橙色是我跟舍友褚同学今天骑了一天自行车经过的路线。灰色线分别标出了北京的二环、三环、四环和五环路。

Experiencing Beijing on the road by bike is hard work indeed. But also rewarding.

This is the first time I have known how Beijing's summer has become more and more irritating. During most of our ride, roadside trees were scarce, and many of haven't grown up to bear a decent crown. So we have never stopped rushing for a shade to have a short break, especially on Chang'an Street. The sun rays also burned our skin, causing it ache and turn red, and by the end of the day clear boundaries appeard at our neck, arms, and knees. Each of us drank more than 7 bottles of water and soft drinks, though had hardly ever gone to the toilet.

It is surprising, and sometimes astounding to have an eye on the appearances of different regions in the city. The height of buildings alone has a lot to tell. Within the 2nd ring road, a certain limitation is imposed on the architectural design, (which is approximately 9 storeys?) so all of those plazas, office buildings, shopping centers have become big stocky cubes alike, nevertheless some of the older ones have traditional Chinese roofs on top. Therefore a stark contrast is made between this and things outside the 3rd ring in Haidian, where tall and glazing modern highrises predominate.

Contrary to our previous conceptions, districts in southern Beijing look a lot less developed and well-off than their northern counterparts. The degradation began as we went beside Qianmen Avenue southwards. On the pedestrian crossover we took a look down, and all we had seen were shabby huts mingled with torn-down courtyards. Newer buildings lacked good planning. Then we realized the renovation of Qianmen Avenue only provided a facade! And the wide roadside lawns concealed the real look of the semi-slums! Commerce around Qianmen also seemed a bit depressed.

The real target of our trip is a region between southeastern 4th and 5th rings. Besides crampt dwellings for disadvantaged migrant workers and citizens, southeastern Beijing is filled with factories, markets, warehouse stores for furniture, industrial material and seafood. All of them had red or blue roofs, lining in order. Loaded trucks rumbled past us in clouds of dust, enough for us to give good coughs within the next half hour.

On our way back, we had once got lost, which is to become immortal in our memory. After touring outside the Birds' Nest and the Water Cube, we were going to find our way back to dorm. Instead of going westwards, we turned out to have been heading south! Now the exact point at which a wrong turn was made remains uncertain, but it's probably in the entanglement of Jianxiang Overpass. You can see it in the Google image above.

On the whole, the bike ride was joyful. Without the bike ride, the joking, screaming, chatting, singing, monologuing, complaining, drinking, map-reading, and photographing would never take place. More academically, the ride added to a good sense of scale of the city, replacing the incorrect one formed inside subway carriages. Feeling the city on two wheels is a privilege, especially for crazy architectural students like us, who will one day make the city crazy.