i like to ride my bicycle...

greater suzhou is very flat - which makes it wonderful for biking.  (check out the "recycling bike")

...and ebikes also flourish when hills are absent.  

ebikers often will push their ebikes up small hills to save the additional electricity necessary to climb an incline.  luckily, hills are rare and that turns commuting by bike into a total treat!  coming from vermont, where hills and inclement weather deter many an active lifestyler from commuting by bike, i'm in heaven.  no oil changes, few moving parts to go wrong, and when i "gas up" it usually involves passing something yummy by the palate.  ebikes tend to adhere to [automobile] traffic rules such as stopping for red lights whereas bikes seem to be "outside" this standard.  even in the states we debate whether or not bikes should obey traffic rules - some argue that by acting like a motorist, the biking community will gradually gain the respect of motorists.  as a biker, often in heavy traffic, i respectfully disagree, and side with those who see a cyclist as a survivalist, needing all options open to him/her to avoid being in an accident.  simply put, cars and even ebikes (& scooters, motorcycles, etc.) are far more massive and pack a punch, intentional or not.  the agility of the cyclist is as necessary as it is to the scavenging bird who flees before the unwavering auto.  not that motorists aren't friendly and often downright courteous, but for those times when a truck, bus, taxi, or ...doesn't see the biker or say even adopts a "video gamer" / "we all carry the same weight" mentally, it's then that the biker needs carte blanche to navigate to safety.

passed this family on my way back from the grocery - she's sitting on a luggage rack (roughly 6x12 in.) w/ an arm around the baby and the other around her husband - feet dangling - talk about an abs workout!  it's actually very common to see an infant as a third on an ebike - chugging along at 20-25 mph - what a contrast from the state-of-the-art gracos we used to tote basil and kayl around in!

not sure if he's her son or husband but she is riding in style.

**check out the hand brake on his fixed gear rig.  

most chinese have fixed gear (no upshifting or downshifting) bikes.  their patience out of the gate is to be commended - or my lack thereof, to be admitted.  i'm such an american as i curb jump, weave in/out of traffic, accelerate, and in general, ride agressively.

lastly, the super sweetest thing about biking in china is that it is well planned into development as an interest / need of the greater society.  my family biked back to jade lake - where we first were housed (and if you recall found some amazing xiaolongbao - soup dumplings where the soup is inside the dumplings).  it was a 45 minute trip each way by bike including a jaunt over the river - where a 2-way bike/ebike lane was constructed underneath the 6 lane auto-throughway above.  never were we concerned about anyone's safety and it was LARGELY due to the segregation of 2 and 4+ wheeled vehicles. 

america would drastically reduce it's dependence on automobiles and the headaches that go along with maintaining these space-age personal transporters IF we could mobilize as a society and continue to advocate for safe travel corridors for 2 wheelers.  anybody else get sketched out riding on the shoulder of route 12 south as cars and dumptrucks wiz by at 70mph?? 

btw, 95% of the scooters in suzhou run on electricity since only through a very strict application process can one obtain a permit for a gas powered 2 wheeler.  they've got pollution issues to deal with and they're working on it.  what's america doing to encourage / embrace alternatives to the auto?

NEXT UP - it's waterway pics galore, intro to street painting, and how about those chicken feet!!

well wishes from a small fish in an ever-expanding bowl...

no public napping / resistance is futile

i digress from the chronological order of these posts for just a bit because of a story i put down on paper yesterday and want to share - enjoy!

9/3/2013
today marks the first day in china that i reprimanded a chinese person.  we've been in china only a little more than a month and my grip on the concept that i am a foreigner visiting a culture outside of my own is quickly relaxing.  perhaps you've also wrestled with this phenomenon while traveling?  at what point do we consider ourselves contributors to the culture around us?  are we witnesses?  participants?  judges?

i rode my bicycle to auchan (a large grocery store) today and decided to visit the toilet before biking home.  not unusual to a bathroom in china is the presence of someone smoking a cigarette - today was no exception.  i might as well have smoked the butt myself as the small room, housing four urinals and four stalls, was blanketed in thick clouds of tobacco.  three signs, one between each urinal, clearly displayed a cigarette w/ a red slash through it surrounded by a red circle - the universal ghostbusters-style, no smoking sign.  i cough loudly twice, tap the signs with my fingers, and look him square in the eyes.  he smiles back, in a friendly way, as if i've just recited a line from a monty python skit - and then continues to smoke the butt down to the filter.  did i miss something?  is there some cultural norm here that allows a society of strict, rule-abiding people to tolerate clear violations to community, health-minded ordinances?

two days ago (sunday), after a delicious bowl of noodle soup w/ fatty pork belly (mmm...love that pork belly - right?) - ok, i admit, i finished basil and kayl's soup too (couldn't let it go to waste though it was only $1.50 per bowl).  anyhoo, we were all feeling a bit groggy after lunch and the prospect of a sunday afternoon nap under the shade of a tree sounded delightful (who's with me?!).  so we bike to suzhou park, a short ride from teng xideng's noodle house in old town.  to our dismay, the park has plenty of grass but "stay off please" signs as well - even had little picket fences surrounding the pockets of turf to underscore the request.  no worries - we make our way past musicians, dancers, and a beautiful pond w/ lotus flowers and goldfish.  families hug the shore of the pond w/ poles and bait and every couple of minutes land a little 3 inch goldfish for their pail - presumably to take home to the aquarium.  past the pond, several groups of old men huddle over checker boards smoking cigarettes and sharing strategies of excited, purported brilliance - a frenzy at times.  the checkers are decorated with different characters leading me to assume the rules of this game are supremely more elaborate than american checkers.  concrete benches perimeter the area from the trees, traffic is low, neighbors friendly.  we arrange on the benches so that the kids might lay down and use carly and i as pillows but after only a short while, their inability to find comfort brings them upright, giving me leave to find a napping position of my own.  i flop my backpack on the ground for my headrest and lay down on the pavers.  not a field of clover, but it'll do.  i start to drift off when a woman w/ a broom and pan kicks me gently and, via body language, lets me know that sleeping on the ground in the park, is not permitted.  we ask our neighbor, w/ help from a translator app on our phone, why i can't doze on the ground - to which he poses "why sleep in public?"  i'm stumped.  i let it go, unable to understand how a culture might not appreciate a little mid-day snooze in a quasi-natural setting.  i've seen laborers sleeping under bridges at noon when the sun is blazing - but not in parks - is that it?

apparently it's somehow acceptable to smoke a cigarette in a cramped, public bathroom while in the company of large, colorful "no smoking" signs - but not acceptable to rest my bones on a weekend in a public park.

perhaps i'll become a contradiction hunter during this stint in china - lord knows they're everywhere.

p.s.

on the way to teng xideng's noodle house we found the best mooncakes so far - mango and pineapple turned out to be our favorite.  ate a bunch then circled around for another pass, bought 6 more for the apartment but the kids polished them off in the park - so good!  btw, not all mooncakes are yummy - we've had plenty that weren't worth eating so finding this vendor was a treat for sure!

wishing you well from suzhou, china!