. I am numb by cold and knocked by tiredness. I do not stop to drink or fed myself some dried fruit, the exhaustion is such that I feel that if I stop I will be unable to carry on.
It is no longer I who wished my bike but it carry me! It avoids the holes and bumps as well as it can, I am like a bottle in the wave of the sea.
And 20km after the pass, a very little village but it is the issue! I ride up in the courtyard of a dormitory restaurant, I put my bike and I fall on a chair, cross my arms on the table and put my head above! I am at the end of force as I have never been before.
I think I have pushed the limits of the limits!

Sure with my self diagnosis (dehydrated, no enought food the last day and hyper tired), my state of persistent tiredness and general pain does not worry me and my cough even less.
I spend two and a half days next groan under the duvet and sometimes vomit shamefully at the foot of the bed unable to walk 5 meters leading to the door.
The family, a bit worried about my condition is very present and caregiver: they install a stove in the room, the dad brings me a bowl of vegetable and rice for lunch and dinner, the mother brings medicines and grandmother remedies that I take obediently and she spends her nights in the second bed to see me.
Several times a day since my arrival, they mimic me "ring docteur, perfusions and disease finish", frightened at the idea i could get a perfusion i dont want that they call a doctor. I fell bad, my state goes not better, I am still unable to stay more than 10 minutes standing and yet I carry on in my self medication totally ineffective. On the third day in the late morning, I finally agree that the family phone.

I await the coming of a white blouse, but an hour later, a wind of concern invade me at the sight of police kepi : an officer (which is the boss of the PSB) arrives accompanied by 4 men including one talking a little English. I am afraid that it brings me trouble additional….
Cycling, baggage and me embark in two vehicles: we go to the direction of the hospital in the small new town of Aksai at 20 km.
The police benevolent leaves me to the hospital and departs with my passport, and my dusty equipment has invaded the office of the doctor who takes care of me.
Under tent for a week and without force over the past two days I have not had the courage to me wash me or even wash my hands, the nurse pass a cotton soaked in alcohol on the top of my hand before stung me, the cotton is black, I am terribly embarrassed by my status as filthy!

I am more than 4500 meters above sea level since 10 days and I suffer slightly from some of the symptoms of acute mountain sickness: insomnia and loss of appetite. In addition I have a painful cough that worsens since Nagpu, I decided to visit a Tibetan doctor before departing, it gives me 3 days of treatment "Dung of goat" (I call it as well because they are dark brown balls hard grosses who make me think of pellets of goat!) and I leave Amdo after a day off under better weather conditions.

The treatment of goat "pellets" proves ineffective, my coughing persist and cause vomiting once or twice a day, the little I eat I vomit half but especially frustrates me terribly: I put Full my shoes and my pants, I do not like cycling with dirty clothes!


In addition to the cold, almost every day a headwind violent and scathing makes kilometers laborious and daily life tough. I cross the Tanggula La to 5331 metres per -20 degrees in the middle of the afternoon with a heavy wind and snow: I get the impression it does -30 degrees; I go on between pushing the bike and pedaling muffle up all my polar gortex my jacket and my goose feathers jacket.




Like nearly every day, had to weather conditions often detestable, I make regular breaks but very short (ten minutes), "to the shelters" of my loaded  bike I eat some dried fruit, peanuts and drink ' hot water, calorie intake is well below what I can spend pedaling or pushing my bike in the wind!



It's physically hard, but the icy and snowy landscapes are superb and traffic is kept to a minimum, I have the morale to the stars hung…

Tibetain house in the middle of nowehere :

Great landscape :





My days are relatively short but intense, I do not get up until after 10 am, when I am normal temperatures (-15 degrees) to go out my precarious shelters but warm and cozy and pitch the tent to 17-18h, time when the temperature drops abruptly with the sun.
I am on the road 5 to 6 hours a day, the weather is very unpredictable and changing: in same day I can ride "comfortably" with -10/-7 degrees in the middle of the afternoon in the sun with a wind lighter and a few moments later I can be reduced to push my bike by -15 degrees in an icy wind loaded with snow.



I have entire days of strong winds and snowstorms that seem endless: I mark a short pause every 300 or 500 metres breath away and almost stunned by the effort proceeds, my eyes half closed for protect me from the wind and snow are riveted on the meter in front of my wheel, my vigilance is at the first sign of cooling of a toe or a finger, I take care of  the slightest change in temperature of my body and immediately  adapts my clothes for never having never too hot nor cold. In those merciless and exhausting day I become like shake by the wind in all the way whose thoughts are obsessed by scrolling dramatically slow kilometers displayed by my counter.

The sky is clear but the f... wind treats my bicycle without menagement :


As for the days of good weather, they are a genuine liberation: freed from my vital concerns by high winds, I enjoy, my senses wide open, smells, colors, silence, frozen rivers and landscapes by sleeping cold; I forget the hard miles driven and I omit completely how this environment can be hostile, but the sunset and the plummeting temperatures me recall that can be suddenly fatal and that the Vigilance remains a good omen: I saw my hands paralyzed by the cold in a second and sometimes I slammed teeth in less than thirty seconds: a cloud hides the sun and wind gusts get up, the time of catch my clothes in my backpack and don them I already numb by the cold.


With the cold, wind and snowstorms, I fingers numb, my movements are awkward, everything becomes more complicated: dress and get dressed to satisfy a natural need, donning mittens, do the laces, undo the tight knot of a plastic bag of peanuts, grab the spoon and knife in my bag-handlebar, undo clips of bags, remove thermos firmly stuck in the rubber, unscrew the caps of them blocked by the freezes, cracking a match, then 2, then 3, then 4… .. Then 10, the wind blows even before I had time to light the essence of preheating my stove, breaking ice or snow by collecting handful of hook block and wait an hour to get two samll litres of scarce Water often muddy, pitch the tent: planting stakes in the frozen ground and stony… every act of life is slow.
A chicken thigh bought the previous day is uneatable the next day because frozen, bread is frozen, large dried fruits are hardened and uneatable, the very few fruits or vegetables that I find are frozen, peel me wrong, I finished by throwing without consuming, cans of tea given by Chinese tourists are imbuvables 3 hours later, I save my little milk bottles wrapped in skins of the beasts days and warm in my sleeping bag at night, toothpaste and sunscreen are frozen and unusable, the counter is out of service from -20 ° C and my pencils write more from -7 ° C. Only the sweetened condensed milk, which is off-freezes and me!

People are getting water throught a hole in the frozen river :


My cough persists, are repeated vomiting and appetite is thin, my throat burning and voice off. More days passed, the more I am weak,  I cycle less and less kilometres. I climbed my bivouac each evening on the verge of exhaustion.
A 470 km of Amdo, after a week of road, I expect to find a small town with a pharmacy and / or a doctor to relieve my pain: it is only a group of about twenty houses few restaurants and shops, my disappointment is big.

The village :
 
A small shop and his owner : 

My moral climbed happily passes in 7000 along my path opens, but today he fall down, I found in a dump in the middle of the village of rubbish and biques:
"Ouch it hurts, and then it stinks! "
I grabbed him by the collar: "Yes you are in a dumpster, just by going there, puts your jasket before you cool, fly your nose and change your socks wet"
"Oh it's going no, I am tired and then I lost my moral"
"yes … me also ... looking into a dumpster maybe you will find him ! Come We go to eat! "
"I dont feel hungry! "
"Me too i feel hungry, but we go to eat when even, go! "
I pushed a curtain heavy and bold to enter a restaurant run by a muslim family, mum arms wide open, his gaze, his affectionate smile gives me the balm to the heart. I sit my bad mood on a chair near the stove, he devours a chicken leg and a bowl of noodle soup and fall asleep like a baby just do I have the time to the border under the duvet questionable; piled lugage between the coffee table and beds snore already, my bicycle sleep in one eye and me, a little concerned about my state that does not settle things, I watch over his little world up to 4 hours.

The next day around 9:30 I wake up in burst: "Bah went where? " up
"Moral…. Climb the mountains,  he awaits us on the road…. You stayed late last night, it's going to comment this morning? "
My cough is going slightly, vomiting fade, I found my voice and sing again with the bike, I eat best, a few days I take a cruising speed reasonable  and I  carry on cycling in great landscape :

And pitch my tent en empty place far from the raod: 

Or in a tube under the road !!



March 6, 10 hour, a crow is being chiper my bags of food from apse of my tent and I gently pulls on the closure illuminates jelly, the canvas-covered interior is white and a cloud of ice fell over me ; I draw from my warm duvets also covered ice of the night, I go out and I am suddenly seized by the cold: it does, however, that - 10 ° C but the wind unleashed fact dramatically lower the temperature.
I run satisfy my need and I hurried as fast in the small apse of the tent, euphoric, I crouched swinging, I shout to who want to hear "I do not want to go ! "The madness cheerful Heights seized me and 2:30 later, I am on the side of the road, knock in my hands to signal the beginning:" And let's go for a fucking day … "The wind is so strong that I do not even trying to pedal, I pushed my bike a cumbersome and malicious.
For the first time since I cycled on this road, my feet and my hands are really cold, my toes are sore, the bottom of my feet numb, my heels are painful, my hands transies do more, I can not and tighten control my handlebar, under the strong wind gusts and calls for air trucks double me I have to stop and straighten my chest on the handlebars to a halt.
The worst are the bus arriving in front at high speed: a wall of air strikes me badly, I have the feeling to crush me as a pancake on the front of the bus, I hate this feeling that I will squash cowardly death by a vehicle on a road in the Himalayas!

  Last kilometers in a small snowstorm before ascending into the Fenguho La at 5080 meters:



At the pass Kunlun La, 4850 m, I spend a long time to contemplate the landscape, nostalgia invade my heart, it was soon finished with these great mountains… I already want to come back…

The Kunlun The Shankou to 4772 m is the "way out" of the Tibetan plateau,

then, I start a long descent unfortunately the strong winds from the north take me of a little fun of 2000 metres downhill that run on 160 km to reach Golmut at 2700 metres altitude!


On March 10, I have this morning pretend to believe that I have become a beast bike: I swallow a big breakfast in the perspective of the travel 120 kilometers leading to Golmut in the day! But 2 km after the start, I barely have time to tap the brakes I regurgitates the excess of my copious breakfast! And now, my bag right rear is good to turn to large water! I plague against my stomach capricious, postponed until tomorrow a hot shower long-awaited, my dream of becoming a super beast bike flies, and i carry on gently gently !

Landscapes turn to the son of kilometers, temperatures rise, the river water flowing stream, energy radically changing: there is a smooth and velvety harmony, I find the atmosphere and the wind benevolent mellow.






I was awakened by - 15 ° and I pitch my tent that evening at 0 ° C, I am delighted by this change: without jacket I sits out in front of my tent listening to the silence and watch the small district moon play hide and seek behind the clouds… the clock is ticking, with the cool fall night, it is - 5 degrees, when I decided to return to my shelter I realize that I spent 3 hours like that ... I lost time with the sweetness of the air!



I celebrate this victory for my crossing of Tibet south to north in winter shortly before arriving at Golmut by opening a small manufacturing retains rillette France house that I carry in my saddlebags from Lhasa, it is a delight it lacks with a little mustard and a good cup of re win!





Few kilometers before Golmut :


I arrive Golmut March 11, I look like an old witch exit mountain biking hyper charge, Bags stained, soiled shoes, nails and hands are stained black, dusty face, learned traits, skin marked by cold and the sun, my wear trousers in the footsteps of my capricious stomach and my 1200 kilometres travelled without cleaning, polar have changed my color, my socks smell very very bad, my body has not seen a piece of soap for more than three weeks, my braids are beginning to be transformed into dreadlocks, I regret the few moments military haircut of my 20 years! Exiting the shower I discovered with surprise the color of my hands: I had forgotten if so white!

On February 15, I left Lhasa in the eyes disaproving Buddy cyclists face disproportionately loaded my bike,

Photo: 2 of my polar doubled, a protege faceless "house manufacturing: a triangle of polar covered by a layer of gotex windbreaker (indispensable, the protege face and gortex!) And my big shoes that are not shoes walking a high mountain rigid soles in which cyclists are cold, they are shoes designed for a static activity in extreme cold (also much less expensive than substantially walking shoes)





- In Lhasa, I bought a leather beast of 80 cm by 1 meter as a second mattress (very effective I never felt the cold ground)
- And  I bought small skins of animals and I do a bit of sewing: not having very good socks I tinkered "half-socks' I put over my socks and I covered toes below feet heel; for the night I make big socks skins I finally sewed protectors "fingers" that I put between my gloves and my mittens. These small hand-made thinks  proved to be very effective, however, I had problems with the fingers (ten days after leaving the cold weather I still have slight tingling and pain in extremities), for acts of everyday life I had to remove my big gloves and mittens and I often had completely numb fingers;

Gloves: for gloves and thick gloves more over which I rajoutais protege fingers in my skin and wool avnt d donning the pair of hook block in gortex)






- But I had invested in the proper equipment that I did not have : a very good pair of shoes, a jacket in goose and a true and good thermos (I advance another good thermos of France and bad thermos gained in China (which had claimed a dozen euro which is much here), in which the water froze!)

Carte des provinces de la Chine en chinois :

 

Chengdu, capitale de la province du Sichuan compte 120 millions d habitants, ville du "premier panda reproduit artificiellement", elle est l une des villes favorites des touristes occidentaux et  l un des grand centre industrielle chinois avec 20 universités, 230 instituts de recherche, 440 000 chercheurs et 6 000 grandes entreprises

Chengdu by night :


Centre ville : des trottoires-passerelles au dessus des 3 voies offrent un point de vue interessant !

 Building de miroir :
La place .centrale bat son plein particulièrement le week end, un écran géant diffuse des publicité en boucle  ( sur la photo à gauche au dessus des arbres)


Le coeur de la ville est constituée de quelques grandes rues piétonnes comme celle ci-dessous, bordées de boutiques très chics, les grandes marques internationnales sont à l'affiche, les rues sont en permanence nettoyées par des équipes armées de balais, pelles et serpillères ...


Toutes les 4 minutes une personne ouvre cette poubelle d'une des grandes rues commercantes et  y plonge les mains pour recuperer plastique, carton, papier ... qu elle revendra pour quelques yuans, 4/5 de ces personnes sont des femmes de plus de 50 ans ...


Le temple Wuhou ou "temple du commerce", seul endroit où apercevoir in semblant d'architecture traditionnelle (construite ou restaurer ... pas terrible mais c est au moins ca ) on n y trouve un peu de tout : quelques bondieuseries, des bibelots, de  " l artisanat traditionnel-industriel" grossier et chère, de la bouffe ...



Les ombrelles en papier qu'on trouve chez nous dans les coupes de glace existent vraiment grandeur nature


des tout petit coin de verdure épargnés par la frénésie commerciale :