biking in China by Jake

Jason and I rented bikes during our time in Beijing and it was an experience. We were equipped with old cruisers that were too small for us, go figure, and sent on our way. We had seen how the bikes maneuvered through the streets so we thought we were ready to take our chances. We got out on the roads and realized that it was pretty easy to do. Once you go over the fact that the speeding car approaching the intersection was going to stop, everything went smoothly.

Beijing has many bike lanes, so bike travel is fairly easy. That, plus Beijing is relatively flat. The largest hill in Beijing might be an entrance to a highway. But, these bike lanes are not just for bikes as we soon found out. Cars will drive on these large bike lanes too. I mean why not, the car fits. Why shouldn't they get to drive there? The cars would weave through bikers, honking their horns as if the bikers were in the wrong place. How dare they bike in that lane? This was annoying and slowed down bike traffic. There were also pedestrians hanging out in parts of the bike lane. I know there is a sidewalk, but why would anyone walk on that when there is this large bike lane to walk in. Sometimes there were just too many people around so some overflow on the bike lane is expected.

We quickly learned that the best way to make it from point A to point B is to just bike. Even if there was a red light in front of us, just go. If there was a large gathering of people on the bike lane, just go through. They have special bike lights on the roads to help move traffic along, but if there is an opening, just go.

After a short stop to repair a loose chain, we made it back in one piece. I would say that biking is a great way to see a lot of the city.

Oh. And locking up your bike. This is different from the US. Rather than having bike racks to lock up your bike, all you do in china is lock your bike to your bike with a chain or clamp. I think this is because there are just so many bikes that it wouldn't make sense to put up bike racks. I mean there are just too many bikes for bike racks to hold. So if you want to lock your bike up, all you do is park it and lock it where ever you like. I don't think bike theft is much of an issue either. Everyone already has a bike to ride. Plus a lot of the bikes are about to fall apart, so it isn't a good investment.