Oh, now I Sea

I heard through the grapevine that there is a group of people that bicycle ride from around where I live in Pudong to the East China Sea (the sea wall that lines it to be specific), so this past Sunday morning a friend of mine and me ventured out to see if we could join them. On our approach to the meeting site we were past by this guy in all out bicycle riding gear going at an insane pace, my friend turned to me and said, "I hope he's not riding in this group." Well, it ended up that this guy was the group leader, and after one of those "what did I get myself into moments" (we introduced ourselves and he said, "Great to have you guys here, got air in your tires, you're gonna lose some lb's today!!!" I hope all you readers agree that this is an awkward introduction), we decided that between the two of us, at least we can keep pace with each other. The team leader's name was Bill, and you might imagine, he is quite passionate about cycling. He at least re-assured us that there is a slow group that we can keep up with, that definitely helped.

Anyway, we headed out from Jinqiao at about 7:30am, we rode on some main rodes, then headed into some smaller village type roads that had some great views of the China of old. We arrived at the ocean at about 8:30 (all in all, the trip is about 45KM's or about 30 miles round trip). I was really excited to see the ocean, but was very disappointed to notice that it was very brown and really only used as a shipping route for freighters. It is cool to be able to say that I rode there and I will probably join the group again (I was easily able to keep up with the "slow group" so no worries there), but it stinks that seeing the ocean is not that great of a thing, I mean no beach, no people, just a wall and lots of freighters.