Here is a picture of me with the bike outside the youth hostel in
Suzhou.
The bikes behind me are the hostel's bike's-for-rent.
I rode around Suzhou city on Monday and took the bus back to Shanghai
Monday night.
At the Master of Nets Garden ç½‘å¸ˆå› I had a bit of a fight because
they refused to put it in their office and wanted me to leave the bike
out front in the non-guarded parking area. A few flat out refusals
later on my part (plus walking into the garden with the bike over my
shoulder) and they let me put it in a deserted inner courtyard next to
the gift shop.
Outside the garden I had a cool experience when an Italian tourist
stopped me and grilled me "where did you get the bike, how much did you
pay, what is the frame made of ... etc etc" followed by translations
for a friend. About the only part of the Italian that I understood was
"Shimano Sora."
The traffic assistants in Suzhou are absolutely insane when it comes to
trying to keep bikes out of the car lanes. Working brakes and really
good manueverability kept me from hitting any of them when they jump in
front of my moving vehicle but this really didn't seem like the
brightest idea to me.
-M