China visit, May 2025
Back on the bike this morning for a whirl around our Waikanae circuit: Peka Peka to Otaihanga and return along the cycle path alongside the Peka Peka to Otaki Expressway. I’m probably alert to this since returning from our Sounds2Sounds bike ride in Feb/March, but I notice an increasing number of bikes on these routes. I digress however. We're just back from a three-week trip to China where I joined Tim who’d been working with colleagues at Tongji University in Shanghai for three weeks. It was an interesting and successful opportunity for him. We capped it off with a 12-day Intrepid tour, beginning in the capital, Beijing, and including Xi’an, Chengdu, Yangshuo and Hong Kong. It was a busy but fascinating experience, covering a swathe of China and offering some insights into the country’s history which goes back 5000 years or more. To achieve this we needed to be able to travel large distances quickly. Bullet trains were the answer and I’m s...