Biking around Beijing, Shortest Paths, Tips

[bijian]

Biking Post Format:

[From] - [To] - [duration (from)~(to)] - [How fast is this route? Very fast/fast/ok/slow/very slow]

[Direction summary/list]

Tsinghua Eastern Gate - Beijing International Health Center - ~2 hours - Very slow

I biked to heart of Beijing from Tsinghua to pick up my medical results from the Beijing

International Travel Health Center by following the metro line and asking people how to

get to a metro station,i.e. Abdingmen, that is pretty close to the Beijing International

Travel Health Center. I got lost for two hours, but during this time I asked alot of people

for directions and practiced Mandarin, and everyone was so nice and helpful. The whole

trip took 6 hours because I went all around Beijing, but now that I have analyzed what

I did, I realize it should'nt have taken more than 4 hours, and possibly even 3 hours since

I biked slower when I got tired after 3~4 hours.

The following is by user adrianlondon

Center of Beijing - Tsinghua - ~1 hour - Fast

Nice-ish route from centre of Beijing to Tsinghua involves going north along the street parallel and to the east of Nan/Beiheyuan Jie (I think it's called something like "Dongguangchenggenbei Jie") until you get to Di'anmenxi Jie. Then go north along the east shore of the Houhai three-lake combo.

Then wiggle NW until you join Xinjiekouwai Dajie. Go north all the way until Qinghua Lu and then go west. Or, wiggle NW not far after crossing the 3rd ring road going along the canal for part of the way.

You'll need a decent map, obviously (as my directions are quite vague, I know). Should take an hour if you cycle at a decent rate. Longer if you're not a regular cyclist or like to stop and admire the view along the way.

Definitely get a map. I cycled loads in Beijing and it's really really hard to get properly lost. Yes, you can end up not knowing exactly where you are, but just keep going until you find your way out of the hutong, or otherwise hit a decent junction, then simply find where you are on the map.

If you don't already have some very basic "map" Mandarin, learn the pinyin and characters for the compass points, and "inner" and "outer" and you'll be fine.

The following is contributed by user adrianlondon

BLCU - Wangfujing - >1 hour - fast?

Cycle East until you get to Zhixindong Lu, then go South and follow my route above in reverse, cycling past BNU (find it on a map), down along Houhai, then SE until you get there.

Sticking to the main roads instead of going along the small roads running along the lakes (Xihai Houhai Qianhai) will save you around 15 minutes but it's not as fun.

You can't wheel your bike along, let along cycle along, Wangfujing itself, so work out whether you want to lock your bike at the north or south end of it. I usually pick the north; it's quieter.

If you're not in a hurry, then cycle around getting slightly lost in the hutong around the Drum and Bell Tower, then cycle along Bei/Nanluoguxiang. Loads of great coffee bars there and, if you're from the UK and have been in Beijing for 6 months (the situation I was in) you can grab very decent fish & chips, and take them back to houhai, sitting by the lake eating them while Chinese people stare at you wondering what those strange non-rice things are that you're eating

[adrianlondon]

Great idea making a separate thread of this. If I was less lazy I'd map my route out on some sort of web-map-route-planny thing. If one exists for Beijing.

I don't know much about cycling past the 5th ring, but for other routes I'm happy to help. Looking at a map and working out a decent route for yourself will probably yield just as good results though, as that's all I did initially!