Cycling in Beijing

23rd Dec

Hired bikes cycled round Beijing. The cycling in Beijing is mental in more ways than one. Everyone cycles everywhere round the city. There really are ten thousand (or however many the song says) bicycles in Beijing, and they are all shit - every single last one of them. The roads in Beijing are huge - 6 laners in some places, and in addition to this along the sides are bike lanes which are bigger than our A roads in the UK. They have a space advantage there due to the sheer size of the country, yet still our country could take some tips from them with regards to sustainable transport. It is very impressive. Cycling in Beijing is fun, if a little scary, and it's a great way to see a large amount of the city in a relatively short time. We didn't see a single car/bike accident the whole time we were in China which is pretty remarkable as there is so much traffic on the roads (cars/bikes/people). My theory is that the people in China move (somehow) as one entity as opposed to thousands due to the massive population. We should have seen several accidents; the chaos is frightening, and often amusing, yet fortunately we didn't witness any.

Evening went to the crazy nightclub - Bar Na Na

Mad place - expensive for China but pretty funny.

Catering for rich Chinese business men and presumably westerners although there were very very few in there. 75% of the girls in there were working girls. Shame as they were very pretty!