Chris Drumgoole

I managed to fix my motorbike yesterday after work.  As I suspected, I fried the battery.

A few weeks ago I bought a voltmeter so I could monitor/debug/troubleshoot issues on the bike.  My battery is 6volts - but I was reading 6.8 or so on the old battery - as it drys out, the voltage increases.  This explains why my headlight bulb and all turn signals burnt out in a span of a week.  I really need to make it a habit to check the water levels of my battery…

So, two things I needed to fix yesterday were the Headlight bulb (as driving at night with no light isn’t exactly the best idea) , and of course, get a new battery!

I first went to my original mechanic’s shop (who coincidently sold me the bike)  (Note, I will refer to him as G).  His shop is near the office.  He is my usual supplier for 6volt-specific parts, such as batteries, generators, etc. (as the common bike on the road is 12volts, it is hard to source 6volt electronics).

I called in advance to be sure they had the bulb.  10RMB for that, no problem.  I asked about a new battery.  His helper (G wasn’t there) said he had only one, and quoted me over 300RMB.  Last time I bought a battery (identical) from him, he charged me 160 RMB.  (Note: that was 2 months ago according to my records).  Apparently, his supplier gave him a cheese ball story that these things are rare and that nobody has them in stock, etc… Bullshit, I thought.  In June when I had a battery issue, I first went to my “usual” mechanic (I’ll refer to him as B) who is conveniently close to my home.  I asked for the battery, he obviously didn’t have one but said he would work on sourcing one.  Took him a week, and by the time he got it, not liking the wait, I already got a new battery from G for 160 RMB.   But when B finally got it, he quoted me 70 RMB.

70 RMB

Fast forward to yesterday, when G’s helper quoted me more than 300 RMB for the battery, I politely told him thanks, I’ll think about it (while saying screw this crap, I’m going to B).  Got into a cab, made the way south through rush hour traffic to B’s shop.  Asked him for the battery, he had it!  And he quoted me 65 RMB for it!  Neato!

I got back in the cab and went right back up north to my office (as my bike was stranded in my office’s underground parking) to do the repair work.

About 2 minutes after getting my tools out, a crowed of parking attendants and “bao an’s”, or security guards, surrounded me to watch what the crazy foreigner was doing.  Some of them even helped me do the work!

Any way after about a half hour, I was off!

Unfortunately, I have no photos - my N95 was at the repair shop (see yesterday’s post).

For those of you who are interested, I started keeping motorbike maintenance records in May of 2006.  From that time, I have gone through 4 batteries, in August 06, November, June 07, and now in August.  I’ve really got to start taking care of the batteries…..

Mobile Phone Issue

First, last evening (Tuesday), out of the blue, my new Nokia N95 (well, I bought it in June) developed an odd problem - when I would press some of buttons, the screen would “shift” and change colors (like to a shade of blue, then red, then yellow, then green) but it would also shift to the right a few pixels. Very strange - seems like a connection is loose? So I dropped it off with the repair guy today - note - not an authorized Nokia repair shop I am afraid as I don’t have warranty.

Motorbike Issue

Second, my bike finally (again) crapped out on me yesterday. I noticed what seemed an electrical problem developing over the last 2 weeks or so. But did I do anything about it? No. Big surprise. So now it’s stuck in my office’s underground parking with no electricity. I suspect it’s the battery. This be the 4th battery I fried in the last 3 years. This, on top of the headlight and all turn signals are out. Man oh man…

Going for a ride - good for seeing rural Beijing!

Finally, this morning, I woke up a tad late this morning (read: later than I would like but still on-time if I had my motorbike), which means, getting a cab would be out of the question. So I had to revert to a hei che - a black car - basically an unofficial car for hire. boy did this guy take me for a ride. Check this:

View Larger Map

O.k., what are you seeing? This is a satellite photo of Beijing.  Duh!

You see at the bottom left is my home - indicated with the little bed icon.  My office is near the top with the yellow flag icon.  The route I usually take is orange/yellow - following the city’s 3rd ring road.  I sometimes take the red route, which follows the city’s 4th ring road, however, this is usually very jammed with cars.  My “hei che” today took me along the blue line.  That’s right.  Here’s the (short) story:

You usually negotiate the price before entering the car - I negotiated the “normal price”.  I have taken these guys in the past and haven’t had any issues.  Today’s guy was new. Never seen him before.  Sometimes these guys like to pick up several people at a time to maximize their profits.  I usually don’t like that but I figured today what the heck.  He knows where I am going, so I imagine and assumed (shame on me!) that the guy he wanted to pick up was going somewhere along the way.  Unfortunately my Chinese sucks big time so I couldn’t pick up the conversation between the driver and this guy.

Well, if you look at the map, he followed the red route at the beginning, but instead of making the turn left to go north on 4th ring, he kept going straight - to the east.  I asked him what was up, he just replied “something something blah blah bleh bingdo dingo si huan you duo che blanke boo boo slip slip sloppy skank”.  Something like that! The key bit I got out of that was “si huan you duo che”, which means 4th ring has too many cars.  It did - as usual.  So I figured he knew a good short cut.  So I let him be.  Mistake.

We kept going and going and going, passing 5th ring road.  I though there would be no end in sight!  (not really, but I am trying to add a bit of drama here…)  Finally he stopped (at the little fish icon in the bottom left of the map above) and let the guy out.  The driver then proceeded to do a U-turn - presumably going back to get back on track.

Well, in the map above, when he starts turning right to go north (from the east), he drives much of the way along the fulu, or side road, to 5th ring.  It eventually ends, and then we do some creative turns here and there, when finally reaching a road I have seen before!

It certainly was an interesting drive, even though I was quite a bit late for work.  East of the 5th ring road in Beijing is pretty much the dark ages…  Crappy roads, no tall buildings, more animal powered vehicles…

My phone was acting up (see above) but I managed to get through the screen issues to get some GPS coordinates (the pushpins on the map above) - as I wanted proof where I was for my boss!!!

What did I learn?

If you need to take an illegal car/taxi - Make sure he doesn’t pick anyone else up - don’t assume anything.

For those who do not know, Phase 1 of the Beijing 2008 Olympics ticket lottery has come and gone. This morning in my email box, I had an email from these guys with the results! Below is a list of the events I won:

1. Beach Volleyball - 2008-8-15 18:00 - 21:50 - Just for fun.. (1st Choice)

• Women’s Round of 16-Match nn
• Women’s Round of 16-Match nn
• Men’s Round of 16 -Match nn
• Men’s Round of 16 -Match nn

2. Athletics - 2008-8-22 19:00 - 22:20 - This is in the big stadium, the “bird’s nest” (1st Choice)

• Men’s Decathlon Javelin Throw - Group A
• Women’s Long Jump Final
• Women’s 4 x 400m Relay Round 1
• Men’s Pole Vault Final
• Men’s 4 x 400m Relay Round 1
• Men’s Decathlon Javelin Throw - Group B
• Women’s 5000m Final
• Women’s 4 x 100m Relay Final
• Men’s Decathlon 1500m
• Men’s 4×100m Relay Final

3. Diving - 2008-8-17 20:30 - 22:00 - This is in the cool bubble building, the “National Aquatics Center. Odd, they gave me the cheaper tickets than what I signed up for…

• Women’s 3m Springboard Final Round 00
• Women’s 3m Springboard Medal Ceremony

4. Diving - 2008-8-23 10:00 - 11:20 - Doh! Another diving! And this isn’t even a medal round! And, they gave me the super cheapo tickets - not what I ordered…

• Men’s 10m Platform Semifinal-Round 00

So, I missed the following:

• Gymnastics Rhythmic
• Gymnastics Artistic
• Another Gymnastics Artistic (2nd choice to event won above)
• Another Athletics (2nd Choice to the one I won above)
• A 1st and 2nd choice Fencing event. People actually like Fencing here?!?! Grr…
• Another Diving (2nd choice to event won above)
• A 1st and 2nd choice Swimming event. This makes sense, Swimming is one of those sports they’re nuts about here…

I guess I’ll have to wait for round 2 to try to pick up Fencing and Swimming…   Phase 2 lottery begins in October. Oh well, at least I got some events (one of the perks of living here, I guess)! But I am not that much of a diving person…

To all who may feel the urge to email me: I am making a new rule- I will not reply to any emails should they violate some very simple rules:

1. ALL-CAPS ARE USED THROUGHOUT OR AT LEAST LIBERALLY. I DON’T LIKE TO BE SHOUTED AT…
2. The subject is missing — is”(no subject)” worth my time to read? The subject line is like a summary of a book - if I’m going to spend $10 on a book, the summary better be good…

Of course, this applies only to my personal email - can’t really ignore work-related emails

Wikipedia has a great article on this: Netiquette.

This is one of the few topics that for some reason, I cannot explain why I have an issue with.  I just do.  I’m not trying to be pushy when I ask a certain someone to first “please use the caps-lock button to turn off caps-lock when sending emails” and second “please add a subject to emails”.  These simple tips aren’t hard to remember.

Thank you!

If high numbers are good, then we passed!
I saw this story from danwei, thought I would chime in.

Wait, but I’m reading from other blogs that a high number is actually bad.  hmmm…. That’s not too good, is it?

The chart above comes from the State Environmental Protection Administration of China, so, a government organization.  If you go here, you can make your own really cool charts - in English too!

The air quality didn’t improve at all during the 4 days.  And as one of the blogs I linked to above mention, Monday the 20th is missing from the chart.  What does that mean? Well, here’s a picture I took on Monday morning from my apartment:

Oh, right….  Monday’s air was noticeably worse than Sunday’s (here’s a picture I took on Sunday from my apartment):

Yesterday was the first day of “normalcy” on the roads here in Beijing.  Unfortunately, “normal” conditions aren’t ideal. ;-)  Traffic was so bad last evening - I was in traffic for a good half hour to go 1 kilometer.  Yikes!

Last night, someone told me that Beijing was going to implement a more permanent car ban switcheroo - even cars on even days, odd cars on odd days, starting January 1.  How long will it last? Well if they actually go along with this plan (again, it’s a rumor at this point), I can just short of guarantee it will last through the Olympics.

The more I think about this, the more I think it’s an O.K. idea.  The traffic authorities need to do something to handle the traffic situation.  Pollution? Well, let’s not go there - I think you know my thoughts already.  Coal is the problem.  I won’t bore you anymore regarding that.

We’re talking about traffic here. 

If I were to take a taxi from home to work on a “normal” day - i.e. a day with a “normal” amount of traffic (um, read this: A LOT of traffic), and I don’t leave exceptionally early, it will take on average 45 minutes to get to work - sometimes longer.  Yes, sometimes shorter - on freak days.  And that’s using the expressways and ring roads.  Surface roads are much worse!  Lucky for me, I have a motorcycle which allows me to be a bit more liberal when it comes to the whole “stay in your lane” concept.  I’m specifically talking about the famous 3rd ring road which is strategically equiped with an emergency vehicle/parking lane.  This comes in handy almost daily when I need to “beat” the traffic.

Unfortunately, not all ring roads or expressways have this (notably 2nd ring road), which means I’m stuck like everyone else.  It sucks big time.  And on a hot summer day, an air-cooled engine sitting on hot asphalt, with no wind to cool it, doesn’t do so well.

So, where am I getting - I think I’m rambling a bit.  Something needs to be done about the traffic situation, and fast.  More and more people are buying cars (the statistic we often hear is 1,000 new cars on Beijing streets every day).  That’s mind boggling!

While I generally favor higher costs to drive (i.e. tolls) over an all-out ban, I think it is something that needs to be done to allow time to devise a more permanent plan.  If people want to drive, and they want to drive badly - they’ll pay.  I know I’m shooting myself in the leg here, but I know it will have multiple benefits in the long run:

1. More money for the traffic bureau to maintain/improve the road system
2. Reduced pollution (but still need to get rid of the coal!)
3. Most importantly (in my eyes), reduced traffic = happy drivers = less accidents = happy times for all, even the insurance companies!

Today is the last day of the car ban. While on the road these past few days, I have made the observation that most people followed the rule - at least from what I could see. I think I only saw 1 or 2 “offenders” - those driving when they weren’t supposed to - i.e. if it was an even day but their license plate ended in an odd number.

Continuing with my daily “pollution check”, I bring you this morning’s photo, again, from my apartment. It looks worse than yesterday. I’m at the office right now and it doesn’t look much better.

On the drive to work today, the roads (specifically the 4th ring road, one of the “limited” access “freeways” we have here circling the city) was quite fluid - certainly a welcomed sight.

So, until we hear any “official” statistics from the “air quality stations” that the authorities spread around the city for these 4 days - I’m going to guess that the car ban helped with traffic congestion (I said “helped” not “improved beyond belief”), but not with the pollution - at least noticable.

The air still looks gross. My eyes still get sore from time to time. Granted, I haven’t been known to cough due to the air in Beijing, some people I know who do have said they haven’t noticed much difference.

I think my 2nd suggestion from this post will really bring quantifiable improvements- not to mention an additional source of revenue to the traffic bureau!

Update: I took a photo from my office in the afternoon.  No real improvement over the morning…

This is a public toilet in Ritan park, Beijing. It is comforting to note they are rating toilets like hotels. I wonder what a 5 star toilet looks like…

I took another photo outside my apartment window today around 2pm.

O.K., fine.  It does look like an improvement over yesterday…  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.  Still looks pretty hazy. Or is that “mist”?

It’s been 1 day with half the cars off the road here in Beijing.  See my previous story for background info on this little exercise…

Now, before you start complaining to me “Hey Chris, it’s only been a day - of course there won’t be a difference!”  Yes. I know!  I knew that before you did!  Listen, this little “test” the govt is conducting is only lasting 4 days.  4 DAYS!  You think ANYTHING will change after 4 days?

Any way, here are two pictures I took outside my window this morning.  Looks pretty normal - hazy, gross, etc.

And another one…

So, we’ll see how it goes later today - I’ll be out and will upload some photos to flickr if something “interesting” happens - like a freak parting of the sea and the sun becomes overly bright to do anything productive outside.

Right…