They came, they rode, they bought popcorn. Its a slow day in the blogsphere when bloggers blog about each other but the boys from Bike Hugger were in town so we took them out for a ride. They admired our dairy products being delivered on bicycles and our fresh turtles in the food markets, they entertained the locals with their outlandish headgear and it was generally agreed that they weren’t in Kansas any more (sorry, Washington State and Colorado).
We love cycling in Shanghai’s former French Concession with its tree-lined streets and period architecture. Trouble is we keep bumping into roads that are one way or closed completely to bicycles.
Yes, we know, we could just ride the wrong way or on the pavement but life is easier when you can go with the flow rather than fight your way up-stream. So we’ve been putting together a map that reminds us of the easiest routes across town, especially since the Shanghai Daily proved that these days cycling is faster than a taxi.
Its a work in progress as there are parts of Puxi that we don’t know that well, especially around the Old City, so any comments from local riders will be greatly appreciated and we’ll update the map accordingly. We will keep a permanent link in the sidebar.
What the heck is happening at the Haining Rd crossing by Guoqing Rd?? This used to be an easy crossing to a useful shortcut over Suzhou Creek but while we were off our bike last year they changed the phasing of the traffic lights and just look at the result!
Bikes and pedestrians now get a nine second window to cross this six lane road BUT for eight of those seconds traffic is still using the road! Anybody know who we have to talk to to get this fixed?
We tried putting our arm in this position but it hurt. We’re going to stick to bungee straps when we need to carry a suitcase on our bike!
Hello?…hello? yes…I’m on a bike…hello?…what?… Yes, I’ll be..hello?… home for dinner…Yes…hello?… noodles sounds goo… Oh bugger!
We usually keep clear of buses anyway but this one was on a mission! Guangzhou city in the south of China banned the use of horns 2 years ago and we keep waiting for the same ban to be enforced in Shanghai. Who was he tooting at anyway? The road was empty apart from me and I don’t think he even noticed me on the bike. The best theory we have is that his shift is nearly over and he wants to get back to that oldest established, permanently rolling, mahjong game at the depot.
As The Crash Test Dummy is still off bikes for a few more days we thought we’d take the opportunity to blog this clip of tai chi practice in the local park.
Very beautiful, very graceful.
A friend of ours tried this in a park in London once and nearly got arrested.
