Sunday Ride...(29/8)

Geneva / Bellevue / Versoix / Coppet / Nyon / Rolle / Le Coutet / Morges / Preverenges / Lausanne (66km)

All (more) about bicycle...(19/8)

The Stereotypic Impression
Some people, including me, have a picturesque, sometimes stereotypic, impression of the bicycle-packed commuter flow in China. I was in Beijing in the summer of 1997, and I commuted by bicycle in the city every day. Traffic jam is always a trademark of urbanisation and rapid development. I still remember the chaotic scenes riding my bicycle along the densely congested main traffic flow. Though I mean a ‘main traffic flow’, cars, motorbikes and bicycles could come from any direction at the crossroad at the same time…That was a memorable adventure to me who used to enjoy a more systematic and efficient public transportation system in Hong Kong. The stereotypic memory therefore easily correlates my belief of the gigantic bicycle scenes I randomly found on the Internet…(read more)

(random photos found on Internet...)

It was from the summer in Beijing onward that I have been fascinated by this enjoyable, environmental-friendly and convenient mode of transport displacing in the urban area. A footnote to add about the bicycle scene in Hong Kong where I come from – the two-wheel can only be found in dedicated cycle path in the park or sub-urban areas in the New Territories. Basically the only rare cyclists in the CBD are those ‘professional’ delivery staff from local restaurants who do short-distance travel within blocks of building! So for citizens in Hong Kong, cycling is rather a leisure activity families and friends can do during weekend, and they have to go to the ‘dedicated’ area to ride. To supplement my footnote though, the first Chinese World Champion cyclist is from Hong Kong who won the 15km scratch in the 2007 tournament…
While the rapid economic development in China is witnessed by accelerated urbanization not only in the coastal area, but it has also been extending widely into the inner regions, the emergence of the increasingly affluent middle class population has boosted car sales in the urban area in China. More people rely on car as well as the improving public transportation. The trend will continue with the development in China. According to the latest Global Cities ranking by the Foreign Policy, 25 cities are located in Asia among the 65 global metropolitan spots, and 5 of them are in the Chinese mainland. More Chinese cities are replicating the urban development model and could join the list soon…
The authority is also aware of the sustainability issue of urban development and the implication of GHG emission, there has been some propaganda to ‘revive the kingdom of bicycle’.
Bike-and-Park Sustainability
Indeed, I fully support the surging momentum for big cities to adopt urban policy to encourage commuter flow by bicycle. For me, one of the many reasons to choose Paris as a favourable city to live is also because of its cyclist-friendly culture and infrastructure. When I first worked in Paris in 2005, the Velib system was not yet implemented, but with my own city bicycle, I still enjoyed very much the ease to transport within the city. The Velib system is believed to be one of the most successful projects driven by Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, and my only concern from a public administrative perspective is how the city government can more efficiently manage the public goods, as the shared property, though incurring rental charge, is prone to misuses and damages as observed from the quick depreciation of the bicycle parts etc.
The significant benefit to me as a bicycle owner in Paris is the decrease of stolen bicycle cases happening in town. Can you imagine that three of my well-locked bicycles were stolen in one year?!

The journey...(13/7)

Velo, vers l'eau...(11/7)

Routing: (Geneva / Chene-Bougeries / Chene-Bourg / Gaillard / Annemasse / Vetraz-Monthoux / Cranves-Sales / Viuz-en-Sallaz / St Jeoire / Mieussy / Flerier / Les Gets / Morzine)

Yet another wonderful but tough journey, and in this occasion an energy-consuming but eco-friendly means to participate in a cycling trip along the trail of Tour de France. Stage 8 of this year's tournament kicked start the first mountainous routing near the Switzerland border in the Rhone-Alps region, where I could viably follow the itinerary and ride on the route from Geneva centre. In order to stay way ahead of the players, I started my journey early in the Sunday morning. With my heavily basic and lo-fi city bike (or proclaimed by somebody as a 'classic' bicycle), the journey commenced smoothly, and with an expectation to climb up the mountain, I tried to keep my pace at a stable and manageable manner to attempt my 5-hr anticipated ride and reach the summit before 13h. The scenery along the road was magnificently like an extended moving painting in real terms. I started to catch some other audience practitioners from Vetraz-Monthoux area. The jerseys other cyclists wore coloured the path and since a very long time I finally felt a sense of recognition about cycling, and then scattered cycling partners started to joined me to challenge the sloppy journey from Mieussy. As a joyful event, residence of the region tried their different means to show respect to the mountain climbers. Gardening red and white flowers were used to make decorative maillot a pois rouges along the roadside, in addition to other bicycle-related slogans and messages. The yellow messages on the slope illustrated the French style of cheers and notions. Supporters arrived and set their beings with caravans, sun-bath towel, umbrellas, ringing bells, picnic tables etc. on both sides of the route, and every time when cyclists passed by them, a whole-heartedly expression of appreciation was given to the sportsmen, and then the spirit of Tour de France was passed to the next level on the slope.
The very sunny weather heated up the road, and it was a tough up-moving exercise for all the amateurs. I struggled much to raise my every level of altitude from the basic step, but a collective move became much of a motivation for cyclists and people with a bike on the way to carry on the hardship and perhaps still a self-esteemed glory-to-be. With my additional loading of the SLR camera, the unbearable lightness of being viewed by Kundera became a gorgeous flying move perceived by me. I added my weight to the reversed gravity and at the end of the tunnel, it was totally beautiful being on the summit. My parents called upon a stay on the top of the summit, and this was a metaphorical existence I have therefore breathed and sensed.

The French way of propaganda in the sports activities is lovely. A publicity parade hosted by the lane-long ad-wrapped vehicle troop commercialised the tournament in a receptive manner, and the freebies intensified the festive mood of the audience. Subsequent with the accidents occurred in the first half of the race, the champion arrived at Morzine at around 16h, and joined with the clamps and the praises, the day ended gracefully. The passion I found from the spectators in front of the TV report session lifted me a wind-breaking ride back to Geneva.

Cross-border flow...(4/7)

Track 1 of the cross-border journey:

Geneva - Cologny - La Pallanterie - Maisons Neuves - Douvaine - Sciez - Allinges - Thonon-les-Bains

Trepassing...(4/10)

The lion city...(4/9)

If I have to tick out Paris, I take a deep thought. My beloved city in France? France means much more to me now and the place configures the missing part of my perception about the bits and pieces in this world...well I would consider Grenoble the best city, because of its way of modernisation in infrastructure and the preservation of natural tranquility. Facing a snow mountain can purify a certain contaminated idea and complexity. And then, I would choose also Lyon as a nice city in the hexagon. As the third time within a year to visit the city, Lyon still offered me a rich constitution of warm welcome and fine surprises. Working for its flagship international event of the year, visitors and business people from different countries flooded into the heart of the animal King, and me apart from the installation at the working place, I did 'ride' on the unique bicycle troop of Velo'v in the city to locate and dislocate myself in the map of diversity.

Lyon is intercepted by two rivers named le Saône and le Rhone, and like Koblenz, it has a confluence of two rivers confronting each other. Vieux Lyon maintains quite some buildings of the Middle Age in the 13th century, and the traditional stone-patched horse roads connect the districts into a collage of stories. In each of my visits, I did have a chance to explore and experience the different part of the city, but then the limited time pull me away from a few places I would like to go such as the printing museum, the art gallery, the Lumière Museum and the facade paintings etc. Velo'v is the most acclaimed system for me in Lyon, and the 30-min displacement cycling allowed me to reckon the city in a specific displacement pattern. The network is developed and funded by JCDecaux, "mais oui", this should be a very interactive mobile billboard for advertising.

Biochemistry and medical services are important sectors in Lyon, so as the appear-to-be-obsolete textile industry. When I recall the carpet paintings and silk designs I found in different palaces and chateaux in France, I would recognise the taste of Josephine (see http://zirhc.blogspot.com/2005/08/french-garment-industry-with.html) or the smell of linen favour the royal French enjoyed.

Lyonaises appear to be kind and frank to me, or at least it is the capital of Rhone rather than a capital of the country. The city is touristy, and outdoors lighting design is unique in Lyon. I just have yet a chance to witness the annual lighting night here. The panoramic view from Fourvière is always magnificent to me, and in line with all the European style of vision to the community and the living world, its top view minimises the existence of citizen but symbolises the religious power to the civilisation. Watching the lining troop of flying birds on the spacious sky, there is just room for a meditated moment of breathless freedom.

Rolling the Dragon...(29/8)

Met the buyer of a retailer chain today at work. As a brand of my preference for bicycle, I am interested in the sourcing operation of the retailer. I read an article some time ago about a decomposition of bicycle...indeed a bicycle is composed of some 50 components and parts, and for the chain, these parts are manufactured in numerous countries and assembled at last. A simple example of competitive advantages, and of course, this is a normal way of sourcing and division of labour. Today, the buyer explained in some more details about the way they source for products. There is no surprise that the group has quite a huge percentage of sourcing taking place in China, and for electronic products, particularly in the Guangdong area. The issue at these days is not where to source but how to source. It is understandable that the group is actually a first-mover to source from our World Factory since the late 1980's, but the difficulty the group faces is indeed how to locate a good partner and the tedious need to work on quality control and standard verification for the operation of the factories and production. This is the same scenario for many big buyers and brands I encountered here - too many suppliers and too little information. This retail chain indeed has its in-house sourcing team in Shenzhen and Shanghai, and there is a mobilised team who does regular site visit and factory inspection to ensure guaranteed production work. A luxury set-up in fact, but perhaps this is also the magic to do it well. The chain diversifies its sourcing pattern and requests geographically with different suppliers. It adopts, for me, an intelligent model of business as more than half of the products produced in China are sold in their stores in China. Production and retail at one go in developing market. Price can be controlled and logistic can be simplified. It is also an appropriate approach to get ease of institutional restriction and regulations. The search of factory location for the group usually correlates with the proximity of their outlets too, and apparently the concept works well. Hong Kong, to these chains and retailers, is a stepping stone for their sourcing needs in China and a port with easier communication channel as the Hong Kong people are in general more experienced in handling overseas buyers' requests and orders. This is the situation at the moment, but to me, Hong Kong is losing gradually its beauty and attractiveness to foreign buyers with keen development of other Chinese cities. The dragon of the East is always a dreamland for French companies, and if they were to choose an installation base, it would more often be Shanghai and Beijing due to their historical background and their long-time-projected-image of 'red lantern' in China. Hong Kong is not classic enough to be a part of China perhaps. But then business is in principle free-flowing and profit-oriented. There is definitely a strong need for Hong Kong companies to comprehend the needs of European buyers and retain the clientele. Obviously a cut-throat battle is not the way for Hong Kong to deal with the trend.

Btwin5 le 4eme...(26/4)

This is a new model from Decathlon and is designed mainly for city routing...With a basic design and style, the bicycle is quite comfortable and user-friendly. Having a 21-speed gear and 15kg in weight, the model is quite a middle class, and it would be a good ride for those who travel in the 'centre ville'.

Talking to the police in the evening, it is noticed that quite a lot of bicycles are indeed stolen in Paris everyday, but at the same time, there are bicycles which park at the lamp posts and other public structure on the street that are actually captured by the police from time to time. These bicycles captured would be sent to a central storage area near Chatelet and be kept until the bike owners report and go reimburse the vehicle. Quite often, these bicycles are left there for long time without anyone going to take them back. So just make sure that you would bring along an identity document and the invoice of purchase of the bike as a proof to recapture the bike if you lose one. Sometimes a mystery can be a story about a thief or contrarily a policeman.

In memory of decathlon riverside d'or...(26/11)

farewell...

Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse...(17/9)

Itinerary:
30.8km
Paris--> Montrouge --> Chatillon --> Clamart --> N118 --> N306 --> Gif-Sur-Yvette --> D906 --> Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse
Duration by bike:
2.5 hours
More photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.fr/I.jsp?c=jiw1j59.n0zeo75&x=0&y=-4wiu9

Dead Bodies on the Road...(9/9)

Year ago, there was an issue on the magazine "Colours" talking about blood and dead bodies. Photos on the issue closing up different kinds of dead bodies found on the highway etc. were impressive...I wondered at that moment how could there be so many "corpses" on the road. The story has been a memory-recalling piece to me for years. Recently travelling on the streets of Paris with my bicycle, I encounter quite a lot of dead pigeons and birds on the bus way. It is easy to notice that Paris is actually a metropolitan for the pigeons and numerous of them set up their habitat in the city centre area. Because of the high protein ingredient of the French bread, the pigeons are well fed and at the same time more reluctant to fly or even to move. When I go with my bicycle, there are quite often moments when I have to stop my bike to wait for the pigeons to get away. This is why when I find their dead parts on the road, I do not really feel much surprise. The trick is to keep away from the bloody remaining and keep my wheels rolling...life is sometimes so cruel!

Saint Germain en Laye...(6/8)

Quick Facts of Saint Germain en Laye:
1. Birthplace of Louis XIV and his principal place of residence from 1661 to 1681
2. Birthplace of Claude Debussy - A city within Departement des Yvelines (78)
3. The forest region where Charlemagne used to hunt and named the place "Lida", and gradually transformed to the name of "en Laye" at present...
Itinerary:
19.6km
Paris--> Puteaux--> Nanterre--> Rueil-Malmaison--> Chatou--> Le Vesinet--> Le Pecq--> Saint Germain en Laye (Old Castle)--> Mareil Marly
Duration by bike:
Go- 2 hours
Return- 1.5 hours
More photos:
http://www.ofoto.fr/I.jsp?c=jiw1j59.qz3ams9&x=0&y=-gcxsle

Broek in Waterland...(8/7)

A natural habitat 10 km away from Amsterdam in Holland. Quiet village and refreshing natural atmosphere. The place is located in the Noorder region of the Netherland, and it is a piece of water lowland within the dyke... The area was famous in the 17th century as a luxurious residential area for the merchants and sea sailors. You can tell from the style of architecture of the houses in the area that it could be a soho area for the merchants at that time. The region remains much a tranquil residential area at present. Being an advance country of environmental conservation, Broek in Waterland demonstrates a nice landscape of how human living fits into the natural environment. The cleanliness and dust-free region provides a favourable habitat for not just the citizens but also plants and animals like goats, cows, fishs, birds and butterflies. Along the route of the lowland, you will see the cultivation beside the path and various species of birds is a feature specially for the birdwatchers. The land is in general 2 to 2.5m below sea level, and with the well planned dyke system, it is separated with the sea. The last serious flooding should be traced back to 1825. If you have a chance to visit Amsterdam, perhaps you can think about spending some time in the Noorder area just across the main canal.

If you would like to ride by a bicycle, you may have a look of http://www.bedstede.nl/page410.html