Hainan

Hainan

I am cycling in China in the southern island of Hainan, it's nice and warm here 20 to 27 degrees. I am with my long time cycling friends, Akani, Varut and Paisan. We arrived yesterday and today cycle 100 kilometres, now eating and relaxing and drink local beer.
Hainan is an island province of China and the nation’s most Southern point.
It is big , about the same size as Taiwan and 50 times bigger than Singapore . Population 9 million with about 1 million visitors , many retired
Haikou city is the biggest city followed by Sanya
We cycled around the island for 8 days and covered 600 kilometres
Good roads many with cycling lanes, traffic in cities but quiet on rural roads.
Electric motorcycles everywhere, they are very quiet so they whizz past with no noise, Have to be careful not to change course suddenly .
Also Electric cars move with no noise, only wheel noise
They also have electric buses

They have a Local spirit : Maoutai special spirit a type of whiskey , no hangover
In Hainan many apartment blocks are empty or not finished
Hello from Eastern Hainan where the temperature is 27 degrees at 5pm, amazing place this island has a population of 9 million with 1 million visitors so have to keep eyes peeled as someone is turning in front of you every 10 seconds.


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Guangzhou March 2019

I visit Guangzhou
I fly to Guangzhou after the cycling trip to Hainan and I spend 3 days looking around. 

Wednesday 20 March I walk to Yuexiu, here in the  park during the day time a lot of retired people and many grandparents looking after young grandchildren, people retire at 55 in China 
After the park I walk to a restaurant and eat pasta and meet Nico who sits at my table.  We talk using Wee Chat and I go with her to visit the Guangzhou Museum. The Museum is very interesting and describes the development of the city from the earliest times to the present day. I am interested in the joint England- France control of the city around 1850 .
After the Museum we visit a temple nearby and burn joss sticks together 
Nico and I watch a movie in my hotel then go to see The Canton Tower an amazing giant tower by the Pearl river.

Guangzhou is highly developed city a bit like Singapore but 3 times bigger , very good infrastructure with wide roads with cycle lanes and huge buildings everywhere . The river side area has amazing buildings all lit up at night
All very clean lots of ladies clean the streets, they have electric carts to move around and collect the rubbish. Most people are good and dont throw rubbish away but cigarettes are a exception.

Thursday 21 March I take the train from Guangzhou to Shenzhen speed 300 kilometres per hour
This is Construction everywhere,
Infrastructure , New roads and bridges
Amazing train system
300 kilometres per hour means Manchester to Leeds in maybe 20 minutes allowing for speeding up and slowing down

Population of Guangzhou 13 million
Greater region 50 million like Tokyo bay area, similar infrastructure here.

Day time in the park a lot of retired people and many grandparents looking after young grandchildren, people retire at 55 in China

Mobiles everywhere every street has many bikes in marked area. The lock on the back wheel is activated by reading a barcode on the bike with the app on the phone which reads the barcode and the system then knows where the bike starts and ends and who uses it .

Water spray vehicles spray water in the roads in Guangzhou , these are giant, hair dryer-like machines, mounted on trucks . These can blow water vapour up to 200 feet into the air: the idea is that water droplets from these “mist cannons” stick to pollution particles, and pull them to the ground. This practice is very common in the downtown areas.

Barcodes for everything, shopping, metro, bikes, Museum entry,

WeChat, the platform used by more than 1 billion people every day. It does so many things – payments, social networking, messaging, travel booking, gaming – that participating in society without it seems all but impossible.