The first time I went to Antarctica in 2001, I bought an Icebreaker merino wool sweater in New Zealand. It was on sale, very soft, seemed pretty warm in the store, and looked good. That was the beginning of my conversion from synthetic fibers to natural ones. In addition to being warm and soft, I soon noticed that it also didn’t smell as bad as quickly. Continue reading Naturally Stink Free!
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 Looking up to the pass before heading down into Sihaizhen. Looking for an interesting destination for a weekend ride from Beijing, I looked at bikemap.net and found a ride to Sihaizhen (四海镇） north of Beijing about 100 km. If you went another few kilometers from where the posted ride ended, there was a town with the words ‘Spring’ in it — Zhenzhuquanxiang (珍珠泉乡). For some reason I thought it said hot spring. There are a few up north. A hot spring seemed like a good location to head towards. Staying on the route could not really be easier as once you got on the right street heading north out of Beijing there were no turns off the main road. Mark and I met up near the south entrance to Ditan Park (地坛公园) at about 08:30 and then started heading north. From looking at the elevation section on the bikemap website I knew that the first half of the ride would be completely flat for 40+ kilometers until we hit the mountains. For some reason I did not really pay attention to the elevation gains. Telling someone about it at work, they asked, “Where are you going to stay?” It was a good question, but I figured there would be somewhere. I read the book Country Driving as well as from when I went to my friend’s house near Mutianyu I figured there must be somewhere to stay. No worries. Continue reading Weekend Trip to a Hot Spring…  Tree lined roads east of Beijing. One of my English friends in Beijing was holding a party to celebrate the royal wedding in England between Prince William and Kate at a house up in the countryside north of Beijing. I decided it was a good reason to go on a training run. His place is near Mutianyu Great Wall （慕田峪长城） and about 100 km from my apartment in downtown Beijing. Since I had no spare inner tube or pump compatible with my newish road bike I took my around town folding bike with fat, slow tires. At 6:00 AM, I hopped on my bike and started the 4 km ride to Dongzhimen (东直门). Quickly I realized both tires were fairly flat having not ridden the bike in a while. I kept going since no bike shop or corner bicycle hack would be available for at least another three hours. Plus the later you get on the number 916 bus to Huairou （怀柔) the more and more crowded it gets. (China is like that — things get crowded quickly.) Continue reading A Royal Wedding, A Sandstorm, and Mud Falling from the Sky |
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