15 hours time difference from Seattle. That’s a long time! After a busy day “Man Zouing” around Beijing all day yesterday, Ian and I hit the wall and crashed way too early last night. Now I am writing this blog post, wide awake at 4am from my hotel in Beijing. Ian is still trying to get a little more rest, but I can’t get back to sleep.

The beginning of our bicycle adventure is rapidly approaching and Ian and I are starting to realize the magnitude of our undertaking. While Beijing has the largest bike lanes I’ve ever seen, people drive totally different here and we are quickly learning the ways of the road. The main thing to remember is that you CAN’T rely on them to yield to you, especially on right turns. Cars here have the right of way, which is definitely something we will have to get used to.

Our bicycles did manage to make it through the plane flight sustaining only minor damages and we got them reassembled and they’re ready to go. We may take a ride tomorrow to test them out if we don’t get to hung up shooting more footage of this massive city.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day here…87 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We walked all over town including Beihai Lake, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, getting some great footage. The city is remarkabley clean and eerily quiet. After talking with our friend here Christine, she said that in the months leading up to the Olympics and during the games, the city has been very low key. Lots of bars and restaurants have been closed and many, many people have left the city. It seems to be returning to normal a little more each day. Right now the Paralympics are going on and we may even get a chance to go see Murderball (Wheelchair rugby) on Saturday.

Anyhow, I guess that’s it for now…I better go and try to get a little more shuteye before it gets light out. Looking forward to the arrival of Sean and Kevin on Saturday and getting out there on the bicycles. Thanks again to all our great sponsors. So far all our gear is working out phenomenally and we’re totally happy with everything. Here are a few pictures from our day yesterday…Check out our cool Ex Officio and Kavu gear.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Beijing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.