China Day 5 ~ cycling in Yangshuo

On the 5th day, we came across this park ~ which is a huge find as we did not find China to be a particularly "child friendly" country. However, this is not to be confused with "child unfriendly". We were fine and people were accepting of and nice enough to our children (often a little too nice and camera-trigger happy for my kids liking), but there was not an abundance of open park spaces and/or play areas in the places we found ourselves in. Then again, we didn't go in search of these either, so this may not be a fair statement ~ and who wants to be overly judgemental. Anyhoooo....the kids had a blast on the swings and Hayden also discovered the teeter-totter. In this park, overlooking the river, there was also an abundance of exercise equipment, such as "the gazelle" ~ a primitive version of an eliptical trainer ~ which Hayden also got a kick out of. By this time, Auntie Amy and Uncle Nathan had also arrived and Alyssa was basking in the attention from Auntie Amy and Susan...she was so lucky!

...and now for the aforementioned bike ride...I don't actually have pictures of bike riding, as I was strictly focused on keeping on the bike and the bike on the road and out of the path of moving vehicles which imeded my photographic skills. At one point I did think about taking out my camera, but my maternal instincts and fear for Hayden's life if I did do this won out. This is a picture of Tim assisting in putting the child seats on the bike. They had to put cardboard on first so that the child's legs don't get caught in the spokes. The seats are then attached to the "luggage rack" with shoelaces or twine (if you are lucky to get such a strong binding) which is secured by a "specialist"...there was only one lady allowed to do this. The child then simply sits in the chair without being strapped in. Alyssa the Brave rode on the back of "the little runt's" (Uncle Jeremy) bike and Hayden was with me. It was an ok ride for the first one (yes, we did do it again), but, on the way back, Hayden got sleepy and was trying to sleep by leaning on my back. That part was ok, but when he fell asleep, he would slide off and hang over the side of the chair, throwing the bike off balance and making me worry he was going to fall out as he wasn't strapped in. I'm sure we were quite the picture with me riding with one hand and trying to keep Hayden's head on my back as he slept in has non-CSA approved "bike seat".