Video from Beijing

I know that this is long overdue considering that I left Beijing almost two months ago, but I finally finished editing this video from Beijing. When I first opened this footage, I couldn’t really remember when I had filmed it. As I started watching I was struck by how beautiful the city looked. The foliage is full, the sun is out, and the shadowy streets look amazing.  I wouldn’t exactly characterize Beijing by sunny, blue skied days, but in this video the sky is clear, with no smog to be seen (very out of character for the Big Dirty) . Then about half way through watching the footage, I remembered exactly what day it was when I filmed. It was the prettiest day of my whole time in Beijing, and I had ridden out to the arts district. Watching the footage I recalled  how happy I felt riding around on that picturesque day. At that moment riding around under the blue sky was exactly when I needed to be reminded of all the simple reasons why I love to bike.

Editing this video also made me really miss Beijing, which is funny because I wouldn’t say that Beijing itself was my favorite place. More than anything I think watching this reminded me of all the cool people I met in Beijing, and how lucky I was to make a good group of friends there.

(PS – so I recently downloaded final cut pro and a split-screen plug-in.  I’m still figuring out my way around final cut and stuff, and how to most effectively use the split-screen. What do you think?)

Biking and hanging out in Chengdu

After leaving Beijing I traveled south to Chengdu in Sichuan Province for a couple weeks to hang out/attempt to help as two friends opened up a new Natooke shop. Chengdu is such a cool city, and so pleasant! It’s still a giant city of 12 million (ish), but after Beijing it seemed so relaxed, clean, and nice to ride around. Similarly to Beijing all the roads have wide bike lanes, but the roads feel more spacious. It’s hard to describe why biking in Chengdu is so nice. Maybe it had to do with the temperature and climate after Beijing, or maybe it’s because I wasn’t spending most of my time biking through alley-ways where your top speed was 5km/hr… whatever it was, I really enjoyed biking in Chengdu.

Chengdu is home to a booming fixie scene, with fixed gear shops opening all over the city.  It was cool to see a lot of women getting involved with the fixie scene there as well. At bike polo one Sunday I saw more women playing polo than I’ve ever seen in one place before. Most of them were playing for their first time (just like most everybody there), but they were getting into it, and it was cool to be part of a really gender inclusive polo space.

One of the coolest parts of being in Chengdu was hanging out with Jake and Larry and seeing the whole process of opening a new shop. Jake and Larry were super generous hosts and made me laugh until it hurt. I’ve worked at a few bike shops but I’ve never been at one before it opens. We spent a lot of time biking to huge (we’re talking multiple square kilometer) lumber/cloth/bamboo markets, and debating the merits of different tool arrangements for the workshop.  It was really cool to see that process from the very beginning, and to see all the details and planning that go into every little part of the shop. Who knows, maybe that experience will come in handy at another time (Ainsley – I’m looking at you).

Stickers! Bike Polo Ecuador Represent

Natooke Chengdu. Is that not the coolest sign you’ve ever seen? I was part of the support team to install it.

Larry, Jake and I. Thanks for sticking a bao za in your mouth for our parting photo Jake. Appreciate it.

Kangding

Here are some photos from Kangding is western Sichuan province, easily one of the most beautiful/magical places I’ve ever been.  Kangding is a historic trading post between Tibet and Chengdu, and is the beginning of traditional Tibetan territory.  It’s a small city (an oxymoron in China for the most part) of 100,000 nestled between amazing mountains with a rapid river flowing through the middle of the city.  Highlights included: checking out yak bridge where butchered yaks are sold with the tail attached, having a monk ask me to draw his portrait in a monastery and then having ten other monks surround me while I drew his picture, staying at Zhilam hostel – one of the coolest hostels I’ve stayed at, and enjoying some great hikes to temples, monasteries, farms, and nowhere.

Emei Shan

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While I was in Chengdu I had the good fortune of traveling around Sichuan province a bit. The first of my two destinations was Emei Shan, a huge series of mountains spotted with monasteries, wildlife, incredible views, and home to the best snickers I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Day one I took a bus up most of the mountain, and then hiked up a bit more to stay at a monastery for the night. It was a very eventful hour hike where our group (I met a few other travelers on the bus) got attacked by a hoard of monkeys (they are AGGRESSIVE – will take off your backpack, open it, and take what they will), and then when we got to the monastery a few bats flew out of the room we stayed in. More than anything, as you can see from the pictures, the mist and fog was so thick that sometimes you could only see a few feet in front of you.

Day two we woke up at 3:30am to hike up to the top for sunrise.  After climbing about a million stairs to the top, I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen.  The sun rose over the mist that covered the mountains and lit up the whole area. It was breathtaking. The place was swarming with tourists (there are hotels at the top where you can stay and thus skip the two hour hike to the top during hours of day that I rarely see), but it was totally worth it.  The sunrise was cool, but the hike the rest of the day was even better. From the top I hiked down to the bottom by myself, which might have been over ambitious considering it was a 20 miles hike descending 3000m all on stairs (side note – I could barely walk for two days afterwards).  After the sun rose the mountains were covered in mist again, and it was really cool to walk through these empty forests (after the top I maybe passed 15 people all day) on a path where you could only see 20 feet ahead of you all day.  There were no signs about where you were, or how far between destinations, so you just had to trust that you were on the right path and keep walking. It was a really beautiful day, and although I was in a lot of pain later, it was totally worth it.

Bikes n Stuff from Beijing

Bike lane at night.

Entrance to the Bike tunnel.

Bike tunnel!

Ines and Fede hanging out in front of the Castle.

A bike chain cemented into the ground. Excellent bike parking, and an even better way to prevent cars from parking on the sidewalk.

This is what air pollution looks like. That isn’t fog – its smog.

One of the pretty incredible things about biking in Beijing is that there are bike lanes everywhere.  Every major road has a bike lane, even if it isn’t always respected.  Even though China might have one of the steepest declines in bike commuting in the world, the raw numbers of bike commuters are still so much higher than any American city.  In 1986 63% of Beijingers moved by bicycle, now that number is closer to 15% (not entirely sure about that number, but its around there). So although that is an almost 50% decline, in a city of 18 million people 15% of people is still A LOT of cyclists.

It’s a funny combination of having tons of cyclists everywhere, so cars are aware that cyclists are on the road, but no one pays attention to traffic laws. One friend described biking in Beijing as totally safe and manageable as long as you anticipated that no one would drive/bike/walk in the way you would expect them to.  I think its pretty good advice all the time – but especially in Beijing.