My Shanghai Bike

GIANT bike

I must admit. Life is good when you can bicycle through a city and not be too concerned with being killed. Since I bought my new bike on Tuesday, that’s pretty much all I have been doing.

What’s that Nik? We need to go to the grocery store? No problem, I’ll just go to the one across town instead of the one across the street because it will only take 15 minutes to get there.

What? You want to go to a park? There’s one on the other side of the river that looks cool, let’s go there. It should take an hour.

Do we need to get subway tickets? Nope, our ride is locked up just outside.

The red glove and a doozy of a bike bell*

Shanghai is flat, the weather has been amazing (except Thursday), there are bike lanes everywhere, the streets aren’t potholed (most of them anyways) and traffic generally goes pretty slowly. It is one of many perfect towns to bike in. My personal favorites have been Portland, Copenhagen, Denver, Beijing and Yangshuo, but I am certain that there are more.

The one downside to biking is that because I am going a little bit faster and am on the street instead of the sidewalk, I tend to pass up little nooks and crannies that I would explore on foot. Our plan, though, is to start riding to areas that are farther away, and then walk around and explore. That way, we’ll have the best of both worlds. For now, our bikes are too precious to leave on any old sidewalk, so we’ll be sticking to the streets.

That's my riding hat. With my new 'do, I need it to keep the hair out of my face. And it gets me plenty of weird stares!!*

I bought my bike from the GIANT retail store at the corner of Jianguo Lu and Hengshan Lu. It is a basic 24″ women’s single-speed bike with a great bell. It cost about Â¥600 ($88) including a good lock and the front basket. Nik inherited a STRONG men’s single-speed bike from a co-worker for free that I’m sure he will pass along when we leave.

I guess it’s not true that I’ve been riding my bike constantly for the entire week. We have done some other noteworthy things.

We are slowly discovering the amazing food that can be found in Shanghai.

All you can eat sushi with a group of 24

We had a decent breakfast and delicious coffee at A:Mokka, but perhaps my favorite part of this restaurant is the 2nd floor dining room and modern gas fireplace. I was very pleased that they skipped the cheesy fake logs. The furniture isn't too bad either!

Lillian's Cake Shop at Zhoajiabang Rd. & Hengshan Rd. does these great little egg tarts and coffee, and that's all they do. Pure, simple and amazing!

Of course, the best food can be found in our kitchen!! We actually eat at home most weeknights and it typically consists of rice, vegetables and dumplings. Fresh and tasty.

Then one day, we found Nik’s Chinese twin.

Grown out buzz cut, check. Nikon camera, check. Faded brown jacket, check. Faded blue jeans, check. The biggest things Nik has on this guy is his amazing girlfriend and better posture.

We’ve also seen plenty of examples of how this city is busting at the seams with people.

Saturday traffic seen from above

Nanjing Road during the sunset shopping hour

Barely enough room on the lawn at Zhongshan Park to fly a kite or sit with your family.

This pup knows that barges in the river are the only place to get away.

We have also been practicing a little game we call “Feather”

Nik and Mike show us how it's done

And sometimes, we visit the local newspaper board with our friends.

Rainy day news

Three weeks in, and it’s all still pretty amazing. Spring is in the air, and the city seems more alive every day. Nik’s enjoying his work, we’re making new friends, we’re eating well, we’re discovering new things every day and we’re having fun! What more can we ask?

* Photos taken by Nik, who did a tandem post. Get it? Tandem. As in a bicycle: Biking Shanghai, Luxun Park, Food, Poisoning