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Beijing Biking - Part 1: Order in the chaos


Claudio

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Having been in Beijing for about 2 months I have learned a lot about what biking can be like in a city. Here it’s a chaos that you couldn’t imagine until you experience it. And for everyone who is involved in the fight between bikes and cars, it is a perfect place to get some perspective.

 

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Did you go to Natooke? Thats a great shop...

 

I haven't yet, no, but it's on my list of things to do! I've heard they've got quite a cool community of bikers connected with that shop.

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Natooke is rad. Got a fix built up there and brought it back to Cape Town. Long live the Flying Banana!

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Well done, great read.

 

I've been to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Taizhou, Ningbo, Qingdao and a few smaller cities inbetween, not forgetting Hong Kong. It was quite a mind shift to see how people drive there, especially like you mention about not stopping at a red light when it's "clear" to proceed.

 

But the arrogant "you're wrong and I'm right" attitude that you find with drivers in SA, and other European countries I've been to, is just not present there. If there's someone jumping a red light, or turning in front of you, they just slow down (sometimes give a honk of the horn) and carry on driving.

 

In almost 4 weeks (spread over two trips), I saw 1 bumper bash (woman using her mobile) and another one on the highway. Ironically it was on a section where signs are posted about following distances.

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Claudio what are you doing in China!?

Holiday or working?

Working, doing the teaching thing! And obviously a bit of writing too! But traveling is also part and parcel of being over here. 

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