Originally Posted by
Little-Acorn
Mostly vacationing, my wife is from Taiyuan City and her sister still lives there. This place is screaming with business opportunities, though I don't know if we have the time or the oompah to take advantage of them. Wife isn't too interested. Yet.
After Tian An Men Square yesterday, we walked thru several famous shopping areas south of the Square, and my wife fell in love with a Chinese (i.e. not foreign) bookstore that was loaded with books on Chinese traditional medicine. Afterward we were tired and my wife arranged for a pedal-powered cab to take us back to the hotel. We drew quite a crowd as the three of us (wife, 11yr son, self) got into the thing. It was built for one, or two if they were friends. But I doubt the designers had in mind a 250# elephant like me, plus two other people. Wife and I squeezed in like two sardines, son sat in wife's lap. Driver humorously checked the rear wheel under my side (three-wheel pedicab), decided it would hold, and we started. Driver was VERY strong. Single-speed bike, and most terrain is quite flat, but up a few slight upgrades he didn't slow down at all - just maintained the medium speed he wanted. I could hear the differential whining under the seat. Got interesting in a few traffic jams. Cutting across six lanes of motorized traffic was exciting. I felt sorry for the guy - I ride myself, and know what extra weight can do.
Still a number of bicycles in this part of Beijing, but cars and buses now predominate. Most streets have a wide bike lane on the right side, more than in the U.S., it's nice. And it gets used more than in the U.S.
More to come. We're about to rent bicycles and go on a route my wife planned out, several hours' worth I'd guess. The area just north of Forbidden City is rich in hutongs (Chinese residential streets, lots of character and culture there, in San Diego we'd call them barrios). I mentioned to her that riding in an area like that in certain parts of Los Angeles can get you a knife in the ribs, but she laughed and said it was very safe here. I guess we'll find out. 30 yuan (about $7.50) for four hours rental, per bike, not bad. It was five times that in Yellowstone last year. Bikes were probably better, but like I said it's very flat here, no gears really needed.
I may feel a little bit like an intruder in the hutongs - they may look like "culture haven" to us tourists, but to the people who live there, aren't they just "home"? How would you like a bunch of babbling strangers riding up and down your street, interfering with the traffic, and staring at you like you're a bunch of animals in a zoo? Maybe I'm oversensitive - wife is from here, and doesn't mind.