The 1000 Day Holiday

Today I hired a bicycle to cruise around the sights of Beijing. THE BOOK even goes so far as providing you a mapped out route.

I quickly lost that route, and wandered all over central Beijing. The city is filled with over 2000 Hutong, narrow alleyways that twist and turn, leaving you disoriented and a long way from where you started. 1/4 of Beijings residents live in houses on these alleyways. There was more than 5000 Hutong, but the Olympics and rapid development are bulldozing them at a rapid pace.

Anyway.

I was on the other side of the city and one pedal fell off. DOH. In most other cities I’ve been in there would be bike fix-it men on every corner. But since the roads are all paved I guess the demand for running repairs is a lot reduced.

So to get home, I was one leg pedaling. I discovered an unreported feature of my Jandals (flip flops). I hooked the remaining pedal between my foot and Jandal which created a type of toeclip so I could raise the pedal, completing the loop. I had some races with other cyclists and even Electric bikes/scooters and they all thought it hilarious. A foreigner with a 1 pedal bike..

Beijing would class as a bike friendly city! most roads have a bike lane, some the width of 2 normal lanes. There is also integrated traffic lights for the bike lanes!