Got a bit lost trying to find the main highway coming out of town because Google maps had completely incorrect data of the area so it took quite a while until we saw signs for highway S302 we were looking for because it was in a completely different location than our map said.
Naturally it was us and the coal trucks sharing the road, however traffic was relatively light today. We had a great tailwind and had lunch by an old watch tower which used to be part of the Great Wall that ran along this stretch. In the afternoon we turned south-east onto the S201 to follow a quieter route which we had read about on another cycling blog. By a frozen pond we met a younger couple and their son. They called us over and wanted to get their picture taken with us. The lady spoke a bit of English and explained that her husband is a touring cyclist too. We asked them if they knew of a good camping spot in the area but unfortunately the woods they suggested were in the opposite direction we were going. They were so nice and even gave us a handful of chocolates for the road. We passed through a little town after which we knew we needed to find a camping spot because it was getting late. We had planned on just wild camping tonight but one of the last buildings looked quite inviting with a large courtyard so we decided to ask there if we could camp for one night. It turned out to be a sewing factory run by a couple. We caused quite the stir because most of the sewing ladies came out to see what was going on while the owners of the place tried to decide what to do. They were all very amused, confused and desperate to try and figure out how to best help us out. On each side of the sewing room was a living room and we were lead into one of them. The bikes went into the adjoining room so they would not freeze at night. The sewing ladies were so excited about us being there and wanted us to come hang out in the sewing room which we did. Most of them had cellphones and were snapping photos of us non stop. They were weaving stylish fur coats with thin strips of fur. Very interesting. The lady of the house then cooked us a huge pot of noodles, a bowl of boiled eggs, fermented veggies and the guy brought us four beers. They even had a computer they indicated we could use which was great because we needed to sort out our accommodation for Beijing.
Later in the evening, the lady's daughter who was one of the sewers, came to use the computer which turned out to be quite funny. She spent a long time recording webcam videos of herself singing some song that must have been playing in her earphones. She spent the entire time on a website that seemed to be streaming videos of other people doing the same thing. I have to admit that her voice was not very good and rather out of tune but our presence did not seem to concern her in the least which we really admired. Neither of us would have felt comfortable doing what she was doing with two strangers in the room. So we just sat there waiting for her to finish so we could go to bed. So funny!
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