Archive for the ‘Beijing’ Category

Game-A-Holics Gathering and Yang Rou Chuanr

Sonntag, Mai 11th, 2008

Is there any other way to spend a rainy Sunday than to meet your friends for a Game-A-Holics Gathering? We came a bit late but still had many hours to play Shirades. And the wine did help to improve our body language for all the funny acting.

Chris – master of „yang rou chuanr“ (羊肉串) and organizer of yesterday’s „3rd Ring Road Yang Rou Chuanr Challenge“ – tonight still wanted to eat again yang rou chuanr (lamb skewers). His comment was „The beer in this ‚hole in the wall‘ restaurant is colder than yesterdays‘ number 4 restaurant“. And the prices were reasonable despite the small chuanr size (and also small lamb balls) and the difficulty getting the vegetable dish we ordered cooked in the way we ordered it. Unfortunately these kind of restaurants are getting harder to find in Beijing as more and more are torn down due to the upcoming Olympics.

My Best Friends‘ Wedding

Samstag, Mai 10th, 2008

Sarah got married! What a great wedding party! I rode my pink bike to get there. So I had to wear a black & pink Qipao to go with my bike. I like this picture despite the fact that we were late and it was not so easy to take it riding my fixed gear with no brakes wearing the Qipao.

Riding Bike Wearing Qipao

The ceremony was very nice. They are a great couple. Sarah looked beautiful in her dress and with that sexy tan from climbing in Krabi (Thailand). A brides‘ best lady fainted and two of the grooms‘ best men were wearing white shoes. But they all looked really cool.

Wedding Ceremony

Sarah and ZY

Wedding Party Group

The friends were a colorful bunch. After the dinner Sarah and ZY had to go from table to table and drink with all their guests. ZY looked drunk when he arrived at our table but danced like crazy during the party. More pictures are here.

Wedding Dancing

Bicycle Race at Laoshan Bike Park

Donnerstag, Mai 1st, 2008

On the topic of the GREEN event organized by Beijing Radio: I did not know what the next step after the Games would be. But already on Tuesday April 29th late afternoon I was informed that I have to come to some kind of bike race on May 1st. That was almost 2 days in advance. And it was not so easy to find out what kind of race it would be or how many races or what we would be doing starting at 7:30am. I was told to meet at the Velodrome stadium so I asked if we were going to cycle in the Velodrome on the track and the answer was yes. As I was not really convinced that the answer was correct I sent an email to an English speaking person got some answers to my questions:

Can you please send me a schedule of what is planned on May 1st?
A:just like physical ability test,rides the line in the specialized cycle track.There should be have mountain road and ordinary racecourse.The test from exactly 7:30am in the morning and until around 11am.
How many competitions will there be?
only one.:)
How long will the race that you mentioned be? How many meters/kilometers?
How is it determined who wins this competition?
These two questions I can answer together.we have specialized trainer to make decision. may be he/she think your power and skill enough to join trip he/she will stop the competition.
What will we do at 7:30 am?
Starting competition.Observes the time arrangement also is to decision that you win or not.
What time will the whole event be finished?
28 of May

The race turned out to be on a street with a minor and a major uphill section, 5km each lap and we had to race 6 laps. So a 30km street race. I had asked them to give me a bike (as I was not clear what kind of race it would be and I only brought my commuter track bike as a backup). They gave me and about 8 others heavy mountain bikes. I was happy to find some road race bicyclists that I could pursue and that could help me fight against the slight wind on the long straights. It was exhausting but fun – here are some pictures. I came in as one of the first (maybe third) but that was not the goal. The goal was to be selected to ride from one of the Olympic cities to Beijing. And I was selected.

Lao Shan Bicycle Race

Actually I had already planned to go camping and climbing with friends over this May 1st public holiday. So I had to change that and arrange that we join the others later today.

Interview on Beijing Radio

Montag, April 28th, 2008

The dual language channel of Beijing Radio at 77.4 fm asked me to come to their studio for an interview about the bicycle games and my riding around Beijing. I usually ride to office on my commuter fixed gear bike from Corima. He a picture of that track bike in front of the famous Gate of Heavenly Peace, the Tiananmen.

Fixed Gear Bicycle at Tiananmen

Beijing Radio Green Bicycle Games 2008

Samstag, April 26th, 2008

As posted the Beijing Radio is organizing a GREEN event to promote bicycling in China versus other transportation methods. In order to be selected to join this big event it is required to participate in some bike related games. At least that was I was told before the games.

So yes I did participate in the fun games today even though they were not all related to bikes. We had to do track stands on cheap small wheeled bicycles, had to carry as many boxes of milk while running backwards over a small balance beam, had to ride cheap small wheeled bicycles slalom around 3 boxes of milk, had to blow as many small balloons as possible and answer questions related to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Balance Beam Milk Game

Milk Bike Slalom

And in between there were Chinese singers to make the crowd coming out of the shopping mall happy.

Chinese Pop Music Performance

You can have a look at more pictures if you click here. They had asked if I can do some tricks on my bike so I did that at the end as well. Click here for more pictures of this event.

Ines Headstand on Bike

At least I won the Games. That brings me closer to the goal of being chosen to ride from one of China Olympic Games‘ cities to Beijing as a sign to promote bicycling in China.

Ben (the other half of the Beijing Fixed Gear Group) had come to watch my tricks at the bike games. I then took some pictures of him skidding.

Fixed Gear Skid by Ben

Ben Skidding

And actually the whole day was quite booked out: A speech training in the morning – participating in the bike games – doing some tricks for the audience at the bike games – riding fixed gear with Ben in the streets and on some urban slopes (but I forgot my camera) – missing out the photo exhibition of a friend of mine in the art district – Chinese barbecue (羊肉串) party in the traditional courtyard of the Hutong School – another Chinese barbecue (羊肉串) party with the Beijing Linux User Group (BLUG).

Here are two beautiful picture Ben took while I was practicing wheelies (I forgot my camera…) while riding our fixed gear through the Central Business District:

Fixed Gear between the Legs

Fixie Bike between the Legs

Beijing Radio Bicycle Event and Trick Bike Performance

Freitag, April 25th, 2008

I have been contacted by the Radio Beijing Co (RBC). They are planning on organizing a big bicycle event in this Olympic year. And for that they are searching for more bicycle lovers or passionate cyclists or people who ride bicycle because they think it is s great thing for our environment.For those of you who can read Chinese, here is a link to this year’s event of Beijing Radio.
They are currently urgently looking for people to participate in fun bike games scheduled on weekends to decide who will be riding from various Olympic locations to Beijing to promote the use of bicycles in China as an alternative transportation method. This weekend the games will be at:

4/26/2008 & 4/27/2008 14:00-17:00 万达广场新世界商场 Wanda Plaza

Me and some friends will participate in the fun games (they provide bicycles for that, you cannot use your own) on Saturday April 26th. So please come by and cheer for us!

Also I do not know exactly what time, but I was asked to give an artistic bicycling performance on my trick bike. So you can also come and watch that some time between 2pm and 5pm at the South side of Wanda Plaza on an open air stage.

Fixed Gear Bike Interview in Magazine

Donnerstag, April 24th, 2008

Wow, I did not expect it this big! I was asked some questions from one of the employees of the magazine „That’s Beijing“. They printed pictures of me on my trick bike with an interview in the April 2008 edition that you can get free of charge at many locations around Beijing. If you cannot get a copy: Click here to read the online article.

Thats Beijing April 2008 Cover

Yoga at the Climbing Wall

Dienstag, April 22nd, 2008

The climbing wall in Ritan Park in Beijing is always a nice place to meet up for climbing routes as well as bouldering. Even if the weather is still a bit chilly there are always some fun people around.

Ritan Park Climbing Club

And we do not only come here for climbing. Last Saturday we were trying to find many difficult Yoga postures and challenging each other. It turned out that some guys are much more flexible than others…

Not flexible climber
Really flexible climber

House Party

Sonntag, April 20th, 2008

In China it is not very common to invite your friends over to your place just for having drinks. But we do that once in a while. Some of our Foreign friends are really happy about it as they miss the house parties they used to have in their home countries.

Yesterday we had such a small house party. We had some ingredients for mixing cocktails and long drinks. That always reduced the amount of beer that is consumed. With the bottles that some guests brought we ended the party at +1 (that means having one full bottle of beer more than when we started).

http://blog.trick-bike.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/julien_ines_april_party_02.jpg

Squeezing lemons can be tiring. Every party there is a different favorite drink. One year my Chinese friends were doing B52 shots the whole night. This time there were two favorites: Campari Orange and Blue Curacao with orange juice. Odd choice. I hope the last one was just because of the green color…

Italian Elections and Juggling

Dienstag, April 15th, 2008

The Italian elections ended tonight. A group of Italians came to the place where we juggle and met to get the results of the elections. But unfortunately they were not so happy with them.

Track Bike

The juggling group is becoming more popular. It was really getting crowded. I did not bring my camera so the pictures are from last week. In that week also a fixie rider from Chicago that belongs to the Chicago fixed group came for a visit and dropped by the open juggling night (as I usually have my track bike with me).

Juggling WomanJuggling Peter

The rola bola (balancing board on a a roll) we use is just made of a board (wood) and a piece of plastic pipes for toilets. My friend took a cab to bring the rola bola last time and the cab driver asked him if he comes from a cooking class, because of the board. This time a surfer from California who trains on a similar board used it to the extreme till it fell apart.