My Journal

Since most of the travel is by foot or by cab, there is a relative radius around some of the destinations that one visits and then is ready for more. So, I have been around the relatively easy walking distance of my apartment in central Beijing more than a few times. I have wandered down little alleyways / hutongs and discovered some of the poorest areas of town 100 yards from some of the most prosperous areas. I can watch people on the Wangfujing Mall, or they can watch me (most do the latter). At the end of the day, my explorations have been planned based on a taxi ride from the hotel to a certain point and back or setting off on foot from my apartment or getting off at a random subway stop and walking around. After 9 weeks, I needed to get somewhere else for an adventure, but did not know where to tell the taxi driver to take me…so I asked for a bike store early on a Saturday morning.

What I thought would be an easy task of purchasing an inexpensive, basic bicycle to use in the city turned into a shopping nightmare. In the US, I really hate shopping for clothes, because my larger-than-average size makes it hard to find items that fit. Little did I know that I was about to have the same problem with a bicycle!

I found a large (~27” wheel) basic, black, muddy bicycle for sale for 140 yuan ($17.50). Perfect price, could use some cleanup and looked to be about the right size when I sat on the seat…but then I took it for a spin. The handle bar design in China positions the handles directly inline with rising kneecaps for every turn of the pedal. I almost toppled the bike with 2 pedal rounds based on my two initial pedal strokes. So bicycle hunt now began down a street with many bicycle shops. At about hour 2, I had now moved to the name brands that we all know – Trek, etc. and my price of 140yuan was now 3500yuan (US prices). A 3500yuan bike will require a 200yuan/20lb lock to ensure that it remains parked for more than a few minutes. I then noticed that electric bicycles were being sold for 2500 ($300) yuan, but more importantly, the handle bar design was one where I could actually pedal the bike. So I picked a vibrant color to ensure that I would be seen (bright orange) and off I went exploring…3 hours later.

Now an electric bicycle is a cross between a bicycle and a moped. It has a 50 lb battery that can be charged by coasting/pedaling or plugging into a wall. It moves at a 20-25 mph on the flats with pedaling. If you do not pedal, it is a very slow and sluggish machine. Any hill requires a good deal of pedaling to make it up. It is still undersized for my frame, but it now allows me freedom to go to shopping, grocery store and restaurants without being a slave to cabs and point-to-point directions.

The next adventure was to find a helmet. They are very rare except for motorcycles. It took 2 weekends to find a series of motorcycle shops that sold helmets and a number of hours to find one that actually fit me. In the end, I found one that looks like an aviator helmet with a big red star on the front. There is no way that someone is going to hit me and claim that they never saw me!!!