Qufu – Xuzhou (175 km)

That number (175 km) loomed in my mind as I set out extra early at 5 am from Qufu. Nevertheless, I set off with naïve optimism. Things went uneventfully until around 10 am when I stopped for a rest by the side of the road. Suddenly, I saw another biker stop by me. He also had panniers on his bike. Clearly he was also travelling a long distance. It turns out we were headed for the same place: Shanghai and had both come from Beijing. He was Chinese, and was planning to bike to Tibet after going to Shanghai. We decided to cycle together for the rest of the day to Xuzhou. We stopped for lunch near Weishan Lake where we had an excellent fish dish. Afterwards we continued on and arrived at the hotel at 5:00. Taking the lunch break into account, it took 11 hours of cycling to go 175 km! Strangely, I felt pretty good afterwards. It was certainly way better than the worst day so far, still the first to Tianjin.