Riding Chinese style

Using the bicycles to the max!!
or We are Chinese!

As I mentioned before we bought a bicycle and a friend has graciously lent us one.  We have been using them to get all over the place.  It is nerve wracking sometimes.  When approaching a red light, a car turning right treats it like a yield sign, sometimes even like it is green.  It is human powered conveyances beware!  Also people pass on the right into the bike lane and beep at you as if you are in the wrong place, not them! On Saturday a friend called and said we should come over to the school to see the show.   There was going to be a jazz presentation and some dancing by the students. The weekend was a major sports competition weekend with teams coming from as far away as Manila to participate in several sports.  We are part of the APAC sports council among others, which means Asian Pacific....anywhere in the Pacific....In fact Olivia will be going to Hanoi, Vietnam in October for a swim meet and to Phuket, Thailand in the spring!  How's that for getting use out of your passport?  Anyway, back to the bikes.....3 people.....2 bikes....how do we all get to school?  Almost every bike here has a rack on the back for carrying things, quite often it is people.  (I want to do a post on modes of transportation, gotta carry the camera around so I can snap away)  So while I am getting ready to head out Mike and Olivia go out and practice riding together.  They decided they were able to carry it off.  The only issue was most of the Chinese actually strap a pad or pillow on the rack.....Olivia said it was a bit painful:)  As you can see the sidewalks are made of little blocks.  Usually you ride in the road inside that white line you can see, there are bike lanes on both sides of the road.  Of course you should ride with the traffic but sometimes crossing a road is more dangerous.

                                     

Me riding behind them one handed while getting some shots!!  One problem you frequently run into is vehicles just stopped and parked in the bicycle/scooter lane.  This was a huge car carrier...it is not often such big things are even on the roads around here, they tend to use  smaller trucks.  The other day there was a person just pulled over sitting with his feet on the curb eating a meal!  Of course, blocking the lane.  You just accept it as standard practice and ride on.

Love, sincerely, fondly,
zaijian,
Ramona