My Felt F1X at Jinqiao, Pudong

Woke up today to a great day, and for Shanghai this means cloudless day (there’s almost always some kind of haze over the city) and at least being able to see a shadow. My usual tennis session has been cancelled, and how can I waste such a nice day. First thing that sprung to mind is to attempt what I wanted to do since I arrived here, to reach the Yangzi River, or at least close, by cycling.

Reaching destination, almost time to turn back...

Google maps showed that the best and safest way is to get over to Pudong and then cycling on Yang Gao Rd as there is a bicycle lane on each side of the road. There are normally some slow bicycles, but as motorcycles also use the same lane, there’s always a way to bypass the slow pokes especially when you cruise at 25kmph to 30kmph.

Again, to get across to Pudong requires almost 30mins waiting for a ferry and crossing the Huangpu, but after that its just plain cruising all the way to the port. My Garmin GPS is with me just in case I get into a wrong highway. Just in case, I brought along my Nokia E71 with google maps, and this is what I used to take the pictures today.

Google Maps overlay of the GPS points and Polar readout of today's trip

There is nothing special at the port. If there is an area to stare at the river mouth of the mighty Yangzi I didn’t find it this time. The 28km to the port is tiring enough to get cramps on the way back, and my Polar S625x indicated that I spent at least 3237kcal and the trip took 4 hrs 10 mins, which is roughly 3hrs of ride time when taking into account the ferry waiting time.

Not this time, but maybe I'll try and cycle into the port next time!

All things considered, this is a very fulfilling trip. Not as fun as the 100km trip in France from Paris to Rambouillet and back, but good nonetheless.