17.11.2008 von Ines.

Wow the weather continues to be great! It was good to have Ollie (a fixed gear guy from Australia) here for visit who I cycled with through the city on fixed gear in this beautiful weather. We rode a full sightseeing tour from the CBD with the World Trade Tower 3 (highest building of Beijing) and the CCTV Headquarter (double-Z building) then down Changan Boulevard to the Tiananmen Square then around the Forbidden City to Beihai Park (with the white Buddha Temple) then up to the Drum and Bell Tower then around the Houhai and Xihai Lakes then through small Hutongs to Beilouguyiang and Nanlouguxiang. It was nice weather to sit outside for lunch, but it did get chilly for the hands during the later afternoon.

Ollie and his 4 friends are actually traveling all the way from Australia by land and sea to get to the UN climate change talks in Poznan (Poland) in December. They are members of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. You can read about their unique journey on facebook. We had a great vegetarian dinner and then all went for some juggling and acro balance.

Geschrieben in Green, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

16.11.2008 von Ines.

Today we had the 3rd race of this season. Again I am too lazy to write my own report so I again took the great race summary from the newsletter of Tom Lanhove. Here Tom’s summary:

We are happy to say that we set our own record of attendance! We had 10 man “A” race, followed by an impressive 30 something “B” race. At least 5 women and even the kids’ race featured 5 promising youth, braving the wind and the bumpy course. Another fun feature was the high number of spectators giving much needed encouragement when the going got tough. A solid feature of cyclo cross is the “anything can happen” aspect. We had punctures, (harmless falls), broken gears and so forth. The race positions change often and abruptly making it fun for riders and spectators.

The winners of this race were:
• The ladies podium was: 1. Jenny (Canada); 2. Ines (GER); and 3. Hu Chen (CHN)
• The open podium was: 1. Mark Thirwall (AUS); 2. Mike Bilan (USA) and Mr. Liu (CHN)
• The advanced podium was: 1. Todd McKean (USA); 2. Hangkai (MON) and 3. Yang Wei (CHN)
The level of competition was very high this weekend. The top 4 ladies actually finished in the top 10 of the ‘B’ race. This indicates how strong these female athletes are. It also shows how cyclo cross is an “honest” sport where bike handling skills, running, overall fitness, power and endurance are key factors, leveling the playing field between men and women.
For pictures, please see the following links:
• http://picasaweb.google.com/johnston2.4/2008CycloCrossRace3
• http://picasaweb.google.com/cyclosportschina/Cross3Nov16th#
• http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/hirobeijing/200811163
The pictures I have inserted here are all from Steve Johnston: Thank you for taking such great shots!

The B race saw a heated battle between the first 5 riders, with positions changing often. Mark Thirwall (AUS) and Yoshi-san (JPN) broke away with 3 Chinese riders + Mike Bilan (USA) chasing them down. When it seemed the gap was made, Yoshi-san smashed his rear gear shifter and he literally dropped away from the front. Mark was able to hold on to his lead with Mike Bilan putting up the best challenge, in front of a strong Chinese contingent. In a second group behind these front 5, we saw the four strongest women (Jenny, Ines, Hu Chen and Ms. Liu) battle it out. They overtook quite a few male riders, much to the delight ofthe neutral supporters. Jumping over obstacles is part and parcel of cyclo cross.

In the ‘A’ race, we had a 4 man strong race situation, with TREK’s GM Todd (USA), young Khangarid from Mongolia, Tom (Bel) and Yang Wei (CHN). Tom fell out with a puncture, skillfully repaired by Ines and Mike, leaving a heated battle between Todd, Khangarid and Yang Wei. They finished in that order at the end too.

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15.11.2008 von Ines.

Today our Toastmasters Club went for a team building event outside Beijing. The pictures I am using here are from our CCTMC president (thanks for taking such nice pictures). It was a typical package with games on the bus. Then we were requested to make a team name, team flag, team slogan, team song and team pose. Our pose resembled how Toastmasters drives the fear out of anybody who wants to speak in public. I am sure that is clear when you have a look at this picture:

After that we did the “trust the team” game. This picture is really nice:

Then we went to the “overcome you fear of heights” game. We had to climb up a pole, stand up on it (and it was really shaking in the strong wind) and then jump to a trapeze that was hanging far away.

As only one of the organizing guys was belaying (the second one had to take pictures) I jumped in to make sure that the people who climb up the pole were actually secured on 2 points.

And then we went to the typical team building event of laser tagging. That means you dress up in army clothes, get guns that say “Made in Chna” (yes there was the “i” missing) and then shoot each other. I did feel closer to the team mates on my team as we had the same goal of killing all the others. But I still do not really get how this will help the team…

At night I went to a Ladies Party at a friends house. That was really cool!

Geschrieben in Outdoors, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

14.11.2008 von Ines.

Living next to a school sports field in China gives you a glimpse of what school sports or physical education must be like. There is specific music which is used for the general stretching while having all the students (it seems of many classes at the same time) lined up nicely in rows. The teacher is on stage with a microphone counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 3, 2, 3, 4 … over and over again while the students have to put their arms up and to the side and to the other side and over at the exact same time. No wonder that China was able to have such a perfectly coordinated Olympic Opening Ceremony.

And today it seemed like it was full moon even though that was already yesterday. I had 2 people crash their bikes into mine. First a guy who suddenly decided to turn to the side walk while I was passing by him on the right side. Well, I should not have ridden on the right side, but there was a taxi on the left. We both fell off our bikes but nothing happened. Then later in busy rush hour traffic I am overtaking a lady on the left side (this time that is the proper way to do it) when she without looking suddenly decides to turn left. And that having a young maybe 3 year old child sitting on the back of her bike without any kind of strap nor helmet. Well good that her child did not fall on the ground. But that was really crazy.

Geschrieben in China, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

13.11.2008 von Ines.

The autumn continues to be great. Temperatures are going down, but it is still sunny and clear blue skies. Like today. Just perfect autumn weather! Here is again the forecast as from the BBC weather website:

Geschrieben in China, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

11.11.2008 von Ines.

A new member of our Beijing Fixed Gear crew has put together his track bike. Jack bought a nice Keirin Vivalo frame and after a long search found hubs and rims and all other parts. Here is a picture of it that he sent me today:

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9.11.2008 von Ines.

How fun it is to look for apartments. Here two incidents:

We come to the meeting point with the housing agent on our old style Beijing bikes. When the landlord shows up the first thing she says to the agent is: “They have no money. Look what kind of bikes they are riding.”. Then despite the fact that we talk to both of them in Chinese the landlord tells the agent that she can go down to 4000.-RMB. The agent tells us then that the rent of the apartment can be 5000.-RMB. The landlord then tells the agent how horrible the former people living in the apartment were as they invited friends over and were really noisy (wew). They had music on (tse tse). The neighbors had to call the police (must have been really bad people). Despite the fact that the landlord then gave me a little small piece of paper with her name and telephone number on it when the agent was not looking we decided that we will not take this apartment.

Today we first met a housing agent A. She then met housing agent B (who we first thought was her partner, but we later realizes they are from different companies). Together we looked at a few apartments. One of them we just happened to pass by and they had their door open so agent A asked them if they are looking for someone to rent it. Agent A then took us to have a look at it as apartment 5. For apartment number 6 we were told to wait for someone to come, but we already had an appointment with another agent C so we said we need to go. Agent C did not want us to meet at the building complex (same one) but at their office. So we cycled there, waited for the agent, they finally came 2 people and one old bike. We then cycled at very low speed with this agent C back to the building complex. There agent C brought us to an apartment that we had already seen, but said we need to wait for the key. And do you know who brought the key? Agent B. We started to laugh really loud. But agent B said that now the guy for the last apartment arrived. And you can guess also he was not the landlord but just again another agent. So the two housing agent C guys and the agent B and this new agent D went together with us to have a look at that apartment. But also this apartment we will not rent even though it was not too bad - we will not pay three levels of agents.

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8.11.2008 von Ines.

Today we had TREK’s 2nd Cyclo Cross event at the Wenyu River. Our famous Beijing road cyclist Tom Lanhove has written a nice short report that I will just copy in here:
__________________________________________________________
It was a few degrees cooler than our first outing but we had even more people show up.
The course was revamped with less riding on the dirt road, and more “crossing” in the fields next to the river.
The change made the course overall more challenging, but it also reduced the amount of punctures. Where we had 4 or more last time, we had none this time.
My favorite section of the course were those sharp uphill zigzags, resembling a skateboard ramp as much as a cross circuit!
The race had its usual quadruple divisions: open, advanced, ladies and kids.

• The open mens podium was: 1. Mr. Wang (China); 2. Mr. Liu (China) and 3. Mike Bilan (USA)
• The advanced mens podium was: 1. Hangkai (Mongolia); 2. Tom Lanhove (Belgium) and 3. Naran (Mongolia)
• The ladies podium was: 1. Ines Brunn (Germany) ; 2. Ms. Chen (CHN); and 3. Echo Yang (China)

For pictures, please see the following (more albums are sure to follow later this week…):
johnston2.4 on picasaweb
Cyclosportschina on Picasaweb
__________________________________________________________

It was a really fun race with the technical sections. This time I had the impression that having a mountain bike would have given a certain advantage on the long section riding on the bumpy fields. I am looking forward to the next race. Let us see if I then can still beat Ben (I was pursuing him then he was pursuing me - just behind me in this picture)

And in the evening we had a house colding party as we will soon move out. But it actually did not get really cold despite all the friends that came. It would have been nicer if we had already found a new apartment, but we still have more than a week to move out of the old place. The search still goes on.

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7.11.2008 von Ines.

The Ole Rock Climbing and Mountaineering Center is almost finished. The climbing wall is being repainted by an artist.

The floor of the bouldering room is just finished. I love the one piece mat hand made to fit around the bouldering wall. No more twisted ankles because of overlapping mats or gaps in the mats

Geschrieben in China, Climbing | 1 Kommentar »

7.11.2008 von Ines.

Today I went to the Beijing Exhibition Center for a German friend who owns a pet shop. I have never been to this Exhibition Center. It is actually quite nice:

This China International Pet Show (CIPS) was all about accessories for pets - mainly dogs, cats and fish. I was amazed how much pet clothes (but not for fish) there were:

And a lot of other stands reminded me of juggling stands as there were so many balls and other small objects.

On the open space in front of the Exhibition Center some elderly Beijingers were doing a Beijing Opera Play. They had wild costumes, especially for the butterfly and the crane.

Geschrieben in China, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »