Archive for the ‘China’ Category

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.

New China Visa Rules

Freitag, April 25th, 2008

Be aware of the enhanced rules for getting a visa to visit China before or during the Olympics. This also applies to foreigners living in China right now. There are many articles about it and it seems the rules do change very rapidly. So here just an example article showing some reasons why these new rules are put in place:

Article on “the star online” regarding “China imposes new visa rules”

The Chinese Government has imposed more stringent requirements for visa application because of the Beijing Olympics. Chinese Embassy counsellor Shen Yong Xian in Kuala Lumpur confirmed that stricter rules had been implemented temporarily until the end of the Games in August.

“This is to ensure that we do not receive complaints from visitors that our hotels are full and our tourist destinations are too crowded.”

“We also do not want to see people sleeping on the streets as there will be many people visiting China during the Olympic Games period,” Shen said here yesterday.

He added that it was best if visitors avoided the Olympics period.

In Singapore, the Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that Singaporeans traveling to China from July 1 would need a visa.

Local Malaysian travel agents confirmed that they had reduced the number of China tours due to the new rules.

Malaysian Chinese Tourism Association president Chay Ng said: “Some of the travel agents have stopped organizing China tours for the time being for fear that it will be difficult to get visas right now.”

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

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…