Day 14: Biking Around Beijing

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Katie Melua sings a song called "Nine Million Bicycles" (in Beijing), released in 2005. Back in the 1980s, eight out of 10 residents of Beijing used the bicycle as their main transportation. I remember seeing photos like this in the news:

Beijing’s Changan Street in 1986 – Photo courtesy of Beijing Shots

So, being a bike fanatic who walks or bikes way more than driving while at home in Santa Cruz, California, I was excited to ride a bike around Beijing. Fortunately, my hostel offered bikes for rent, 100 yuan ($1.50) per hour or 500 yuan for the whole day. Not as great as Vietnam where I rented bikes for a dollar or two a day anywhere in the country. But hey, I was in Beijing now, so I picked out a nice women's road bike and signed up for the day.

Sadly, things have changed in Beijing. Today only 2 in 10 residents own bicycles. The city has taken out bike lanes to make room for the every-increasing number of cars, and the air quality is horrible. My new Indian friend from the hostel has an app in his phone which reports the smog level anywhere in the world. Santa Cruz was 24 that day, San Diego (where my parents and Hash's live) was 25 and Beijing was 250!!! Hash is an avid cyclist, so he has to keep an eye on the level of pollution in the air because when you're biking and exercising you breath even deeper. He and his cyclist friends invest in expensive air filter masks to protect themselves. Many residents wear dust masks, but I was skeptical how much that can filter out the pollutants.

I'm not going to lie. I loved biking around Beijing. Biking is a perfect compromise between walking and using the subway. The subway is fast but you don't see anything. Walking allows you to take it all in and for me, photograph easily, but you can't cover as much territory. But I was aware that the bike utopia of the 1980s is gone. Bike lanes have been eliminated to make room for the 5 million cars, and the traffic makes it a bit tricky to negotiate the intersections, but on the positive side, Beijing is mostly flat and from my hostel in Dongsi there were many sites such as the Forbidden City within easy biking distance.

I did lock the bike up even when I left it for a minute, despite Hash's comment that the bike thieves these days are more sophisticated and only steal expensive bikes. Because of the restricted areas, I had to lock up the bike a lot, walk around an area, then come back for the bike. Kinda inconvenient like when you drive, you have to park the car, walk around, and then go back to car. But like I said, I'm a bike fanatic and I was in heaven Biking in Beijing. Just look at the photos I took that day.

Just 10 minutes by bike from Alley International Hostel is the Forbidden City. I did what any self-respecting tourist does. I bought a selfie stick for $3 and an empress headdress for $1.50.

This is how you're supposed to look in an empress headdress.

The wall around the Forbidden City used to protect the Emperor. Now it prevents tourists from entering without buying a ticket. I decided to save that experience for the next day when I wasn't renting a bike.
Proud citizen. Mao is still highly revered by the Chinese people.

Moms around the world love to photograph their kids. And all kids like to be hams for the camera.

I decided to step inside the side entrance to double check where I would get in line for a ticket the next day. Soldiers jog around inside together.

I love sampling street food, but fried dough just didn't seem appealing to me. I do like raw dough, so I asked the guy for a sample (pretty tasteless). That amused him so much, he made me eat another piece of dough to show his friend.

Intricate door knockers

Even though, sadly, the use of bikes is dwindling in Beijing, I was excited to see how many goods are transported by pedal power, or converted to electric batter-powered.

As in Vietnam, scooters are replacing bicycles in Beijing. I had never seen these quilted cozies for scooters, to protect hands and body from the cold, even though the fall weather was perfect when I was there.

Hutongs are narrow alley ways that are still evident all around Beijing, and fun to explore by foot or bike. Here is one of dozens of brush vendors for calligraphy.

This looks like a toy car, but it's run by a motorcycle engine.

Beautiful sewer cover.

Not my bike, but I wish it was.

I don't know the name of this street food, but it looked great. Kind of a crepe, with an egg broken and spread out on top, flipped, then covered with veggies and rolled up. I'd already filled up on other street foods, so I didn't get to try it.

Winter is coming. I'm hoping to avoid snow storms or extreme cold.

Wide variety of eggs for sale.  If dinosaurs were still around, I'm sure the Chinese would eat their eggs too.

Pickled eggs are popular in China

I had a good laugh with this New Zealander over his Oba Mao t-shirt. He bought it from a vendor on the Great Wall. He says he gets some weird looks in Beijing. 

King's Joy Hotel. Couldn't resist this photo of a woman in red.

A waxy Jackie Chan and friend in front of Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum.

The entry to the famous Quianmen Street pedestrian shopping area.

All of China is on vacation for Golden Week. Thousands, or possibly millions, flee the city for the provinces and countryside. Meanwhile, more tourists come into the city to enjoy the sights.

Twisted doughnuts are popular throughout Asia. I've seen these in the Philippines and Korea too.

Antique vendors sell images from the Revolution.

I locked my bike to spend over an hour to puruse the fascinating railway museum, three complete floors in the renovated original Beijing train station.

I could write a complete blog just on the Chinese rail system, from steam and coal locomotives to high speed bullet trains.

Wangfujing is the famous modern shopping district of Beijing, featuring an international array of big-name stores and fast food.

Tourists flock to Wangfujing food court to snack on live scorpions, starfish, and other delicacies. 

Old and new in Wangfujing Street.

An exhibit of famous Chinese leaders, along with Bulgari jewelry and Colonel Sanders (a famous American leader)

The year in flowers

Added security for Golden Week. A record 589 million Chinese traveled during Golden Week this year, which is half of the country's population. And of course, I picked this week to be in Beijing.