21-Jul-2012 -- This is the 12th out of 20 confluence points that I reached on a bicycle trip to the North-East of China. The narrative of the trip starts from 41°N 117°E.
Crossing the Nènjiāng River (嫩江) turned out to be a problem since there was no bridge. So I went southwards deviating about 20 km to the district town Fùyù (富裕). The final approach that I took to get to the confluence point was a bit careless: I left the road network far too early and ended up 3 km from the confluence in the mud. But being too proud to admit a mistake, I tried to continue straight forward, which ended up in a little disaster. Partially I had to even carry my bicycle. But I can now proudly say that I never did turn back…
It turned out that there is an unpaved road up to a distance of about 100 m, so a potential second visitor would not even have to leave the road network to make a successful visit. The exact location is in a corn field. There is little to note for this confluence point (which is actually rarely the case for confluences). So maybe that is special about it: its normality.
The only feature besides the corn plants was a mobile sprinkler system for irrigation.
I continued eastwards because my goal was to visit all the confluence points on the 48th latitude until I would reach the Russian border. At sunset, I reached the district town Kèshān (克山县).
CP visit details:
- Distance to an asphalt (or concrete) road: 7 km
- Distance to a track: 111 m
- Distance to a footpath: 111 m
- Duration of the hike to reach the CP: 2 minutes
- Distance of bicycle parking: 110 m
- Distance to houses: 400 m
- Time at the CP: 12:50 PM
- Measured height: 228 m
- Minimal distance according to GPS: 1 m
- Position accuracy at the CP: 3 m
- Topography: flat
- Vegetation: corn
- Weather: sunny, 25° C (felt temperature)
- Given Name: The Corn Sprinkler Confluence
Story continues at 48°N 126°E.