Riding my bike

Today, although I'm still feeling a bit ill, I went for a ride. I had planned to head up to the Olympic venues and look at the Birds Nest Stadium and the Water Cube (rumour has it they make you do a medical and a swimming test before they let you in the pool!). I decided after I started that I wasn't quite up to that so I thought I'd head over to the lakes on the other side of the Forbidden City.

On the way I stopped at the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower. While I was there I saw about 15 rickshaws, all with 2 westerners sitting in the back, heading along the road, obstructing traffic and generally getting in everyone's way. I was stopped taking a photo and they all stopped next to me, got out, paid their driver/riders Y60 each (maybe they came from the airport :) and headed into a restaurant. Really weird.

From A Fine Day Out

Apparently there's a house/mansion thing around here somewhere. The wife of the guy known as the "Father of the Chinese Republic" (which I thought was Mao but apparently not) was much venerated and lived in a house here somewhere but I couldn't find it.

I made it to the lakes and it was really pretty. Not many people around, a nice breeze off the lakes, old men fishing, young men fishing and drinking (and smoking). Really pleasant. Also if you have a hankering, you can rent a 3 seater bicycle here which strikes me as difficult to ride. No one wanted any though. I followed the lake shore south until I saw something really weird. So the lakes are pretty and all but I can't imagine the water is all that clean or pure. Fishing is one thing and I'd be hesitant to eat anything that came out. However these guys were swimming across the lake and back. Given they had goggles and caps and stuff, this looked like a regular thing. Which is a little dangerous because not only would there be weird stuff living there but there was a nut job in a speedboat heading around the lake too. Maybe it was new?

From A Fine Day Out

From A Fine Day Out

From A Fine Day Out

That side of the lake also seems to be THE place for restaurants and bars, pretty much everything that side was a bar or club. I did take a photo of the sign saying David Food though. It looks pretty right. The other photos show that bar owners take on what you should do when passing and what he thinks of their mojitos (you might have to look close for the last part)!

Then back onto the main street. I thought I'd end up far enough south to head straight into Tiananmen Square but I missed the turn around the last lake and ended up north a bit. So I headed down, dropped off my bike and walked in to check whether the Forbidden City is as busy on a Friday as it was the other week. The answer; definitely not! There weren't all that many people there at all, definitely not compared to two weeks ago. The whole Gate of Heaven was wrapped in scaffolding too which wasn't there last time. I was hoping it would be bamboo scaffold like in HK movies but it wasn't.

From A Fine Day Out

I decided that I wouldn't go in on my own (plus I was feeling pretty stuffed by this time too) so I took some photos and headed back home via the office to grab some stuff. Once I got home I was definitely feeling hot and tired. I have just worked out that I rode 22.4km in 30 degree heat with about 50% humidity. No wonder I got through all my water! I may feel this tomorrow :)