你好。我叫谷丽娜。我从新西兰骑自行车到中国。
(Hello. My name is Gunilla. I've cycled from New Zealand to China.)
It sounds like a pretty big achievement. I'm grateful for all the support I've received doing this, and I was overjoyed, when I had a cake and friends to celebrate with.
China is the land of BIG! Everything here is on a scale that is mindboggling big, when you come from a little country like New Zealand with a population of 5 million. I recommend visiting China. Seeing how a country supply food, electricity, housing, transport and other services to 1.4 billion people is very interesting.
The first thing I noticed was the clean air. The uptake in electric cars, motorbikes and scooters has meant that air pollution is minimised. It was great to be able to breathe deeply.
I cycled through Guangxi province. Near beautiful Guilin, I visited a friend, I've been studying Mandarin with in Wellington. He and his wife are now working at a university with 40,000 students. It was a city in itself. I don't think I've ever been at such a big campus and university library before.
Apropos mandarins, in Guangxi province it was mandarin season. I have never seen so many mandarins and mandarin trees in my life before. The mandarin tree is a symbol of good fortune during Chinese New Year, so there were also pretty decorated mandarin trees everywhere.
Every day as I cycled north, it got colder and colder. In the end I got stuck near Changsha in Hunan province because of snow and road closures. I was cold!
When I could move again, I decided to jump on the high speed train and ship my bike to Shenzhen in Guangdong province. I travelled the 800km in three hours.
Shenzhen has a population of nearly 18 million people. Many countries have less people than this city. Shenzhen is famous for its art and parks. I cycled through the Botanical Gardens and it was beautiful.
Finally, here are my statistics for my 30 days in China:
Total distance cycled: 1409km
Number of flat tyres: 0
Number of rainy days: Many and snow too.
Longest day: 123km
Highest temperature: 24°c
Lowest temperature: -9°c