China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

Today Zheng Xiao Hai and his girlfriend dropped by my Natooke bike shop. He used to be a China National Cycling Team member. And he was a 180km road cycling winner in 2005 and was also number 7 in track cycling. We had just met at the bike trainer race a few days ago. Great to have athletes come to my shop, so we took some pictures.

This morning I found a some articles about the recent heavy snowfall in Beijing. And especially how Beijing does not have many snowplows. Chinese soldiers geared up with shovels and brooms to clear away snow drifts on Tianmen Square during a heavy snow storm in Beijing on January 3, 2010. Most of the snow in Beijing got hand shoveled. Yesterday on many streets in the city center had snow piles on the side. Today was the day where those snow piles got picked up by the garbage collection trucks. And of course the snow was again hand shoveled into the garbage truck.

Just an anecdote from hutong life: Today when Samantha and I were shoveling (we also use the common normal Chinese shovel not the snow shovel) away the snow in front of the shop 2 ladies came to us and asked us if we knew the man that came and took my bike yesterday. I said no and asked them if they knew him. They said no. They said that he was not from this hutong. They said they watched him look at my bike and then take it. After some thought the one lady said to the other „I think that man was a bike thief“. …I hope that next time they see a man take a bike from in front of my shop they will realize immediately that it is a thief…

This entry was posted on Dienstag, Januar 5th, 2010 at 19:19 and is filed under Beijing, Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.