Bike riding / shop till you drop
Today was fairly chill. I woke up at around 8am and made some breakfast – scrambled eggs, cucumber, bread, orange juice, and rice. I ate it in the kitchen while watching the people on bicycles going to work below. At 9am, Michael came over and we went out to do a little shopping.
As we were leaving my apartment, three kids did a double take and said “hello” to me. I responded in English but they of course didn’t know anything but “hello.” I am starting to get that a lot over here. Michael and I decided to take his bike to a department store to try and find a phone and a printer. Our plan was to have him pedal and put me on the box holder over the rear tire. Once we got started, however, it was clear that this wasn’t going to work. I was just too tall and he just wasn’t strong enough, so we decided to switch places. I would peddle and he would ride on the box holder sitting side saddle. This worked pretty well, but his bike was VERY difficult to control. Every tiny force applied to the handle bars resulted in a huge jerk to one side, and the bars had more of an effect when moved in one direction than when moved in the other direction. Needless to say, we were the focal point of EVERY Chinese person we passed. The other bikers would eye us as we went by, and the pedestrians, as soon as they first caught sight of us, would lock on in a dead stare and not look away until we were well out of sight. At one point, as I was stopping at a traffic light a little kid on a bike pointed at me and screamed out the Chinese word for foreigner as his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I didn’t know what it meant at the time and just kept on going. Michael told me later.
The morning traffic here is filled with bikes. There are almost as many bikes as cars in the city. It was fun bobbing and weaving in and out of bikes, cars, and pedestrians on a barely controllable vehicle with Michael sitting on the back. I actually kinda got into it. I have pretty much realized that I need to get a bike. Having a passenger riding on the box holder is apparently a very common thing here. I see tons of people doing it every time I go out. It is, however, illegal, and Michael thus got off at every intersection so that we wouldn’t risk getting a ticket.
Wherever you park your bike, there are people who are paid to just watch bikes. You park it, they keep an eye on it, and when you come back you have to give them .1 to .5 yuan (8 yuan is $1 US). That is not a lot of money and it is nice to know that someone is out there making sure you don’t get jacked. Some of the bigger lots have more than one guard. At the department store, there were 4 people monitoring the one area near the entrance closet to my house. No one seems to lock their bikes to anything either. The just run a lock through each tire and the frame. Aaron says that the idea is that people will stop someone from carrying off a bike with a lock in the wheel. He says that there are commercials on TV in which the government tells citizens to violently attempt to stop crime. Guess it must work well enough because nobody locks their stuff to anything concrete.
Another weird thing you see all over is little bike repair stands. They are basically carts with tools, tubes, locks, pumps, patches, etc. spread out all over the ground, and some torn up old guy/gal sitting around fixing whatever needs service. We needed to pump up the rear tire twice, so we just pulled over at a stand, grabbed a pump, and filled it up. We must have passed a dozen of these little stands during the morning. They all look like a bomb hit a tool shed and scattered everything along the sidewalk…..totally unattractive, but that is just how they do it here.
We wound up getting me a Nokia 1100 cell phone for 550 yuan (about $65 US). It is nothing special but will send text messages and make phone calls. We had some problems getting me a SIM card since I am a foreigner but Michael finally talked a China Mobile center into giving me one. I still don’t really understand how it works, but I think it is prepaid and you just somehow add more when you run out of time. Calls cost .02 Yuan a minute, meaning 1 Yuan gets 50 minutes and thus $1 US (8 Yuan) gets you 400 minutes….not a bad deal at all 
Next we went back to the electronics mall and found me a printer. It ran about 400 yuan ($50 US). Again…nothing special….12 ppm black and white for me to use while working on applications.
We had lunch back at my place and then took a bus to the market for a little more shopping. The bus was surprisingly straight forward. One guy came up to me and said “Are you a foreigner?” Uhh…..yeah. He wanted to know how old I was and where I was from. Just another typical interaction here I guess. One of things I wanted to get was a pair of warm slippers to wear around the house. We had to go to two markets (chaoshir) and still couldn’t find a pair of slippers big enough to fit me. We at one point had three clerks trying to help and a crowd of about 15 people staring at the giant white guy with apparently enormous feet 
:)
A wall of small slippers:
I finally bought the biggest pair they had. They cost 14 Yuan (less than $2 US).
I had dinner with Wu and her son, who speaks English and is a student at the university in Shijiazhuang. He invited me to come to his house and eat “hot-pot” next weekend.
October 28th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
In Japanese, you call that “futari nori” – it means “two people riding,” and it’s INSANELY common (even though it’s illegal). It’s even more hilarious when you see a cute little Japanese girl pedaling with some dude sitting on the back, trying to look all cool. Come on buddy, you should be the one up there doin’ the work!
I’m glad that you’re gonna be living somewhere that’ll make you badass on a bike. It’ll just make your visit to Kyoto all the more fun!
P.S. you SUCK for how cheap cellphone calls are in China. FOUR HUNDRED MINUTES FOR A DOLLAR? In Japan a normal cellphone call is somewhere around fifty cents a minute. Geez.
October 28th, 2005 at 11:14 pm
I wish that cellphones were that cheap all over the world. Its just a huge scam ya know based on income and area. I mean, within the US alone, different zip codes get different pricing schemes. It’s ludacris!
I expect you to be an insane bike rider when I come visit. That calf workout should prove to be quite fun as well. You should pick up a Schwinn or something =)
It sounds like you are really enjoying yourself there. I’m sure that everyday will prove to be better and better. Oh yeah, I should be getting my self mandarin study books next week sometime. Maybe we can conversate a bit. =)
October 29th, 2005 at 6:33 am
It will be interesting to see how soon you acclimate to the language and are no longer referred to as the foreigner. Prtetty you you will just be the jollly tall skinny giant..,
nee ho mah!
October 29th, 2005 at 11:12 am
Hola Andres ! Parece que te esta yendo muy bien y me gusta como describes todas tus experiencias en esa ciudad donde te encuentras. Tiene que ser una vista muy graciosa para todos los locales ver a un gigante como tu – tu forma de escribir es muy detallada y tiene mucho humor. Sigue escribiendo, asi nosotros podemos seguir tus pasos a traves de este blog. Si tienes problemas entendiendo esto, avisame y te lo escribo en Ingles.. Mucha Suerte y pon mas fotos cuando puedas. John
October 29th, 2005 at 10:56 pm
Justin…..hahah…..that is awesome….I can’t believe it is the same in Japan as here in China. That would be funny to see some guy like that on back…..I will keep my eye out here and try to get a picture. Cheap phone calls ROCK!
Elijah…..yeah…..cell phone companies are some of the worst in my mind (up their with airlines). Everything here is a knockoff so you won’t ever find a Schwinn or name brand. It actually isn’t that much of a calf workout since there are no hills at all. It makes it very easy to deal with a bike with only 1 gear. I would love to converse in Mandarin…..good luck….I would be glad to help in anyway I can
Jerome…..I think I was always be referred to as foreigner, no matter how well I can speak Chinese
Viejo…..si….esta yendo muy muy bien. Si…aqui soy gigante
Voy a escribir siempre cuando puedo escribir. Mi gusta que todos en los estados unidos pueden seguirmi e mi gusta que te gusta como yo escribo. No tengo problemas entendiendo lo que escribiste….mi gusta leer espanol….tienes que escribir siempre aqui en espanol 
October 30th, 2005 at 8:58 am
Nice spanish..heehee. That biking sounds like a blast, something I could see me and you laughing about forever. You are very good at writing about everything in detail… i love it!. Those slippers are awesome. Im going to come visit just to go shopping. I wish I could be there with you in some ways… we would be laughing alll the time. I miss you already!!
p.s Happy Halloween! I know it is tomorrow.. but. .you know. We all partied here last night.. Dad says he is going to dress up mikey as a chicken….. cant wait to see that one
October 30th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Thanks Rachel, but my written Spanish sucks and I don’t have a dictionary or anything here to look things up.
The biking is a blast. There is nothing more fun than bobbing and weaving in and out of crazy Chinese people going in every direction
Clothing is VERY cheap here, but the quality isn’t great and everything is fake. If you don’t mind that, you could REALLY load up.
We would have such a blast here together
Thanks…..I saw the chicken outfit and wanted to take some pictures of it with my good camera before I left. I think Krista has a matching one too. I hope they take pictures and send them to me.
Happy Halloween
October 30th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
AJ
Absolutely fantastic!! Love the blog!
October 31st, 2005 at 9:37 am
AJ – Another great web posting!! That’s a lot of slippers! I particularly like the description of the bike riding techniques, and the bike repair stands, and lock monitor/guards. Thanks for giving us a words’ eye view! Love, Dad
October 31st, 2005 at 8:46 pm
Uncle Al….thanks
Dad…..thanks
June 10th, 2006 at 12:22 am
thank you for your work