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Child transport Chinese style. What! No child restraint device? Where are the lawyers when you need them?
Cycling in Beijing Traffic
PUSHING OFF over the intersection against the red light we darted across the path of the approaching traffic. Despite passing within a metre of the bent and rusted bonnet of the blue Chinese work truck, there was no horn blast, no obscenities screamed from the cab, not even the slamming of brakes, only eye contact from the driver acknowledged our presence. The flow of traffic in both directions had continued uninterrupted.
This vignette of Chinese traffic behaviour epitomises the difference between traffic behaviour on Beijing and Australian roads. There seem to be three major reasons for this.
Firstly bicycles (and all other road users) are acknowledged as valid road users.
Second is the flexible interpretation of the road rules that emphasise maintaining the flow of traffic and giving all road users a fair go.
The third is that the horn is used as courteous warning, as in ˝I see you and I’m letting you know I’m here.˝ This contrasts with the Australian use of the horn which seems to be an aggressive ˝I’m coming so get off the road.˝
Despite cycling on the right side of the road, not wearing helmet or gloves, sharing the road with cars, cyclists, tricyclists, motorcyclists, horses and carts, buses and trucks, I felt in less danger than amongst the relative order of Australian traffic.
Pediab driver from Beijing (check out the skates!)
Treating all road users regardless of size or speed as equal on the road seems to facilitate the overall flow of Beijing traffic. Drivers confidently pass cyclists with a minimum of room and cyclists equally confidently weave amongst motorized traffic knowing that drivers are aware. So on Beijing roads be confident, make eye contact and listen for the horns and you’ll enjoy the experience.
Bikes are used for just about everything in China, and these trikes are the main commercial vehicles. This guy is fixing a roof with tar.
Cycling to the Great Wall
The baby talk avoidance world tour has begun in Beijing, the world’s most populous country, where the state encourages birth control amongst its urban parents and where the bicycle is still the dominant form of personal transport. Megs and I had 10 days in China and only one prolonged encounter with a baby! The Bike Fridays are unpacked and have been mixing it on Beijing roads and then on the road to the Great Wall.
Eighty kilometres and 2 nights from Beijing to the Great Wall and return gave us a quick taste of cycle touring in China as opposed to Chinese cycle touring – the Chinese view the bicycle as a utilitarian rather than recreational tool. We were guided by three Chinese speakers, essential accessories on a tour as English is rarely spoken outside of Beijing. Traveling light with just a handlebar bag and daypack we threaded our way through the barely ordered chaos of Beijing traffic.Rain that had threatened since our departure arrived but we were prepared with our latest touring accessories, Chinese cyclist rain capes $A3 from the local supermarket, surprisingly effective!
At least the rain eased the eye disomfort by dampening the constant dust haze caused by the frenetic rate of destruction and construction of buildings in and around Beijing. Huge apartment blocks are marching into the surrounding countryside and we cycled through a mosaic of rural scenes and highrise construction. Gradually though the rumble of blue building trucks and the staccato chugging of the three wheeled, single cylinder diesel ’utes’ became less frequent as fields and greenhouses replaced building sites. Even the flow of bicycles slowed to a trickle and we were more easily able to appreicate our surroundings. Workers in fields paused on their hoes or rakes to check out the passing cycle circus. Continued rain and impending darkness forced us to stop and our native Chinese guide Essen negotiated our accommodation with a local farm-cum-guesthouse.
We shed muddy clothes while our hosts stoked the fire under our ’kung’ (heated super king sized bed). We ate on a similar heated platform in the dining room amongst a Chinese family amused at our trip. The stretching routine of Megs and sister Kim in their matching thermal clad legs even put a smile on the grandfather’s face!
At the end of a cold, wet day we got to this great hostel. With a fantastic meal and fire-warmed bed we were happy again.
The following morning sunshine helped speed both our pedaling and clothes drying as we headed into the hills. The gentle climb to Hang Hua (a relatively non touristy section of the Great Wall) passed through 3 villages and the gradient was only interrupted by a 2 km downhill giving stunning views of the mountains and Great Wall beyond. Arriving at Hang Hua we checked into our hostel and had lunch of hand picked roast trout.
We then set off on a 2 hour ramble along the unrestored section of the wall here. We were continually amazed at how huge rocks and blocks had been dragged into the wilderness and up these incredibly steep slopes. Our return to the hostel coincided with evening and also with Chinese tourists letting off firecrackers (banned in urban areas) and singing karaoke, both activities producing a lot of noise and little else!
Our final morning was again sunny but cold and we sped back downhill past the villages and their markets, work gangs breaking rocks and repairing walls, a woman harnessed to a plow in a field and school children yelling ˝Hello!˝and then giggling nervously. Even in the most empty hills shouts from above announced the presence of workers gathering nuts or tending small terraced plots.
Keen to avoid the Beijing traffic snarl we elected to take the metro train for the final 15 km and our Bike Friday’s repaid their comic debt as we folded them in front of an incredulous audience and carried them aboard. Unfolding the bikes to an equally amzed group at the other end, we rejoined the flow of wheels, pedals and people back to our Beijing base ... more soon
The long and winding Chinese road ...