Beijing Hu Tong Red Door #3

I have a few new photos from the recent trip but I don’t feel like they are ready to be posted yet, so I’ll go with one of the summer photos from Beijing. Number 3 in the Red Door Beijing Hu Tong series. This one has it share of use and abuse done to it. The left side is using aluminum wires to hold it together. I wonder if it is a cat door or just results of tear and wear, I don’t remember seeing any cats in China. See door #1 and door #2.
Click on the image to see it larger version with all of the glory details.

Click me, Click me

Beijing Hu Tong Red Doors #2

This is the second image in Beijing Hu Tong Red Doors photo series, see the first one here.

Click me, Click me

Beijing Hu Tong Red Doors

Beijing Hu Tongs is a dying breed. In a few more years we’ll probably not going to see any more of them. They will be  leveled out and provide land for new sky rises. I’m sure government will save a few blocks for historic preservations and to attract tourists, but the real ones, where people use to live for hundreds of years will soon be nothing but history.  On our recent trip to Beijing we walked through couple Hu Tongs and I took a few pictures. Usually, doors is all you can see, they will lead you into internal compound. We didn’t go into them, but the doors itself are quite interesting themselves. All painted red with different level of tier and wear. Here is the first photo in this series. Click on the photo to see larger and better resolution.

Click me, Click me

All on Board

We were riding bikes around Beijing that day. End of July, it was probably one of the worst smoggy weeks in Beijing, or maybe it is normal… it really sucked. You can see what it looked from the high rise, not a pretty site – “Beijing Blue Skies… Not”.

Anyway, the air was white, the sky was white and it was humid like in the sauna. We stopped at the north side of the Hou Hai (Back Sea) lake for a little break, I put my camera between the rail separating the sidewalk and the lake and fired a few shots.

Click to open it in my Photo Gallery

Biking around Beijing

BeijingGarbageCollection - Click it to see larger image in the Photo Gallery

Bike is one of the primary transportation types in China. This is probably one of the primary reasons why you are not going to see many overweight folks there (of course the food is another reason, it is mostly freshly prepared with a lot of vegies and no processed crap most of the western world like to eat).

This post is devoted to show many pictures with 2 and 3 wheeled bikes and a little video with our own riding around the city. We rented our bikes for a full day at the Bike Beijing bike rental place. They were very friendly, did not require deposit – I guess I look very trustworthy or maybe my teenage daughter was the key to it. We paid only 300 yuan to rent three of them for a full day.

You can watch the video via this embedded window or you can go via the following link and see it full screen. (http://chert.smugmug.com/gallery/13419553_9QVps#976592126_CwmjM-A-LB)

http://chert.smugmug.com/gallery/13419553_9QVps#976592126_CwmjM-A-LB

In China bikes are used for any imaginable purpose, such as beer delivery-

_DSC0095

or shit and similar stuff delivery

_DSC0202[4]

or just some crap

_DSC0096

and more crap with as you can notice “Hello Kitty” all around it

_DSC0106-ms

street cleaning “trucks”

_DSC0109

McDonalds anyone? you can do some home delivery if you get hungry for western food

_DSC0127

or you can get a little motorbike and put your hot girlfriend in the back

_DSC0120

maybe not

_DSC0138

what ever stuff he got there

_DSC0140

deliver some flat goods

_DSC0141

or this one is an enterprising old fella with cage full of pigeons.. I wonder… food or other type of exotic pleasure

_DSC0143

are there any rules for safety?

_DSC0157

you have to park those things somewhere

_DSC0145

and, of course majority of the bike use is by individual bikers. It was kind of boring to photograph them, but if you want to get a bike, here is a little street shop to get one, along with some snacks

_DSC0156

Chinese man like to stay cool in the summer and here how they do it. Most of them. Not women, yeah, that is unfortunate.

_DSC0191

Bikes get parked everywhere, sidewalks…

_DSC0098

fences (smart choice as you can lock to it)

_DSC0201

specially designed bike stalls

_DSC0205

_DSC0033

but don’t leave it unattended for too long… they might start loosing some parts

_DSC0035

_DSC0039

so it is really smart to park your bike at the paid parking lot with an attendant, it only cost a few cents per day but ensures safety of your equipment

_DSC0089

and finally for this post, the motorbikes are getting really popular, you can see a lot of them these days as well

_DSC0045

_DSC0250[6]