An ode to biking

Having Chinese heritage and grown up in the Netherlands, I feel my love for biking is coming through both nature and nurture. Even though I complain plenty about biking when visiting other places, since the bikes are not always top-quality but neither are all 4 that I have standing here, it is one of the best ways to move quickly and see more without tiring too much.

As the 15-minute city concept is winning in popularity, and as an unofficial reviewer of things, I thought I would reflect on the places I have biked and rank them. Since I do mostly bike in the city, if we go outdoors I would prefer my feet or a horse.

Beijing, China

Overall: a good place to bike if you want to care minimally about rules and safety, like to shout at people and try to bike on highways.

Pro: Beijing always felt a bit lawless, even though it is the center of power. I remember shouting at everyone on the road because: point A, there are a lot of vehicles on the bike lanes like electric carts, scooters, steps, hooverboards, cars and buses that may or may not belong there; point B, using Dutch curses or comments really grabs attention since it is unexpected for the Chinese.

The city has a very clear gridlike layout which makes it easy for biking since there are a lot of straight roads and wide boulevards. It is also a great way to try how close you want to bike next to cars or other faster-moving traffic. And it often moves quicker than many public transport options, which are especially crowded during peak hours and often make you walk more than you expect.

Con: Beijing traffic can be entertaining, but also annoying and slightly too dangerous. The amounts of times I biked past a car and was almost hit by a door was too high for comfort. There are also way too many traffic lights, because the grid creates a million moments when you will need to cross. In the old center around the Forbidden City with the small alleyways, hutongs for those in the know, can be a maze to find your way through and when a car comes, because why would they not be driving through these very narrow alleys, you are basically blocked from continuing your way.

And lastly, you may not be surprised to hear that many accidents happen and you are quite vulnerable on a bike. I have had many colleagues getting hurt (whereas I was the only one getting somebody else hurt on my bike but that is a story for another time) and you see many reckless delivery drivers trying to do their job (a.k.a. moving stuff as quickly from one place to another) which often seems to involve trying to go through you.

London, Great Britain

Overall: if your mind is not entirely consumed by the fact that you need to ride on the opposite side of the road, you can do some nice biking.

Pro: there is a public bike system in London, which I always encourage. Even though there are some height differences, these are not too big to be of any inconvenience with a limited-quality bike. There generally tend to be bike lanes which are mostly only occupied by bikes.

Con: why oh why did these people decide to ride on the other side of the road?! I do not think I will ever be able to wrap my mind around it. If you go straight, no problem, but you do need to curve eventually one way or the other. Also, bikes are not that common yet so it does feel like a car can creep up on you at any moment.

Aalborg, Denmark

Overall: it is definitely a bike-centered place and offers some nice routes throughout the city.

Pro: Denmark is probably one of the most well-known countries for its biking culture besides the other Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands. Of course this means that I am extra strict on its biking facilities since I think the biking culture is one of the few things the Netherlands really has going for it.

Biking in Aalborg this summer, I think it was quite comparable to biking in a Dutch city. Bike lanes aplenty, bikes aplenty, nice bike routes and wide boulevards where you can bike and walk next to each other (still a concept I am not convinced of). The main difference was that most people wore helmets (a concept I am more convinced of).

Con: I was surprised how many cars still were riding through the city with bike lanes on the side. I feel in most Dutch cities cars either need to drive quite slow or are rerouted on a ring outside the city. Also, there is quite a lot of wind which is unsurprising but always annoying.

Lyon, France

Overall: if you do not mind having to go up and down a bit with probably a bit of effort it is a nice city to bike through, especially if you want to see its different parts.

Pro: a public bike system! I think the shame in the Netherlands is that you need at least a personal public transport card to make use of our ‘ public’ bike system, OV-fiets. Anyway, it was quite nice to bike in Lyon (also because we could rent bikes 3 days for 5 euros and of course (a)bused that as much as possible) although the public bikes vary a bit in quality.

The city is quite sprawling so rather then waiting for public transport and then having to go through 5 stops to get to your destination, biking feels a lot more efficient. There are also some areas, like the Parc de la Tête d’Or and Parc Gerland that are nice to bike through. Also along the Rhône and Saône there is plenty of biking space and you could even go all the way to Genève.

Con: some of the bikes creak a lot, which is a bit annoying. The old city center also has a lot of cobble stones so it is probably not very nice to bike either. And going downhill I had a few moments where I was afraid any pebble on the road could send me flying off the bike with a pretty bad landing. There are also quite some roads which could use some maintenance.

More small things I miss about China

Nostalgia only gets worse the further you get from when things took place. Granted, it has only been half a year since I moved back to the Netherlands. It is probably a mix of being afraid I am stuck somewhere I tried to escape and being asked about China a lot (I am an expert after all).

I am also again in a bigger city which makes me probably see the differences a lot sharper. So here is some other stuff I noticed I am missing.

Feeling no remorse about ignoring people on the street who want to sell me something.
Blending in with the crowd.
Mobile payments being quick and easy.
Big shopping malls with food courts.
Being high and having a view of a sprawling city.
Mountains.
Parks with older people exercising and being way too good at tai chi, wushu or stretching.
Chinese chess, mahjong or playing cards on the street.
The variety of vehicles on the road.
Zooming past people biking as fast as you can walk.
Asking for something to get repaired and having someone come over the next day (even though it probably will not really help).
Stores being open 7 days a week until 22.00 in the evening.
Going to the newest restaurant because new stuff opens every month.

Conveniently, this is also a great way to remind myself of all the things I will be able to look forward to once I have a chance to go again. On the other hand, there were many things infuriating and frustrating about life in China.

Life in your own country just does not seem really exciting somehow. But I know very well that I am also very spoiled. Luckily, the good thing about having lived abroad for a while is being able to deal with spoiled people. Even if it is just yourself.

I remember that wanting to tell people the expat life has its glamorous moments, but in the end local life is largely the same anywhere. Something I should also tell myself now.

Losing your way around

A few weeks ago, when I was still allowed to walk around freely, I found myself in an unfamiliar city with some time to kill. I knew the fastest way to walk from my current spot to the train station, but decided against it since it was nice weather and I would not have anything to do at the train station anyway. So taking my time, I strolled through some typical Dutch neighborhoods and made a detour to the old city center as well, making sure not to stray too far from my goal. It worked out well.

I tend to do this quite often, but realized that the reason it went well, is because I did it in a relatively small city (the Netherlands is small after all). When I lived in Beijing and Shanghai, I sometimes did the same. I would be done with work or returning from my sports studio and wanting to make life a bit more exciting, decide to do a detour.

The good thing about biking, is that you can more easily go further distances, even if your route turns out to be a bit longer than expected. The bad thing about biking is that I tend to do it at high-speed, which means I need to cover more distance if I take a wrong turn.

And the other disadvantage of big Chinese cities, is that many spots tend to look very much alike. Those cute hutongs and charming alleys? Very nice to wander for a while, but once you decide you want to now go straight home, it may not be that straight. The big boulevards and ring roads? There are so many of them, and most of them are dotted with similarly huge shopping centers and government buildings. You only end up knowing if you went wrong, once you notice the name of a subway stop which you did not expect to see at all. Which is not be close to where you need to be at all.

So that is how I spent a lot of time in China, lost on a bike. It will probably continue once I move to a bigger city here again. Something else to look forward to I guess.

Various exercises in self-control

In general, I view myself as a pretty disciplined person. I exercise regularly, am able to just take 1 candy out of a bag and tend to come on time. But I realize that especially in China, the exercises in self-control come in great numbers.

Summer is here, and surprisingly it is not even “just-let-me-die-already-hot”. I keep repeating this to every person I talk to, we definitely have a reverse climate change on this side of the globe now. Of course, summer preparations tend to call for self-discipline. Bikini bodies, tanning sessions and pool parties do not go in moderation, but the preparation for those do.

There do not tend to be a whole lot of bikinis and pool parties in the center of Shanghai. What there are a whole lot of in the city, are mosquitoes. And not only in the evening, like I was used to when younger, but all the time and everywhere.

At the office, at the gym, at cafes, restaurants and of course outside. Unless you constantly douse yourself in mosquito spray, you will get bitten. Add to that the fact that my blood is ‘sweet’ (to compensate for my sour personality no doubt) and I attract mosquitoes anywhere. Furthermore, I am also too lazy to want to heavily smell like citronella all the time, so I just get bitten. A lot.

There are definitely different kinds of mosquitoes or bugs buzzing around, because luckily most bites disappear in a few hours or 1 day. But that unfortunately does not lessen the fact that I itch a lot, in inconvenient places. My toes, my fingers, heels, shins, hips, neck, basically anywhere that you can think of gets bitten. Even with clothes on. Or in the rain.

Even if I would not bite my nails, which I still do from time to time, I would not have enough fingers and nails to continually scratch my whole body (and I could not do anything either during that time as well then). So this is my highest form of self-discipline that I employ: no scratching.

It sets me and my legs apart from the other Chinese who generally have very spotted legs because of all the mosquito bites they (presumably) scratch open. Yes, I accept disciples.