29.6.2008 von Ines.

For a visit to Tianjin I took the currently fastest train which takes 1 hour and 15 minutes. For the Olympics there will be the really fast train in operation which will take only 30 minutes for this route. At train stations in China you cannot just walk in and go to the platform. You need to wait in the waiting hall or at the entrance to the platform and only get admitted about 15 minutes before take-off and only with a valid ticket. It was quite crowded in Beijing so I do understand that it probably is safer this way.

I took my trick bike and met the crew from Tianjin TV who filmed me riding my trick bike in Tianjin for their program Right Here.

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28.6.2008 von Ines.

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…

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23.6.2008 von Ines.

Carissa Welton is pulling together an eco-minded art collective that she calls  GREENing the BEIGE. The name implies that we all strive to make this grey colored Beijing greener. Last year she organized an 1 day event. This year will be a full week of green projects mostly expressed through the means of art.

Photographer from CityWeekend magazine came to shoot some pictures of the GREENing the BEIGE organizing girls on the sofa at Yugong Yishan.

The jugglers and fire artists came for our regular Beijing Jugglers meeting

The margaritas are really good at Yugong Yishan, it is well worth to stop juggling clubs for a second.

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22.6.2008 von Ines.

Yes! We finally had our first fixie night ride. 5 riders and 4 beautiful bikes. I would now official call this the Beijing Fixed Gear Group. We started in Jianwai SOHO and went up to the Olympic park. The Watercube was nicely lit up in blue color and the Birds Nest looked great next to it.

We found a great place to skid and play around on our single speed bikes. I hope that we can go there again after the Olympic Games. You can find more pictures here

There was a huge thunderstorm that night, but we seemed to have been in the right location not to get wet, even though we saw the lightening and heard the thunder for a very long time.

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18.6.2008 von Ines.

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.

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17.6.2008 von Ines.

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.

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15.6.2008 von Ines.

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.

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15.6.2008 von Ines.

What a coincidence. I was riding past my favorite bike shop when I saw a fixed gear bike standing outside with almost all the staff looking at it. This is the second time a meet a fixed gear rider at my favorite bike shop. But the staff say they only know the two that I had met.

This cool fixie is called Jason. He has a shop called CHEESE with clothes, shoes and cool accessories at Jianwai SOHO. So I rode there to have a look.

Here is his shop with his two vintage fixed gear bikes. He was studying design in the England, so he was riding with the London Fixed Gear Group. He bought these beautiful bikes in the UK.

And here is Jason who just came back to Beijing. His shop has been open for more about 2 years and he will be getting more and more fixed gear accessories. He already sells messenger bags, pink, green and white 700c outer tubes and saddles. He wants to also sell vintage fixed gear bikes in China.

Jason and his friend had to ride to the west of the city so a rode a bit with them all of us on fixed gear. Here are more pictures. I took a picture of my bike wheels with my wide angle lens while riding. I find the distortion funny, almost looks like some funny glasses…

In the evening I was playing around on my pink fixed gear and we took some short video clips. As I have problems with the formatting of this blog when I embed the the videos, so I will have to request you to click on the following links to see the video clips I uploaded to youtube:

1. Video: Riding on a Fixie in Beijing’s Traffic

2. Video: Doing Tricks on a Track Bike at Night

3. Video: Trying some Reverse Seated Tricks on a Track Bike

4. Video: Riding Around Beijing doing a Catwalk Wheely for more than 1:40 min

伊泉的自行车特技表演

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14.6.2008 von Ines.

I was requested to perform at a “bicycle city resident bike ride activity” North of Beijing near the Badaling Great Wall in a small town called Yanqing. This event was a GREEN event to promote bike riding as good for health and to emphasize Green Olympics (environmentally friendly Beijing Olympic Games 2008). As the bike festival started early we had to get there already on Friday (the 13th - the day my boss told me that he leave) and stay at a farmer’s place.

There was a nice map of all the farmers places (note the English translation on the left side: “The view area flat surface indicates diagram”. Not sure what that means.)

Foreigners have to be registered at the local police station for every night they stay in China. So the local police man came to the farmer’s house to check our passport and visa. I really liked the posters on the door of our room as well as on the walls:

The ceremony for the green bike event was the next morning. There were some speeches, flatland BMX guys did a short show and then I did a trick bike performance on the wet ground. But at least there was no rain when I was performing. After my performance it started to drizzle again and the bike ride with about 400 riders from Beijing and Yanqing started. Here is a link to all the pictures.

The big wall for the ceremony had a nice picture of four cyclists. And all four look the same and are in the same position and wear identical clothes (well except the helmet color). And the words “Giant” on the pants are written in reverse. As well as the number which is on the handlebar which again is the same (and in reverse) for all cyclists. And the street looks so real.

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11.6.2008 von Ines.

One of the most famous food in Beijing is the Roast Duck. It is always served like this:

If you are having the dinner with friends or customers or colleagues you will probably have to drink some high percentage white rice alcohol - called baijiu. If your friends like you then they will get high class one in nice bottles and not the cheap Erguotou.

After dinner we went for some drinks in Houhai. I could not walk past a shop - I had to go in - I had to buy some more Chinese Rock music. Especially as my favorite band Second Hand Rose finally have their 2nd CD out.

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