China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

Today not many people showed up for the fixed gear ride. That was probably due to the temperature. But at least the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

We had people on different kinds of bikes and from different countries like China, Hong Kong, Korea, England, Germany and the USA.

The great thing about cold temperatures is that there are hardly any people on the streets or in the bike lanes. We had the wide bicycle paths all for ourselves most of the ride.

We cycled to Beijing’s 798 contemporary art district in old bauhaus brick factory buildings. The whole area is now developed with art galleries everywhere and commercialized with products for sale and restaurants, cafes and bars.

We first met other Beijing fixed gear cyclists (like from Singapore) that rode there themselves and had lunch all together. All my pictures of this ride are in a webalbum.

Then we went to the UCCA for a talk in the education series “Breaking News” called „Beijing a world creative city : How foreign artists come to Beijing to create“. Guest speakers were Dan Levin (Freelance reporter for New York Times) and Niko&Katiushka (Artists). On top of being the benchmark of Chinese contemporary creativity, Beijing has also become a place of creation for artists all around the world. This talk showed concrete examples about how foreign artists find inspiration in Beijing and how they can pursue a worldwide career from China. Niko&Katiushka gave us some introduction to their works. It was all translated into Chinese, at least the translator tried to.

The discussion at the end of the talk was quite interesting. The most unrelated question was from a Chinese asking why not all the old hutong is torn down as those old buildings are standing on valuable ground which could be used for malls.

I had to ride back to Beijing city quickly as I had the year end dinner with cycling friends at a great Beijing Roast Duck restaurant. The food and the warmth were good after an afternoon out. And for sure it was fun to chat about bikes and cycling.

Again a cold winter day and only foreigners came for the Beijing fixed gear bicycle ride out North of the city. Now the rivers like here at the North 5th rind road are starting to freeze.

We cycled along empty roads. Beijing is vast and not as crowded as many people outside of China imagine it to be. In many places it is actually quite quiet.

We then went into a park along the Qinghe River and stopped for snacks (longevity nuts and homemade bread and youzi) in a pavilion.

Then we cycled around the huge and empty park.

Of course the cold weather made us a bit cold and we were sharing our thoughts on best ways to keep the finger and toes warm. Shannon explained his multi layered plastic bag inside and outside of the sock approach to keep the feet warm. I might try that next time.

Then we cycled on to „Leisure Square“. I uploaded my pictures to a webalbum.

Nico and Katiushka took some really nice pictures again. Here are two of their pictures of me balancing a track stand on the concrete structure of the abandoned building.