Chris Drumgoole

I had my first almost run-in with a Beijing Traffic cop this morning.

In the almost 5 years I’ve been riding my motorbike through Beijing, I have enjoyed an almost-invincibility / invisibility from the traffic police. Sure, I’ve heard stories of foreigners being stopped (driving either cars or motorbikes) by traffic cops for one thing or another, but usually playing the old “sorry, I don’t speak Chinese” trick was enough to get out of it.

I have seen many times when coming up to an intersection with cops directing traffic or conducting random checks on passing vehicles, the cop would slightly turn a bit so he and I would not lock eyes, thus letting me pass by.

Why were foreigners seemingly treated differently than the locals? Was it that the traffic police just didn’t care? Was it unofficial / unwritten policy to let us be? Was it a lack of confidence in their English capabilities? (because you know that the foreigner, whether he speaks Chinese or not, he won’t say a word in Chinese if he knows what’s good for him!)

Whatever the real reason, I didn’t care as it turned out to be an advantage.

The Incident

One of my normal routes to get the office in the mornings is to get onto the 2nd Ring Road at the Guangqumen bridge, drive North a bit, then get on the East-to-West expressway Tonghuihe to 4th Ring Road, then drive north ’til Dashanzi - then take surface roads the remainder of the way to the office.

(Now, as an aside, a quick reminder for those who don’t know. Officially, motorbikes, like what I drive, aren’t allowed on the Ring Roads/Expressways. I can’t count how many times cops have seen me but turn a blind eye. Yes, I know that doesn’t make driving on them right, at least, according to the law… I digress… )

This morning was no different. 2nd ring road was packed with traffic - but as I would only be on it for 400 meters before getting on the speedy Tonghuihe, it was worth the 5 minutes of mental anguish.

As I was getting onto 2nd Ring from the entrance ramp, the traffic cop who was at that entrance saw me, pointed at me, and told me to go to the side! Shit! (My papers/tax/inspection aren’t exactly up to date - something I’ve been meaning to fix) .

I stop, and wait for him to approach me. After a minute, he comes to me, points at the road (2nd ring), and says “No”, while shaking his head a bit. Then he points up the entrance ramp where I came from, motioned for me to follow him (he directed me against traffic, so he wanted it to look “official” I guess), and I did, and I drove away.

Whew!

O.K., so that could have had a few different results, but I am certainly happy with the result I had. The only annoying thing now is that route is clearly off limits, at least during morning rush hour, as I am sure that if he sees me again attempting the same shenanigans, I won’t get off as easily as I did today.

Darn the Olympics / social & economic progress / shitty city planners / “we must have a car” new middle class.

Beijing just isn’t the same anymore…

Folks,

If you’re like me, you have a sidecar motorbike, you like to drive year round. And if you’re like me, it’s because you hate taxis for a multitude of reasons - those of which I will not go into now.

But, I have a small word of advice:

During the winter, check the damn weather report for current conditions before driving to work.

Today, I didn’t. Oh my god… Pain. Pain all over my body.

When I finally got to my office (lucky I didn’t freeze to death), I checked the weather on CNN’s website, and this is what I found:

New rule: no driving in below freezing with wind more than 5mph.

Sometimes, something happens in China that really irks me. Ok, well, maybe a bit more often than “sometimes”…

3 days ago, the Ministry of Public Safety, via relevant news outlets and traffic management bureaus, announced an overhaul of the license plate system (specifically, enhancements to the 1992 standard that was running the risk of running out of available plates - at least here in Beijing).

Um, o.k… so?

Well, long story short, one of the new provisions is they are phasing out the black plates for foreign-owned vehicles. We will need to swap our plates for the “normal” ugly blue plates that is given to anyone.

Remember, Foreigners were lucky and had much sexier black license plates, instead of the boring blue plates that everyone else has!

Information is a bit hazy (as my Chinese character recognition isn’t the greatest)… Let’s keep an eye on the Wikipedia article for developments.

And here’s the Beijing Traffic Bureau announcement.

Now, officially, normal foreigners (i.e. not diplomats) aren’t given any special privileges on the road. Now, for the 4.5 years I’ve been driving, let’s just say I’ve had only one parking ticket (and that was 3 years 7 months ago - EVERY car on the road was ticketed, so I guess the cop was just being “fair”).

Seriously… Will having a blue plate change anything?

Man, I hope not! As my friend Tom pointed out, most likely the implementation of the new license plate policies won’t coincide with the police sporting a sudden proficiency in the English language.

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.

Driving is chabuduo easy here in Beijing, with the exception of occasional super heavy traffic that really tire you out. Traffic rules are (generally) commonsense - I say that lightly of course. I’ve had good luck with traffic police even - never been stopped - I’ve been on the road for 4+ years now. Note: unlike some people, I don’t go out of my way to do something illegal - especially when there are traffic police near by!

It isn’t until it comes with dealing with administrative crap that becomes a chore. This includes renewing registration, getting the bike inspected, getting lost/stolen things replaced (thanks Melanie for helping me to get my new plates!), etc. This is because there is pretty much zero documentation or help in English - unless you want to pay money to an English-speaking “agent” to help you out. I prefer not to spend any more money than I need to, and I’d like to learn how this stuff works!

Last week Friday I had to take a taxi to work because on Thursday night on the way home, my motorbike developed a small, but soon-to-be-serious problem - one of my gaskets blew - or a small hole developed that would most certainly eventually burst causing ~75% power loss. This is something I didn’t want to happen en route to the office so I decided to take the cab. Now, Thursday night was a rather late night, and I woke up earlier than usual so I could be sure to get a taxi in the morning. So, I was about 50% awake.

Well, for some strange reason I brought both my driver’s license and bike registration booklets to work that day. Not really necessary, but again, I was asleep. They’re small enough to put in my pocket so easy to carry. Well, in the taxi, I brought my ipod to listen to music - and I think when taking the ipod out of my pocket, the motorbike registration booklet must have fallen out.

Of course, I didn’t realize this until I was up in my office, and of course I didn’t take the taxi receipt! So, I’m out of luck.

3 things I lost:

1. The registration card of the motorbike. This is the driver’s license-sized laminated card with the relevant information of the bike (engine number, frame number, owner’s name - mine, address - my first address in Beijing 4 years ago, etc.) On the back it has a photo of the bike. I can get this replaced but it’d going to be an adventure because I’ll need to go to the Beijing Traffic Bureau office to get it replaced. Yes, they have a “foreigner” office, but last time I went (to get my stolen license plates replaced), no one spoke English. So this will be an adventure.
2. Proof of insurance - this is a small card that proves I have insurance. I have the A4 sized documentation at home, but it’s nice to be carrying a card. I am not sure if I am going to bother getting a new card - most likely i’ll just photo copy the original documentation and keep it with me. I’ll get a new card early next year any way…
3. The card I use to access my office’s underground parking lot. I’m getting this replaced today, at an expense of 50 RMB. This is the easiest thing to get replaced.

So, I’ll provide updates to document the process of getting this “blue book”, or motorbike registration booklet replaced.

I am currently (finally) transfering my motorbike (CJ750) photos over to Flickr, and modifying the links on my Motorbike page work. I just uploaded the photos I took way back in the summer of 2004 at the Guinness Book of World Records attempt at the most number of side car motorbikes together. Enjoy.

Clutch Disc Screw - The Culprit

Originally uploaded by chrisdrum.

I posted [last week](http://www.cdrum.com/?p=241) about the issues I had with my motorbike. Gerald came to my home on Saturday to fix it. It turns out it was this Clutch Disc screw - it was loose and was hitting the gearbox housing. Ouch. All fixed now and running real well!

Go [here](http://www.cdrum.com/gallery.php?album=538482) to see pictures of the repair.

Today, I had a possibly serious engine meltdown. My first real engine issue since purchasing the bike 1.5 years ago. And it was probably due to slightly not enough oil. We’ll see.

As I started off for work this morning, the bike was not running very smooth at low speeds. As I approached the traffic light, the engine began making a loud sound that was similar to gears going the opposite direction! I quickly turned off the engine and came to a stop. I then tried to move the crank shaft by pressing down the kick-start. It wouldn’t move!!! Argh! So, it is a possible engine sezure. One of the pistons could be welded to the jugs (the best scenario), or worse, the crank shaft could be totally shot.

I will keep you posted!

Hey, do you remember the parking ticket I got back in March?

Well, I paid it.
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