We're a work group for a China culture, history, travel, and life style project. And we're collecting materials on various topics like: What do you want to know about your trip to Beijing, especially the information you feel difficult to find out on the internet? Where do you want to visit? Which types of activities are you interested in? Do you prefer travel in an independent/private way or pick a seat-in-coach package? Do you travel with self, friends or family?

If you can help us on any of these questions, please feel completely free to post a comment on our Blog richeecom.blogspirit.com or send us an email. Thanks!

Well, I'm not sure if this topic is OK for this forum. If not, Sorry :')

Do you think its a good idea to go around in Beijing city by bike?

What's the desired price for you to rent a bike per day?

Do you think you need special training before rush out on the way?

well. I know Shanghai i Kanton. I did 3500 km on one speed chinesse bicycle in china so .... travelling in china is ok. just take it easy. it was about 1 U$ per day so if you stay longer just buy something for 15-25 and try to sell it later :-)

greets
robb
http://acanay.com/china

The best seasons to travel in Beijing by bike, I think, are summer and autumn.

Normally, you can rent a bike at one of the many places where their repair bikes.

If you're staying at Beijing and want to help other persons travel by bike, please contact us. Let's see if we can do something

Hello,

it is always a good idea to travel by bike not only inside China but for other countries too. By this means of transportation you will have a lot of contacts to the locals, because you will come through areas which you will never see if you are using busses and/or trains. For cycling inside China you have to know, that it can happen to get stoped by the police because you are cycling in closed areas. It must not happen but it can! If you have a good explanation for cycling in closed areas you can move on otherwise you are forced to take train or bus. But to be honest this does not happen often.

When I am in a big city like Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou (Canton) I prefer to use my bike to get around. For me it is more convenient than using the overcrowed busses and it is normally faster.

For a cyclist coming the first time to Beijing (othe cities too) he/she is very interested to know:
- what is the best way from the airport to downtown (can I use the Highway from the airport?)
- where are local bike-shops where staff speak at least basic english
- are there english/chinese streetmaps available
- which are the sightseeing spots
- is there any low-budget accomodation ( youth hostels, university accomodation, private accomodation)

Very helpful would be an english-chinese vocabulary specially for the need of cyclists (I never saw one!).

These are only a few thoughts from my side. My next visit to China will be in 2008 to the Olympics probably without bike staying outside of Beijing in the country-side.

Bernd

- what is the best way from the airport to downtown (can I use the Highway from the airport?)

You can take the aireport bus shuttle or a taxi. If you take taxi, it should cost over RMB100 (about $15 I guess). Don't forget to ask for the invoice. If you leave your bag on the taxi, the invoice can help you locate the taxi easily. There's a highway but you can't ride a bike on it.

http://www.richee.com/tr/bj/tce/index.php?mods=forumdisplay&forumid=4

- where are local bike-shops where staff speak at least basic english

This's hard to tell. There're many bike shops but the staff perhaps never went to a high-school. I think we can prepare a letter in both English and Chinese and paste it on our site so that you can print it out and try to ask for the service in a shop. It will take a great amount of time to list the suitable shops. So if you, or a friend of you, is staying at Beijing, you're welcomed to contact us. Let's see if we can work the list out.

- are there english/chinese streetmaps available

You can buy a map at the airport. Many hotels have prepared the map as well. You can also buy a map in English in some bookstores.

- which are the sightseeing spots

The spots currently listed on richee.com are the ones worthy of a visit, if this is your first time to Beijing. However we do realize that there are many more interesting places to go. Before we can get a list of them, we need to know what you may be interested in, which types of places you want to have a look.

http://www.richee.com/tr/bj/tce/index.php?mods=forumdisplay&forumid=15

- is there any low-budget accomodation ( youth hostels, university accomodation, private accomodation)

There're many. One of the youth hostels is just by the Wangfujing market street. From there you can walk to the Tiananmen Square. We'll see if we can work out a better list of them in the next few weeks.

Some places, such as the Wangfujing market street, Tiananmen Square, are the closed area for bike and bus.

There was until the early 90s, just when the highway was built, an ordinary road from the airport to the city of Beijing, which you could use for cycling (about 20 Miles). Is this road still excisting for cyclists or are there any alternative roads for cyclists to Beijing?

As you may know, when China was open for foreign tourists from the last 70s, there were a lot of place you could not travel to (socalled closed areas) because there were no touristic infrastructure for foreigners. How does it looks today? Can you now travel all over China or are there still any restrictions for individual tourists? And if so, can you provide visitors to you with a reliable list of open places?

Thanks for your assistance!

Bernd

I believe that road is still there. But we've ignored it for many years :') and I will not suggest you to ride a bike on that road. It's not safe neither clean enough. Too many trucks and buses.

There're little restrictions for foreign tourists today. I remember there was a tourist who walked across China in year 2003 or 2004. However, it's still a bit difficult to just go to anywhere in China. The people are good but they are usually too shy to communicate with you directly. And there may be no good hotels and restaurants. If you want to walk around, you'd better not travel alone. Go with a friend and if can, invite a real Chinese to go with you.

In each of its 31 provinces there're many good places to go. A few of them are listed below:

Suzhou: famous for the many gardens there. The gardens were built by nobles hundreds years ago.

Tibet: good people, good mountains, good place to meet lama.

Shanxi: Pingyao, a small city but keeps its old style till today. Wutaishan, a famous Buddhism land. Qiaojiadayuan, a yard of a family, shows the structure of a traditional Chinese family - how a hundred individuals live together.

Sichuan: Chongqing and Chengdu are the two most famous cities. Sichuan is a very nice province for not only its culture but also the 'lazy' life style.

Henan: Shaolinsi (Temple of Shaolin). Chinese KongFu has many branches. A famous one is the Shaolin KongFu.

There're many more great places. We just created two more categories so that to list the best of them. Hopefully, there will be enough information when you require a trip plan in more detail.

hi, i think autumn is more preferable. Summer is too hoooooot for travelling by bike.
yes, don't worry about bike renting and repair. it's their main vehicle.

Ni hao & hello. first of all I cycled 4 months across China from Laos crossing into Yunnan all the way to Beijing. I can only say that China was the most interesting country I visited so far and I'm just waiting for an opportunity to go back there.

Cycling is not always easy or recreational there. The traffic can be annoying and ignorant and the high mountains are a major challenge. But the culture, the people, the great diversity and also the security compared to other countries is just great. I was camping a lot but also staying at small hotels along the road. I was always approached curiously and friendly and there was no single boring day.

Beijing itslef of course is not the best place to see China as it is very different to he provinces. Nevertheless you can get around easily on a bicycle. And dont worry, so far I've always found a way to cycle from and to airports. Most of the cyclists in this forum will confirm that going on a taxi is not really asked for. For us cyclists the most interesting thing is to do it alone, to find the way and to get in touch with the real life along the road. That also includes busy roads, dirty places and not only sightseeing.

To find maps I went to major book shops in the provincial capitals. Unfortunately that means crossing half the province before you'll hold it in your hands. Because these book shops only used to have maps of the local province. (so in Lanzou you'll only find a map for the Ganso province etc.) Plus the map will be in Chinese, means all you can do is "compare the characters" if u dont read Chinese. In other places it occurred to be nearly impossible to get useful maps. I luckily found a map before I came into China - so thats the advice. Bring what you can get.

There are a lot of bicycle shops around and even more places where you can get technical help in the streets. So in China I naver had a problem to find a tyre or a tube. Special Shimano parts of course are not so wide spread, mainly in the capitals. In Beijing there was no problem at all. People helped me also to find a box for my bike when I went on the train to Moscow.

I do hope China will stay visitor-friendly and open like this and I hope the progess will not destroy too much of the culture there. Because thats why we come! And please understand that most of the long distance cyclists are a different kind of tourist. As for me, I always want to get off the beaten track and get in touch with the real life. That means the typical sight seeing is only a little part of the fun. And on the other hand my budged was never really that big (of course I was very rich in China), but I dont like to be treated as the rich foreigner. I preferred to eat in little places rather than expensive restaurants, to stay in little private guesthouses rather than in the 5-star-tourist hotels. So I expected to get around in China on about 3-5 Euro a day.

Visit my website: http://www.ekkis-world.de/Touren/TouringChina-engl.html