22.10.2008 von Ines.

The progress of the indoor climbing wall and bouldering place is amazing. Just a few weeks ago it was just an idea to open a place for rock climbing in Beijing during the winter and now it is almost finished. The bouldering place we all went to last year unfortunately closed in the spring and they now have a restaurant in there (but still kept the bouldering wall and all the grips on it).

My friends is the project manager for this climbing & mountaineering center project. It is in the Ole soccer facility near East 4th Ring Road. She showed me the progress of the climbing wall and the bouldering room. The experts from the Tibetean Mountaineering Association just arrived to set up the climbing routes and work in this center. I think the bouldering room is so beautiful.I can’t waittill it is opened for us to climb.

Geschrieben in Beijing, Climbing | Keine Kommentare »

19.10.2008 von Ines.

This was a great race despite short term change of location! Originally we should have been at the Goose and Duck ranch, but just the day before Trek was told that they cannot set up the race there. So it was changed to the Wenyu riverside in Shunyi. Getting ready for the race:

Here an extract of the race report from Tom Lanhove from Belgium (with some comments added):The “open” race (first time racers) was won by Samy Khoury from the US. He had a slow start but managed to come into second position, behind fellow USA Mike Bilan. Mike had a super race and quickly had a large gap to 2nd place Samy. Cruising on his way to victory, he met with cyclo cross’ Murphy’s Law: Sadly (though quite common) Mike punctured at 2 rounds before the end. Lucky for Mike he found a spare wheel and still finished 4th. Ines (GER) made 3rd in this race and thereby won the separate women’s classification ahead of Helen Melville (CHN).

The advanced category race was won by Todd (USA), ahead of a Chinese rider from the UCC team and Dieter (Belgium). Like the “open” race, disaster struck the likely victor of the race. Dieter from Belgium is a known MOB rider and I personally saw how awesome he is on rough terrain in Mongolia. With that specialized skill and the legs to finish it off, he was well on his way to victory when his front wheel literally exploded. This allowed both Todd and the UCC rider to overtake him. Luckily Dieter was able to jog (!) his way to third. And this because Tom decided not to overtake the jogging Dieter but stay behind and come in on 4th place. That was a great gesture of fairplay from Tom. That was awesome!

For pictures of the race go to Picasaweb of Cyclosportschina, Pictures on Dongfanghong, Picasaweb of Chris, Picasaweb pictures from Udo. More pictures from another friend are on flickr. Here is just a short video clip of the race.

Cycling back we came through the 798 Art District full of contemporary art galleries. My friend took some pictures:

Geschrieben in Cycling, Outdoors | Keine Kommentare »

18.10.2008 von Ines.

Today I again did a performance in the Ditan Park. It was still for the Beijing Book Festival. I think it is great to inspire people to read books by doing tricks on a bike. As I do not have a camera right now these pictures were taken by two of my colleagues.

Some more really nice pictures from a friend are here on flickr. That is the difference of a nice SLR compared to small pocket size cameras.

Here are some more impressions of the book festival:

My friend brought his beautiful old track bike. But he installed a free wheel single speed on it. Old bikes are just very beautiful. Too bad I currently do not have a nice camera.

Then went to the Ole soccer venue opening party. They have 2 indoor fields and 2 outdoor fields. Plus a soon to be opened climbing wall and bouldering room. The indoor climbing wall is 10 meters high. Today it was already painted yellow and had an easy climbing route and an overhang route screwed in. I climbed the overhang route which was not difficult but fun. They have nice La Sportiva rock climbing shoes for rental. I cannot wait for the opening.

After that we went for a nice North Korean barbeque dinner.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

14.10.2008 von Ines.

Tonight we met up for a fixed gear ride. We were 5 riders. We rode along Changan Boulevard and to the National Theater. Jack took some really nice pictures. Then we did a loop via the Financial Street and back East to Snalitun. On the way back we stopped to have some Xinjiang food with lamb skewers and nan. We chained all our bikes together to make this bike pile:

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

13.10.2008 von Ines.

Today we had a meeting to discuss some of the final details of the association of International Performing Arts in China that will be soon formed. The association will be called CIPA. All different kinds of performing arts groups of Beijing are invited to join, for example the Bentationeijing Actors Workshop, the Beijing Improv group, the Beijing Jugglers, Dance groups, Jazz groups… After the meeting we had a short theatrical presentation with actors, dancers and jugglers in Club Obiwan. As I have no nice camera anymore I took these pictures with my mobile phone.

Geschrieben in Performers, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

13.10.2008 von Ines.

After a very long loaner period the unavoidable “I need my camera back” call came. Today I had to give back the digital SLR Canon 1D Mark I to my friend. It was great that he loaned it to me for about 2 months. Especially during teh Beijing Olympics it was so much fun to shot with such a professional camera. Only drawback was that I took about 800 pictures at each Olympic event and till today I still haven’t found the time to sort through them. I got so used to that camera that it is hard to see it go. Now I am cameraless again. And the Canon 5D Mark II that I have been waiting for for half a year is still not yet available everywhere. I will have to bridge another month or two…

Geschrieben in Olympics | Keine Kommentare »

12.10.2008 von Ines.

Friends invited us over to play risk. They live in a nice three sided courtyard.

Problem in the beginning was that the key for the room in which the risk was was inside the room itself. But we did manage to retrieve the keys through teh window from the outside.

So we could start the game. It was a really exciting game with lots of negotiations. A few hours later we had delicious roasted beef with mashed potatoes. That went along nicely with the red wine we had been drinking.

Geschrieben in Wine, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

11.10.2008 von Ines.

Trek organized an introduction to Cyclo Cross racing and training. They held it at the Wenyu riverside in Shunyi. We cycled out and back to the city afterwards as it was such gorgeous weather. Trek gave out Cyclo Cross bikes (similar to road race bikes but with wider rims and tires) as loaners for people like me who do not have one. It was great fun to jump off the bike, jump over barriers, carry the bike uphill and jump back on again. Cyclo Cross riding seems very fun - I am looking forward to teh upcoming race season (6 races).

Geschrieben in Cycling, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

10.10.2008 von Ines.

Wow! This was the first time that I had vegetarian Beijing Duck. They also had delicious vegetarian sweet & sour pork and vegetarian fish and vegetarian fried shrimps as well as vegetarian sausages. The special tea was really nice and it was claimed to be very healthy too.

Geschrieben in Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

9.10.2008 von Ines.

Some time ago 3 of the Beijing Fixed Gear Crew were interviewed and some pictures were taken. Today an article was posted on YNET in Chinese. It has this nice picture that they took.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »