Blasting off out of Beijing’s gravitational pull
Day 2: Sept 17 2007
What a crazy week, but especially crazy last 2 or 3 days we had before setting out on our journey! Thanks to Matt and Austin’s generosity, the 5 of us had a place to stay in Beijing for a week of final preparations, and a starting point: Dong Zhi Men. We were 6 people in a 2 bedroom apartment, and Austin’s arrival made it 7. Add 5 bikes in the mix and all the stuff that goes with packing for long journey and you have…alot of synergy =)
We are now in the evening of day 2 of our expedition, having started a day later than expected, on Sept 16th, around 4pm. So far so good, besides biking through solid rain this afternoon and me getting the groups’ first flat tire…amazingly after I had put my bike into our hotel room for the evening.
Our delay resulted from a few challenges with packing instruments in addition to last min errands to prepare our bikes and our gear for rain. We were hoping to get a trailer for our instruments (2 guitars, 1 South African Bongo drum that Drew gave me after he studied abroad there, 1 Er Hu - a Chinese instument consisting of 2 strings played with a bow-, and 2 egg shakers). After not hearing anything from Extrawheel.com after applying for a free trailer through their sponsorship program, we were put in a bind with how to carry the instruments…in addition to our other things like cameras, a few clothes, sleeping bags, 2 tents, and first aid materials. After considering asking a Chinese welder to home-make a 1 or 2-wheel trailer, using a second Chinese bike attached to mine as a 1-wheel trailer, or using a heavy-duty 26-inch tricycle wheel I bought in Jilin on the back of one of our bikes and just putting the instruments on the back of someone’s bike, we opted for the last option. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the wheel rim was a bit too wide for my touring bike frame, so Andrew stepped up to use the heavy but strong wheel and carry the guitars. The wheel has 40 extrememly large spokes (36 is normal), and the tire says it can carry 300kg (600Lbs). It has held up well these first 2 days under its heavy load (Drew has too) and the woman who sold it to me in Jilin said it was basically impossible to break the spokes - a problem I had on my first multi-day bike trip in central MN in 2005.
Great, so we have a strong wheel. How were we going to attach the guitars to the back rack? Outside Matt’s apartment building we noticed huge saddle bags on the backs of several of the many bikes parked there. Some were used to deliever Beijing’s local news paper, others were used by the post office and everyone on the street and at the post office told us they were not for sale, only issued to employees. Finally, I called the phone number for the newspaper that was printed on the bags (something I should have thought of earlier). To my surprise, I was connected with a young woman who graciously said she’d help me and ask around if I could buy the bags.
In the excitement of having a lead, I forgot to write down the woman’s name when she called me the next day confirming that I could buy the saddle bags. I biked to the newspaper office, walked up to the 3rd floor like she told me to, and into a huge room of cubicles. I watched as dozens of heads turned around at my presence. Embarraced, I smiled, and explained to a couple of them closest to me that I was looking for a woman in room 305 who was helping me buy bicycle saddle bags. Confused, but very helpful, a young man led me to the room, which was full of people attending a training session. More eyes looking at me. “Shoot, I don’t want to be a distraction and create a scene…” Too late.
3 more people from the cubicles come over to offer more help, also curious about my presence. I again explain I’m looking for a woman that said I could buy saddle bags to use on a long goodwill bicycle tour. No one knows anything about it, 2 people go off to try to find this mystery woman. I called the hotline phone number I’d used before, but a new receptionist didn’t know anything about me or the bags. She said she’d try to figure it out and call me back. My heart sank. So close, yet still, we could be back without a way to carry our instruments. A couple of the employees insisted that I sit down for bit to rest while they figured things out. More people walked by and noticed me. More distraction, more disruption, more questions, more telling my story. Maybe this wasn’t so bad, afterall I was telling people about our trip.
15 min later, one of the employees comes walking in with a smiling young woman, obviously the one with whom I talked. She appologized, she’d been at another meeting and had forgotten about meeting me. She took me to the payment desk, I paid ($10), and then downstairs to the issue office, as if I were an employee. We waited, again they asked me to sit. And finally, a young man came out with brand new saddle bags, thick canvas, and big enough for the guitars and then some. At last, we had a way to bring the guitars, a key part of our “musical bike tour.”
A few more difficulties gettig the big and heavy load situated on Drew’s back rack. First, his feet hit the saddle bags while pedaling, adjust, second guitars digging into his back. “A trailer sure would be nice after all!” A trip to the local bike shop -again-, ask about bike trailers. No one in Beijing has such a thing (even child trailers) except one store, here’s the number. Call. “We sold our last one yesturday, and won’t have new ones for 2 weeks.” Ok, new solution. We see Nakia’s rack is positioned further back than Drews. We switch them. At last success, though Drew’s load (2 guitars, 1 Er Hu, his normal wheel just incase something didn’t work right with the industrial strength wheel) looks much more like the Beverly Hill Billies than a bike tour. Laughter, but it works. 4pm, Sept 16th, we leave, biking slowly and cautiously as we get used to the new handling of our heavy loads…through busy afternoon Beijing traffic. But, we’re rolling, finally. We’ve begun. Unbelieveable!
Biking from Dongzhj Men south, around the Forbidden City, past Tiananmen Square, from the heart of China, the center of Beijing, biking south towards Shanghai, towards Hongkong, it feels like we’re on a space shuddle during blast off, trying to break through the force of gravity. So much preparation, so much energy put into creating the momentum for out actual set off, yet moving so slowly, starting late, and then pedaling slowly through heavy traffic, stopping for traffic lights, starting, stopping, with heavy loads, we slowly are breaking the gravitational pull of Beijing. We reach the south 2nd ring road. We push on through cars, pedistrians everywhere, bikes, bike bells, my bike bell taken from the “old man bike,” Adam’s piercing single hit bell, street vendors, car horns, trucks, the rocket engines roaring, pushing, pushing.
We reach the south 3nd ring road, 4th. More enormous aparment buildings, new, building and road construction everywhere, more housing for the people, more road dirt. 5th ring, countryside-style housing mixed in with new high rise developments, more openness, only pockets of tall apartment buildings…poooof, we’re through, we’ve made it, corn fields, trees, traffic. A cluster of new high rise apartments, a suburban moon among many orbiting Beijing. Corn field, wide unbusy road, suburban town, new nice housing, countryside. Pedal on towards the 6th and last ring road of Beijing.
Darkness starts to set in. We’re safe in our reflective traffic worker (Jiao Tong) vests. We find a cheap hotel in a small town on the edge of the 6th ring. Home for our first night.
Whew…what a blast off!
September 17th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
just saw found about you on metafilter. anyway, i am a McGill grad student working in Changsha, Hunan. I looked at your proposed route and it seems that perhaps you may pass through this area at some point. i would like to offer a place to stay, or whatever, if you so choose.
email: chad.mcwhinnie@gmail.com
good luck with everything.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Yeah - the website works. I was so excited to see the pictures of all of you and read your wonderful stories with the figurative language and the wonderful similes…. keep writing. Be safe all of you and take care of one another. God Bless and walk in peace with all your new found friends.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:37 am
September 18, 2007
To the humanauts travelling along the dusty, raining roads of China galaxy, I offer prayers and good wishes. Let me know how I can help. It was nice to hear from the road.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:55 am
Also meandered over from MetaFilter. I…have nothing whatsoever to do with China. But while engaged in my own grand adventure here in Japan, I enjoy reading about others’ grand adventures elsewhere, curious about the intersection of grandnesses even in different geographic and cultural locations.
And what an auspicious start you had! I hope you all continue to meet your challenges with determination and a smile, and I’m looking forward to following your journey!
September 19th, 2007 at 4:39 am
wow!!!!! i felt like i couldn’t breathe when i was reading your blog, and i burst into laughter several times in my school computer lab, making people turn around and look at me___just like what you exprienced in the newspaper office =)
Keep writing! i can’t wait to know what’s going on on this marvellous trip. Take care and be safe!!
September 19th, 2007 at 11:35 am
looking forward to reading your updates, following along, and learning from your adventure. keep up the updates,
September 20th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Congratulations to you all!!! What a motley crew! What a team you are! You are an inspiration to all of us. Keep singing and peddling.
September 22nd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Hey Pete-
love your post. I hope your trailer-system works (or lack there-of) anyway, I hope it works well or along the way you find something even better! Brian’s mom got a call from her prayer chain the other day and they said to pray for Peter, his friends, and their bike trip! You are being thought of back here in MN! Love ya. Jackie and Brian
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Pedro,
Sounds like the crew has reached escape velocity, congratulations!! We’re excited for your journey to be underway, our best wishes to all of you.
I’m no poet, so instead I went seaching for something appropriate and came up with these:
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” St. Augustine
“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Andre Gide, French writer
Best wishes and safe passages!
John, Rachael, Paige, and Sara
September 24th, 2007 at 6:32 am
hi,just found your website,so cool,and i am so happy that your band and the trip is well under way.
Tomorrow will be the mid-autumn day,have you eaten any mooncake?hehe,lets just say “但愿人长久，千里共婵娟”.
Best wishes for all of you!
September 24th, 2007 at 10:08 am
You know…as much as I hate biking (purely based on that fact that I can never stay comfortbale on a bike for more that 20 minutes) I wish I was part of your band of traveling wilburys. I am envious of the adventure of traveling into the unknown and experiencing all it has to offer. Lucky you.
Ok man, good luck, tell everyone I say hi, and tell Nakia to have a drink for me! Cheers mate.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:00 am
Hey Drew, Nakia, peter, Jim and Adam:
I thought you were going in the morning, so missed the chance to see you off. I wanted to see how you guys were packed and now I saw the picture, looking very cool. hehe. Maybe I was not strong enough to see all my good friends leaving. I’ve been spending a wonderful time with peter for the last two years and later with nakia and Drew. On one side, I am very happy for you and yet a little worried about your safety, the other side say that you are leaving. keep writting, and posting pictures. I believe God is with you all, travelling.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
funny how you knew all about this.thanks for share~
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