Eric's Beijing Diary

The unthinkable happened yesterday. But not at all the way I had expected or feared. My one-lock bike disappeared. I know, it's really unbelievable. I have been assured many times that no one in their right mind would want it. You can imagine the questions that ran through my mind. I had worked so hard to keep it just as old and rusty as possible. When I tell students my strategy, they nod approvingly, "Yes, this is very wise." Now it was all to no avail. The whole thing started when I rode my bike to Wudaoko and took the light rail to the subway. I had to go to the shopping mall at the World Trade Center in Guomao on the east side of town to get some breakfast cereal. On my way back I stopped for awhile at the Square, where lots of people were flying kites. I got delayed by some artists who were trying to sell me some of their work. I finally broke away because I wanted to get back in time to go to the Prayer and Praise meeting put on by BICF at the Jimen Hotel near where I live. BICF is doing a church plant on the west side. I am involved with a Chinese church, so I can't be with them on Sundays, but the Saturday night thing once in awhile works for me.

Anyway, when I finally got back to Wudaoko, I was dismayed to find that my one-lock bike was nowhere to be seen. I looked everywhere. I had put it with a few bikes in one corner of the area underneath the train station. I guess I should have left it over by the coffee bar. There was a large bicycle parking area close by, but it was packed. It's hard to explain it so that you can visualize it, but Beijing has literally millions of bicycles, and some of them have been in those parking areas for months and months. I thought someone might have made room for the bikes that were parked with mine and put them in the lot, but I could not see it anywhere. I asked the attendant about it, and told him where I had parked my bike. He berated me for failing to put it in the designated lot, and told me he couldn't help me.

Well, there wasn't much I could do. I was beginning to despair. But I was suspicious, too, because my bike was not the only one missing. All the bikes that were parked with it were gone. I just wasn't ready to give up. When the bike attendant saw that I wasn't going to leave, he finally pointed over toward the side of the building. Sure enough, my one-lock bike was thrown in a heap with the other bicycles as if it were so much garbage. Well, OK, it kinda is, but I don't usually think if it that way. And what about the bicycle attendant? How was it that this guy who told me just a few minutes earlier that he couldn't help me suddenly knew where it was? Did this guy really think that I was trying to avoid paying the parking fee? Liang mao? It's about three pennies.

In other news, I had dinner this evening with some friends from church. One of the most encouraging things about China these days is to see this new generation of Chinese Christians. They really are some very nice young people.

Happy Birthday, Dad.