Eric's Beijing Diary

You're not going to believe this, but I had a terrible nightmare last night. I dreamed that I was having car trouble. This morning I woke up, and remembered, to my immense relief, that I have no car. No car, no car trouble. I got on my one-lock bike and rode to the coffee bar, and here I am pounding away on my laptop. I actually feel sorry for car owners in Beijing. Not that I don't like driving. I do, of course. I was a professional driver for seven years. I suppose I drove about 600,000 miles or so throughout the United States and Canada. I've been to the moon and back. But in China, a car is really a millstone around your neck. A professor friend likes to take me to a restaurant once in awhile in his Volkswagen. But I have noticed that he always goes to the same restaurant. Why? Because it is the only one near the university that has a parking lot. I usually go to eat with students. Students are on a budget. So they know where to get the best food for the lowest price. But you can't park a car there. It's just much more convenient to have a bicycle. I know this dynamic changes when you have a family. You can't really have a family outing on a bicycle, I guess, although here in China I have seen plenty of families traveling together on a motorcycle. But for a single person, it is so much easier to have a bicycle. The adjustment was amazingly easy for me. Once or twice I have come to a corner and found myself reaching for the turn signal--other than that, I really don't miss driving much. I also don't miss car payments, car trouble, changing tires, buying tires, sitting in gas lines, paying astronomical prices for fuel, going for days and days with virtually no exercise whatsoever, sitting in traffic, etc., etc.