Born To Be Wild

Flat. As a pancake. The cliché was designed for Beijing's topography. Which makes Beijing perfect for bicycle transportation. After watching Chinese traffic for a month, we traded our walking shoes for pedals. Actually, we traded one hundred dollars for two bikes equipped with fenders, a rear rack and front basket, and two heavy cable locks.

Then we cycled into the twilight zone of traffic. First, there's no such thing as right of way; might of way, maybe, or speed of way, perhaps. Second, there's no daydreaming, talking on cell phones, eating or doing anything else while on the road. It is simply not humanly possible to manage the flow of traffic without total concentration on what you are doing. And while there are bike lanes on every major street, the bicyclist must take care to avoid collisions with the cars, scooters and every other strange contraption that also uses the bike lanes--going both directions I might add. Any paved surface is fair game for any form of transportation (yes, we have even seen horse-drawn carts rolling down the road).

But what fun we've had seeing the city from the "Jingers" point of view!

PS: Thanks for all the comments.  Because I can't access the blog (these posts are coming via email), I can't post the comments, but I sure enjoy getting them!