View towards the centre of Tiananmen Square.
In front of Tiananmen gate.
We arrived in Beijing around half way into the Olympics and I took my bike along. I mostly rode early in the mornings and it was a blast to ride the ultra-wide divided bike lanes. The flat city and its smooth and potholes/debries free road surfaces easily raised my cruising speed up a few clicks. My longest ride (130km return) for the trip was out to the west of the city on a training route that's used by the local cyclists as well as the national cycling team called MiaoFengShan, which is a 1291m mountain peak with a realistic climb of around 750-800m over 15km. It was a struggle towards the top but I suspect my lack of training volume prior to the trip was what killed my legs. The return was more of a struggle that was made worse by the midday weather conditions. Plenty of water was required. But again, no worse than what we have to endure during mid-summer here in Sydney.
Below are five photos from my Miaofengshan ride.
The entrance to the mountain valley section.
En-route to the top as a local roadie zoomed past.
Looking back from the top.
Photo with that local roadie (a uni student) who zoomed past me.
Looking back at the valley. Beijing city is to the left of that view, behind the mountain peak.
And here's an aerial shot of Beijing from the east as our plane descended for PEK. The Forbidden Palace is in the centre of that north-south strip of green to the west of the highrises.
As for the cycling conditions within the city. Here are two photos of the bike lane along the main east-west ChangAn St. Both taken in the early morning hours. The locals have in recent years taken up electric bikes and there are quite a number of these silent two-wheelers sharing the bike lanes. They cruise at around 28-30km/h and can be easily overtaken on a road bike. However, on a windy day, they are good to draft behind.
This is right in front of Tiananmen.
This is a view towards Tiananmen from the west.
