Arriving in Kaili a major town in Guizhou the group stumbled on a local festival. To celebrate the traditions of the local minority tribes the festival, which runs every August, includes dance and bullfights. The bullfight is a competition between two huge water buffalo which face off in front of an enormous crowd that cling to the muddy banks of a natural arena to watch. Each fight ends with one of the bulls fleeing at speed chased by the victor. With no fences between the crowd and the fighting animals, this causes chaos. The bulls charge into the crowd, which dives for cover. Thousands of people pushing, running, screaming to get out of the way creates a hilariously dangerous spectacle.
Always choosing the most remote routes doesn’t always go smoothly. Many areas in China are still closed to foreigners. Following a little used road crossing into Hunan province we found themselves in a little village set in picturesque mountain scenery. Stopping for the night at a little guesthouse we settled in for the evening, only to be disturbed by a visit from the PSB (Public security bureau). After several hours of negotiations in a grimy little office with pictures of Mao, Marx, and Lenin staring down at us we eventually talked our way out of the mandatory 500Y fine.
South China is full of great rides on quiet roads through lush green scenery. It is a mountainous region but most climbs can be done in a few hours. During the summer it is when it is wet, the clouds hang low on the mountains giving a mystical appearance. Around the big cities the roads get busy and the pollution starts. We avoided these areas by using public transport.On buses it is free to put bikes on the roof, carrying bike bags we were able to put our bikes on any bus or train and cycle the best bits. In this way we made our way to Dali in Northern Yunnan to begin our approach to Tibet.
