Tour de Beijing

Finally I feel mobile again.

After 10 months in 'the mountain city' where motorbikes were the only reasonable two-wheeled option for transportation, I have joined the crowds of bicycle people here in Beijing.

The city is great for cycling, it's all flat and there are generous bicycle lanes in most areas. In theory, anyway.

Now I am no longer forced to sit in a taxi, stuck in the endless traffic, trying to stretch my neck to see how far we actually still are from the next intersection. No sir, no I simply whizz by on the bike, speeding away.

Sometimes it really works like this. At other times, I am faced with the reality where 5.000.000 other people are also on their bikes, hoping to speed by the traffic jams, just creating another one on the bicycle lane.

But the worst problem by far has nothing to do with traffic jams, but with the way people drive. Even if I trust myself on the bike, I trust absolutely nobody else on the road. The potentially most dangerous ones are the drivers in the cars, many of whom seem to have gotten their licences by bribing an officer rather than taking any test (or lessons, gor forbid!). These drivers are likely to take a short cut through the bike lane, make completely forbidden turns at intersections, break in the middle of the street with no warning...the list could go on for quite a while.

And the cyclists. Most people prefer to ride their bikes rather slowly, and nothing wrong with that. The problems start when some of the slowest cyclists always seem to be riding right in the middle of the lane, every now and then wobbling to one side. So when you have just decided to overtake on the left, the person on the slow bike will suddenly make a wobbly "fall" to the left. Then you fall behind again, observing for a while and they seem to be going straight enough, you gather your courage and make for the right side....*wobble* --- they lean to the right.

Of course, some local cyclist solve this problem by simple shouting as they ride:"Get out the waaaaaayyyy!!!!". No one seems to have bells though. Maybe not effective enough?

But all in all, being on a bike again makes me feel free again. And nothing beats a ride through the hutongs in the evening. And what really counts, Beijing has suddenly become much smaller.