28-Jul-2012 -- This is the 19^th 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.

On confluence day I started the town Tāngyuán (汤原县), which is about 120 km north-east of the confluence. The whole day (and the following day) I simply followed this little country road number 101, a newly rebuilt connection between Tāngyuán and the province’s capital Harbin. This road always follows the Sōnghuā River (松花江) and therefore doesn’t have any hills. However, a strong headwind was slowing me down on my bicycle.

In the afternoon I reached the confluence area. From a distance of 6.5 km I found a turnoff which let me approach on concrete surface up to a distance of 450 m. Here I parked my bike and walked in-between a labyrinth of rice paddies to the confluence point.

The confluence itself is 4 m into a rice paddy, so I was not able to exactly reach the exact location without destroying the crops. This was the first confluence on this trip where I didn’t line up all zeros. The confluence can be reached on a footpath up to 4 m distance. Next to the footpath is a little dam of 2 m height and on the other side a little river.

After returning to my bike, I went to the nearby lake called Yuèjìnpào (跃进泡). It is a huge lake with several kilometers in diameter and its shore being just 350 m apart from the confluence. I watched the shrimp fishers drying their catch of the day. Actually they were removing the shrimp from their sun bath because a thunderstorm was lining up on the sky. I also hit the road again (before the rain would hit me) and reached the town Tōnghé (通何县) just before the heavy rain started.

CP visit details:

• Distance to an asphalt (or concrete) road: 450 m
• Distance to a track: 450 m
• Distance to a footpath: 4 m
• Duration of the hike to reach the CP: 15 minutes
• Distance of bicycle parking: 450 m
• Distance to houses: 700 m
• Time at the CP: 15:55 PM
• Measured height: 101 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 4 m
• Position accuracy at the CP: 3 m
• Topography: flat
• Vegetation: rice
• Weather: overcast, 29° C (felt temperature)
• Given Name: The Shrimp Drying Confluence

Story continues at 46°N 128°E.