China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

Have you ever seen a show of improvised theater? Have you ever heard of shows of improvised theater? It is really fun to watch. Especially the “theater sport” where two improv theater teams fight on stage. You as the audience giving them challenges. We had a very fun evening with the Beijing Improv Group who split into two teams. It was hard to chose the winning team as they were both fabulous. They had some accessories like this blue wig which matched my anti-pollution mask very well. But I might not use the wig to ride bike through the city…

Finally Beijing is stocking up with a system of bike rentals. The bikes come in 3 colors: Blue, red and yellow. They have advertisements in the wheels so that you easily recognize them. There are various bicycle rental stands all across the city and you can rent them per hour or per day or even for weeks. Most of the rental stations are conveniently located near subway stations or major bus stations or where many people are. It is a great idea, not only for visitors.

Also just to let you know: You can get a bicycle repaired in almost any place in the city. There are bike repair guys at many street corners. Well… not in the newly constructed fancy areas like Central Business District (CBD) or Financial Street (Jinrong Jie) but everywhere else.

What would you consider as „International“ or „modern“? Most of the new buildings in the Financial District or the Central Business District are called „International“. I wonder what that means? I truly believe that China sees the importance of addressing environmental issues. But these new buildings want people to come by cars. They now have nice underground multi level car parking space. But if you come by bike, then you are kept of the grounds of the building by the guards and told to go really far away. So the only place for bikes is in the North across the street there is an old residential building left and there I can lock my bike to their fence. They do not really like that. But in modern life how would want to ride a bike anyway???

The other thing about the „modern“ buildings is that they now use strong airconditioning. So in winter it is so hot that you have to open your small tiny window to not melt and in summer it is so cold that you again have to  open your small tiny window to not freeze to death. What a complete waste of energy. But that is considered „International“.

Another funny thing: Our office building is a non smoking building. That I agree is very modern and the right way to go. But is China ready for that yet? My impression is that about 80% of the male smoke and a growing number of females now too. So what happens: The people smoke anyway in a building which is not designed for it. each floor has pantry rooms that are completely enclosed without even the air conditioning and that is where people now smoke.  So even here it would have been better to design smokers rooms with either good ventilation or windows to the outside. And all these issues are not just in this one building.

The re-branded monthly Beijing city magazine “The Beijinger” (formerly “That’s Beijing”) held the yearly award ceremony for the best bar and clubs of Beijing. It was a fancy event in another newly opened place and we met quite some friends there as well as the hot club owners.

In the past few weeks there have been a lot of charity and fund raising events for supporting the victims of the Sichuan May 12th earthquake. We joined a Gala Dinner in a very beautiful courtyard style Palace Hotel.

Everybody received a candle and placed it in front of a wall with some pictures of the earthquake.

And there was a kung fu performance by Chinese boys not by a Panda 😉