Cangzhou – Dezhou (130km)

While not many people have heard of Dezhou, I had actually read an article in the Economist about a year ago about Dezhou. It seems that Dezhou is a center of the solar power industry and last year hosted an international convention about solar power. With this in mind, I decided to stay in the Solar Valley Micro E Hotel, a hotel that is entirely powered by solar energy and is part of the world’s largest solar-powered building.

As a city, Dezhou looked much like other Chinese cities on first glance. Ugly buildings and dusty streets did nothing to differentiate it from other places. However, as I went through the New Development zone, I was somewhat impressed. There is an almost completely new city being built adjacent to the original city of Dezhou. The streets are very wide and landscaped, and the area will soon be filled with fancy new apartment buildings undoubtedly. On the eastern fringe of this area was Solar Valley, as area with lots of solar powered buildings.

The Solar Valley Micro Powered E-hotel was like many Chinese hotels. On the outside everything looks great: nice lobby, nice room. But, once you look a little closer you will realize that this is a façade and in ten years the hotel will be falling apart due to cheap construction and poor maintenance. I got a very good deal on what is supposedly a five start hotel: $40 a night. There’s a reason why it was so cheap. Upon being shown to my room, I was initially impressed. It looked great! But then I noticed something was wrong with the windows. It looked like something was covering them. The window actually faced into the lobby and a huge sticker had been placed over the window advertising some fact of the hotel for people looking up in the lobby. The grouting in the bathroom was turning black, and in the morning my shower was lukewarm. No doubt because the sun hadn’t yet come out to make everything work properly. At breakfast there was a big pile of shit sitting on the floor in the middle of the restaurant. No, this is not a joke!