Today's weather: High = 19 Low = 8
Sunny and just awesome
Alright, quite a few things on the agenda for this year and going into next. Most of it is just in the planning stages, but things are looking to be very productive in the coming years. In fact, I would already consider this past year in Shanghai to have now been the best in my oversease teaching career. The Gr 12 students are doing extremely well, and have gotten university offers at some top dog places, including University of Toronto, McGill, and UCLA (California)
As well I've really been getting into the mathematics paradigm this year, with only teaching math courses and no physics this particular year (unlke other years). I would hope to continue teaching physics in the future, but the opportunity has come up to do an online masters program in math offered by the university of Waterloo. So I'm going to apply and if it goes well, the program would start September -- and can be done while working. Colleagues at other offshores schools are doing it and the feedback is good.
In the immediate future I'll be doing an AP calculus teacher training course. Some of that is happening right now as I'm test-piloting a small class of 4-5 people after school twice a week in order to prepare them for the AP test. It's not an official class and I'm not getting paid for it, but this is helping me get an idea of how to teach AP for next year.
There is also, of course, a motorcycle training course which I'll be doing this July.
An ongoing project I have is to try and get a legal motorcycle license in China. This could take years, but the key is to get my hands on a legal motorcycle license back home first, and the planning will be critical as things went belly up on the license last year.
Meanwhile, I have signed another contract for next year at this school.
In terms of housing, my current lease expires in June and will see about the possibility of moving, if it is required. The current location is rather nice, right in the heart of XuHui district (a downtown district) and very close to work. Most of the time I don't even need to leave this district!! On average, I might use the motorcycle about 80-100km a week, so this is a really nice break compared to previous years. Due to that, my transport costs are barely even 100 RMB for the entire month!!!
The problem though, is that the rent is guaranteed to go up, and it would easily top $1000 / month next year. The school so far hasn't said anything about upping the ante on the housing allowance. If they don't, moving out may be inevitable, and the ball would have to start rolling as early as May on it -- not a wanted proposition. However, friends of friends say they *might* be able to get me a place on Huaihai Road for a deal as they have guanxi with the landlord. This would be an even better location in a more downtown area for a lower price.
This would be the preferred way to go. Will see what happens.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Holidays and Ideas
Today's weather: High = 18 Low = 8
Sunny and gorgeous
Well it's official, spring has sprung in Shanghai. Good timing too, as the April holiday is just around the corner. For the record we'll be getting April 1,2,3,4 off. The same will happen next month for the May holiday, that is May 1,2,3,4.
So it's a really good deal, especially considering we won't need to do any making up time on the weekends, as is usual for Chinese holiday schedules.
The theme of the April holiday is the Qingming tomb sweeping festival. For the May holiday, it is labor day.
It won't be long until July 1st hits and summer begins. I'm definitely coming back for another year of teaching at this school in Shanghai, but will need to plan ahead for some educational upgrades this summer.
So it's looking like a month back to Vancouver to do a week-long AP Calculus training course in the first week of July. As well, there is going to be a motorcycle training course in the last week of July. Meanwhile, that leaves about a 2-week gap in between courses and I'm already starting to think of how I'm going to fill that time.
Long distance bicycle riding obviously crossed my mind, and this may be the perfect opportunity to tackle such a trip in my home province, after having done countless trips previously in Asia.
The 'crazy guy on a bike' website (http://crazyguyonabike.com) has posted many journals and reviews of a very promising ride, which I'm currently doing research on. It's basically a ride up the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, and the ferry to Prince Rupert. Once there, the road goes east to a small town I grew up in northern BC, by the name of Terrace. I've been meaning to do this ride for quite some time now, and an actual visit there would tie in nicely. That is, of course, if I can find anyone I know who is still living there.
Most bike journals involve this particular run as part a much larger circuit, either continuing across Canada via the Rocky Mountians, or going to Alaska via the Cassiar Highway. At the extreme end of things, people have even biked the Dempster Highway to the northernmost town in Canada. Those kind of northern circuits are hopelessly beyond my abilities, but it would be nice to attempt a portion of it and then catch a flight back to Vancouver, say, from some other town up north.
From my experiences last summer, bike trips in Western Canada or the USA are much more difficult than similar trips in Asia. The 'lack of services' factor is the biggest obstacle. For all intents and purposes, it is wilderness compared to what biking is like in Asia. It's not like you can stop off for a coffee, grab food and snacks every 5km, chat incessantly on the cell phone for pennies, or crash in a cheap hotel when you feel tired. Due to the long distances between services and the high costs of everything, planning is essential. Many people camp in campgrounds that charge more than bungalows in Thailand. They cook their own food, etc.. I may very well have to follow suit, or else start saving now. Couchsurfing is also an option which I'm looking into.
The second thing is that biking, or motorcycling for that matter, is a lot more dangeorus back home, due to the differences in driving behavior and the higher speeds. Since Asia is a two-wheel culture and people are used to seeing those kind of vehicles on the road, the idea is that you hold your line, look ahead, and people weave around. The congestion keeps the speeds down. Things look chaotic on the surface, but it is safe. Ironically, when you have the sparse population and wide open spaces back home, it is dangerous. Traffic goes much faster, and the painted lines on the road are absolutes -- not guidelines, as they would be in Asia. This is dangerous, because many provinces and states have now put in 'rumble strips' which are a cyclists nightmare as I have learned through my reading.
We'll see what happens on this one -- at any rate, it is only a few months before summer starts.
Sunny and gorgeous
Well it's official, spring has sprung in Shanghai. Good timing too, as the April holiday is just around the corner. For the record we'll be getting April 1,2,3,4 off. The same will happen next month for the May holiday, that is May 1,2,3,4.
So it's a really good deal, especially considering we won't need to do any making up time on the weekends, as is usual for Chinese holiday schedules.
The theme of the April holiday is the Qingming tomb sweeping festival. For the May holiday, it is labor day.
It won't be long until July 1st hits and summer begins. I'm definitely coming back for another year of teaching at this school in Shanghai, but will need to plan ahead for some educational upgrades this summer.
So it's looking like a month back to Vancouver to do a week-long AP Calculus training course in the first week of July. As well, there is going to be a motorcycle training course in the last week of July. Meanwhile, that leaves about a 2-week gap in between courses and I'm already starting to think of how I'm going to fill that time.
Long distance bicycle riding obviously crossed my mind, and this may be the perfect opportunity to tackle such a trip in my home province, after having done countless trips previously in Asia.
The 'crazy guy on a bike' website (http://crazyguyonabike.com) has posted many journals and reviews of a very promising ride, which I'm currently doing research on. It's basically a ride up the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, and the ferry to Prince Rupert. Once there, the road goes east to a small town I grew up in northern BC, by the name of Terrace. I've been meaning to do this ride for quite some time now, and an actual visit there would tie in nicely. That is, of course, if I can find anyone I know who is still living there.
Most bike journals involve this particular run as part a much larger circuit, either continuing across Canada via the Rocky Mountians, or going to Alaska via the Cassiar Highway. At the extreme end of things, people have even biked the Dempster Highway to the northernmost town in Canada. Those kind of northern circuits are hopelessly beyond my abilities, but it would be nice to attempt a portion of it and then catch a flight back to Vancouver, say, from some other town up north.
From my experiences last summer, bike trips in Western Canada or the USA are much more difficult than similar trips in Asia. The 'lack of services' factor is the biggest obstacle. For all intents and purposes, it is wilderness compared to what biking is like in Asia. It's not like you can stop off for a coffee, grab food and snacks every 5km, chat incessantly on the cell phone for pennies, or crash in a cheap hotel when you feel tired. Due to the long distances between services and the high costs of everything, planning is essential. Many people camp in campgrounds that charge more than bungalows in Thailand. They cook their own food, etc.. I may very well have to follow suit, or else start saving now. Couchsurfing is also an option which I'm looking into.
The second thing is that biking, or motorcycling for that matter, is a lot more dangeorus back home, due to the differences in driving behavior and the higher speeds. Since Asia is a two-wheel culture and people are used to seeing those kind of vehicles on the road, the idea is that you hold your line, look ahead, and people weave around. The congestion keeps the speeds down. Things look chaotic on the surface, but it is safe. Ironically, when you have the sparse population and wide open spaces back home, it is dangerous. Traffic goes much faster, and the painted lines on the road are absolutes -- not guidelines, as they would be in Asia. This is dangerous, because many provinces and states have now put in 'rumble strips' which are a cyclists nightmare as I have learned through my reading.
We'll see what happens on this one -- at any rate, it is only a few months before summer starts.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Hu-Qing-Ping: Best Motorcycle Road in Shanghai
Today's weather: High = 21 Low = 10
Super gorgeous, bring on spring!!!
Imagine there's a road where you can ride a motorcycle or scooter on dozens of times back and forth, if not more than a hundred times. You can do the same road every single day and never get bored.
If such a road exists, it had better be able to pack it all in to make the motorcyclist keep coming back for more and more: smooth surfaces, constantly changing conditions, non-existent traffic on one end, dense traffic on the other, beautiful tree and lake scenery, plenty of food and coffee stops, clean air, sparse population, ancient villages, water towns, entertainment and amusement parks, opportunities to test out maximum speeds on the bike, and adventure with every ride as you never know if you'll make it across the provincial border or not. This applies to either direction of travel.
There's only one road in Shanghai that can offer all that and it's the Hu-Qing-Ping highway from where it starts near the Hongqiao airport in the west of the city, past Qingpu satellite town, and beyond the provincial border with Jiangsu province -- specifically, the Wujiang prefecture.
A couple years ago I had the chance to do this ride almost every day as my work was at a remote school called Sino Canada, just outside of Shanghai province, while my main apartment was in the Gubei area of Shanghai (near where the highway begins). I complained a lot about how long difficult this commute was, especially *without* the motorcycle and relying on a mode of transport called the "chicken bus". On average, the bike would take 60-80 minutes each way while the chicken bus could take almost 3 hours. No joke.
The school itself has improved immensely over the years, and in some ways I wished I had stuck around. It is a great deal for teachers out there in terms of the actual job and students, and the only major negative thing I focused on was the isolation and countryside location. As someone who is obsessed with big cities, I couldn't hack it out there. To each his own.
Despite all the complaining, I never once got bored of doing this road. Riding a motorbike in China is generally a total concentration experience as the traffic conditions are *always* changing, and you have to focus 100% on the conditions. There is never that experience of "the bike driving itself" or other such things which would cause the ride to be boring.
Nonetheless, a typical ride down the Hu-Qing-Ping could be broken into various sections, described as if you were riding out of Shanghai towards the countryside
Section A: Gubei to XuJing Carrefour. A very busy section with tons of traffic and lots of dodging required. The first part goes under the Yan'An elevated road just out past the Hongqiao airport. Not advised to go very fast on this stretch, even though there are deceptively clear stretches with empty lanes. Slowing down at all the intersections is required. Recently this section has improved with a fresh covering of pavement, and a new overpass by the railway line where you can now bypass the major traffic light that used to cause massive backups. This improvement alone has now shaved off 5-10 minutes from the trip!!!
Section B: XuJing Carrefour to Factory Outlets. This is the most dangerous section of the ride as the road is still narrow, with rough concrete, and is not being repaired very much. To both sides are lots of factories and many idiot trucks pull out without warning. It is also busy with traffic, yet the lights begin to thin out. Best to keep up a slow and steady pace on this, and hold your line!!!! If you feel like stopping for a coffee or fast food meal at the Carrefour mall or Decathlon outlet, no problem. Eventually you'll come to the factory outlets where a long traffic light awaits you at Jiashan highway (Jiading to Songjiang) if you're unlucky. Forget about jumping this red light, it's too dangerous.
Section C: Factory Outlets to Qingpu. At this point, the traffic begins to thin out and you can start picking up speed. But careful there boy, not too fast as it's still bumpity concrete. If you're doing this in the morning, it's deserted going your way, as it's against the rush hour.
Section D: Qingpu to Oriental Greenboats. Take the bypass if you want to skip Qingpu, or else pull into town for a Starbucks, McDonald's, or anywhere else to have a food or coffe break. The traffic gets a little hairy around the town area, but the scenery starts getting beautiful here once the lakes appear and you have effectively cleared the urban area of Shanghai. You wouldn't want to miss the ancient water town of Zhu Jia Zhao which is also in this section, unless of course you're in a hurry. The Oriential Greenboats is a famous adventure water park where people go for weekend relaxing, military training, boat rides, or who knows what else. You can spot the navy ship off to the side if you look, but I advise against it as watching the traffic is your first prioirty.
Section E: Oriental Greenboats to provincial border. This is the part where you can start hauling serious ass, since the traffic is deserted and the pavement is fresh. With long clear stretches, it makes an ideal place to open the throttle and see how fast the bike can go. Eventually you'll come across a bridge and then two provincial border checkpoints. Slow down for the first check, of course, and take the side road to go around the toll booth. Sometimes the checkpoint is unmanned, other times there's a cop or two standing around. In no circumstances should you stop here unless it appears they are going to tackle you and the bike down. Don't laugh, it has happened to colleagues before!!!
Between the two checkpoints lies the ancient town of Jinze which is, in effect, the outpost town in the far frontier of Shanghai province. It's worth exploring and quite interesting. It is also the perfect stop to grab a snack and recharge your Shanghai mobile phone, because you won't be able to do it once across the border. I also used this town as a convenient place to stash a bicycle there on occasion, if I was using the chicken bus as part of the commute.
Depending on where you want to go next from the Jinze outpost, there are two options. The most direct route is to the next town, Luxu, on the Jiangsu side of the border. It's a risk going directly there on the Hu-Qing-Ping as you must cross the second provincial border checkpoint which is always manned by the PSB (public security bureau) and they WILL stop bikes to look at the drivers license, etc..
The alternative is a small little farm road called 'Jin-Yang Lu' that goes out of Jinze for 2km. It is hard to find, but you have to turn off exactly at the KM 63.3 marker, and not a meter farther, so be watching out for it. The road is smooth up to the provincial border, then peters out to a tiny little dirt track that goes over a little bridge. Only bikes can cross here, no cars. Eventually you pass a lumber yard and go past the Sino Canada school. Obviously, this is the shortest way to arrive at the school, or you can keep going and reach Luxu. But if you want to go Luxu directly, the main border checkpoint is your fast bet. Depending on the cop situation, you may be forced to turn around and use the backroad anyway, so it's a bit of a toss-up here.
The whole trip can be experienced in reverse of course, but I've often done this in the afternoon where the traffic is extremely bad on the Shanghai end of things. So it's best to go slower on the reverse trip and expect things will take slightly longer in that direction.
Super gorgeous, bring on spring!!!
Imagine there's a road where you can ride a motorcycle or scooter on dozens of times back and forth, if not more than a hundred times. You can do the same road every single day and never get bored.
If such a road exists, it had better be able to pack it all in to make the motorcyclist keep coming back for more and more: smooth surfaces, constantly changing conditions, non-existent traffic on one end, dense traffic on the other, beautiful tree and lake scenery, plenty of food and coffee stops, clean air, sparse population, ancient villages, water towns, entertainment and amusement parks, opportunities to test out maximum speeds on the bike, and adventure with every ride as you never know if you'll make it across the provincial border or not. This applies to either direction of travel.
There's only one road in Shanghai that can offer all that and it's the Hu-Qing-Ping highway from where it starts near the Hongqiao airport in the west of the city, past Qingpu satellite town, and beyond the provincial border with Jiangsu province -- specifically, the Wujiang prefecture.
A couple years ago I had the chance to do this ride almost every day as my work was at a remote school called Sino Canada, just outside of Shanghai province, while my main apartment was in the Gubei area of Shanghai (near where the highway begins). I complained a lot about how long difficult this commute was, especially *without* the motorcycle and relying on a mode of transport called the "chicken bus". On average, the bike would take 60-80 minutes each way while the chicken bus could take almost 3 hours. No joke.
The school itself has improved immensely over the years, and in some ways I wished I had stuck around. It is a great deal for teachers out there in terms of the actual job and students, and the only major negative thing I focused on was the isolation and countryside location. As someone who is obsessed with big cities, I couldn't hack it out there. To each his own.
Despite all the complaining, I never once got bored of doing this road. Riding a motorbike in China is generally a total concentration experience as the traffic conditions are *always* changing, and you have to focus 100% on the conditions. There is never that experience of "the bike driving itself" or other such things which would cause the ride to be boring.
Nonetheless, a typical ride down the Hu-Qing-Ping could be broken into various sections, described as if you were riding out of Shanghai towards the countryside
Section A: Gubei to XuJing Carrefour. A very busy section with tons of traffic and lots of dodging required. The first part goes under the Yan'An elevated road just out past the Hongqiao airport. Not advised to go very fast on this stretch, even though there are deceptively clear stretches with empty lanes. Slowing down at all the intersections is required. Recently this section has improved with a fresh covering of pavement, and a new overpass by the railway line where you can now bypass the major traffic light that used to cause massive backups. This improvement alone has now shaved off 5-10 minutes from the trip!!!
Section B: XuJing Carrefour to Factory Outlets. This is the most dangerous section of the ride as the road is still narrow, with rough concrete, and is not being repaired very much. To both sides are lots of factories and many idiot trucks pull out without warning. It is also busy with traffic, yet the lights begin to thin out. Best to keep up a slow and steady pace on this, and hold your line!!!! If you feel like stopping for a coffee or fast food meal at the Carrefour mall or Decathlon outlet, no problem. Eventually you'll come to the factory outlets where a long traffic light awaits you at Jiashan highway (Jiading to Songjiang) if you're unlucky. Forget about jumping this red light, it's too dangerous.
Section C: Factory Outlets to Qingpu. At this point, the traffic begins to thin out and you can start picking up speed. But careful there boy, not too fast as it's still bumpity concrete. If you're doing this in the morning, it's deserted going your way, as it's against the rush hour.
Section D: Qingpu to Oriental Greenboats. Take the bypass if you want to skip Qingpu, or else pull into town for a Starbucks, McDonald's, or anywhere else to have a food or coffe break. The traffic gets a little hairy around the town area, but the scenery starts getting beautiful here once the lakes appear and you have effectively cleared the urban area of Shanghai. You wouldn't want to miss the ancient water town of Zhu Jia Zhao which is also in this section, unless of course you're in a hurry. The Oriential Greenboats is a famous adventure water park where people go for weekend relaxing, military training, boat rides, or who knows what else. You can spot the navy ship off to the side if you look, but I advise against it as watching the traffic is your first prioirty.
Section E: Oriental Greenboats to provincial border. This is the part where you can start hauling serious ass, since the traffic is deserted and the pavement is fresh. With long clear stretches, it makes an ideal place to open the throttle and see how fast the bike can go. Eventually you'll come across a bridge and then two provincial border checkpoints. Slow down for the first check, of course, and take the side road to go around the toll booth. Sometimes the checkpoint is unmanned, other times there's a cop or two standing around. In no circumstances should you stop here unless it appears they are going to tackle you and the bike down. Don't laugh, it has happened to colleagues before!!!
Between the two checkpoints lies the ancient town of Jinze which is, in effect, the outpost town in the far frontier of Shanghai province. It's worth exploring and quite interesting. It is also the perfect stop to grab a snack and recharge your Shanghai mobile phone, because you won't be able to do it once across the border. I also used this town as a convenient place to stash a bicycle there on occasion, if I was using the chicken bus as part of the commute.
Depending on where you want to go next from the Jinze outpost, there are two options. The most direct route is to the next town, Luxu, on the Jiangsu side of the border. It's a risk going directly there on the Hu-Qing-Ping as you must cross the second provincial border checkpoint which is always manned by the PSB (public security bureau) and they WILL stop bikes to look at the drivers license, etc..
The alternative is a small little farm road called 'Jin-Yang Lu' that goes out of Jinze for 2km. It is hard to find, but you have to turn off exactly at the KM 63.3 marker, and not a meter farther, so be watching out for it. The road is smooth up to the provincial border, then peters out to a tiny little dirt track that goes over a little bridge. Only bikes can cross here, no cars. Eventually you pass a lumber yard and go past the Sino Canada school. Obviously, this is the shortest way to arrive at the school, or you can keep going and reach Luxu. But if you want to go Luxu directly, the main border checkpoint is your fast bet. Depending on the cop situation, you may be forced to turn around and use the backroad anyway, so it's a bit of a toss-up here.
The whole trip can be experienced in reverse of course, but I've often done this in the afternoon where the traffic is extremely bad on the Shanghai end of things. So it's best to go slower on the reverse trip and expect things will take slightly longer in that direction.
Too Many Earthquakes
As mentioned in the previous post, the frequency and intensity of severe earthquakes around the globe was already getting too much to handle in the past 2-3 years. And now one of the most devastating in history just struck -- in Japan.
To recap just some of the earthquakes, not necessarily in chronological order:
1) The massive 8.8 magnitude quake in Sichuan province
2) The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that essentially destroyed the nation of Haiti
3) A 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook the ocean floor between South America and Antarctica
4) The earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey
5) 2 earthquakes hitting Christchurch, New Zealand in quick succession
6) A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Guatemala's Pacific coast near the border with El Salvador
7) Five magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes in the area of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean so far in 2010.
8) The earthquake that hit Chile recently
9) The most recent Japan tsunami disaster
There are likely many more that I have forgotten. I'm no expert in geophysics, but this strikes me as rather scary, both in terms of the unusually high frequency of earthquakes, and the amount of devastation involved.
Friends were saying to me, well the world is going to end very soon. Maybe they were joking, maybe they were not, but it got me thinking and I'll soon be kickstarting a new blog to offer an explanation on what the "end of the world" means, and how all these recent earthquakes are a telltale sign to that end. The recent Japan quake was the last straw in convincing me of this reality.
It'll take some time to get that blog up and running, but let's just say off the record that I'm not one of those crazy guys who claims the world's gonna end in 2012, or pick whatever date you want. I can offer a well-reasoned argument that the "end of the world" cannot be predicted with any specific dates, but it is certainly very near.
At any rate, whether the world ends tomorrow, next year, or 30 years from now, or whenever, I'm going to continue living the same kind of life and continuing the same active program, whether the earthquakes happen or not. So with that in mind, back to regularly scheduled Shanghai programming.
To recap just some of the earthquakes, not necessarily in chronological order:
1) The massive 8.8 magnitude quake in Sichuan province
2) The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that essentially destroyed the nation of Haiti
3) A 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook the ocean floor between South America and Antarctica
4) The earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey
5) 2 earthquakes hitting Christchurch, New Zealand in quick succession
6) A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Guatemala's Pacific coast near the border with El Salvador
7) Five magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes in the area of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean so far in 2010.
8) The earthquake that hit Chile recently
9) The most recent Japan tsunami disaster
There are likely many more that I have forgotten. I'm no expert in geophysics, but this strikes me as rather scary, both in terms of the unusually high frequency of earthquakes, and the amount of devastation involved.
Friends were saying to me, well the world is going to end very soon. Maybe they were joking, maybe they were not, but it got me thinking and I'll soon be kickstarting a new blog to offer an explanation on what the "end of the world" means, and how all these recent earthquakes are a telltale sign to that end. The recent Japan quake was the last straw in convincing me of this reality.
It'll take some time to get that blog up and running, but let's just say off the record that I'm not one of those crazy guys who claims the world's gonna end in 2012, or pick whatever date you want. I can offer a well-reasoned argument that the "end of the world" cannot be predicted with any specific dates, but it is certainly very near.
At any rate, whether the world ends tomorrow, next year, or 30 years from now, or whenever, I'm going to continue living the same kind of life and continuing the same active program, whether the earthquakes happen or not. So with that in mind, back to regularly scheduled Shanghai programming.
Friday, 11 March 2011
Earthquake Strikes NE Japan
Today's weather: High = 18 Low = 8
Sunny and gorgeous
There are untold numerous news articles about the earthquake situation in Japan, so no need to repeat them here. Disaster struck around 3pm yesterday with a magnitude 8.9 quake in the north-east part of the country, and it was the largest recorded earthquake in Japan's history.
Based on how the logarithmic scale works, this particular earthquake was 10 times higher in intensity than then 2008 quake that struck Sichuan province. The distance from Shanghai to the Japan quake was about 1600km so it could certainly be felt here. People have reported light shakings on ground floors, etc.
Interestingly enough, I was out riding a motorcycle down the Hu-Qing-Ping highway on a trip out to Luxu and Sino Canada where I used to work as a teacher a couple years ago. This fun little Friday afternoon ride on a bumpity-bump-bump concrete highway masked any effects of the earthquake shaking, as I would have certainly noticed it otherwise!
This is disaster in the works, will just see what happens next
Anyone else think that far too many severe earthquakes in diverse places have happened in the last several years?
Sunny and gorgeous
There are untold numerous news articles about the earthquake situation in Japan, so no need to repeat them here. Disaster struck around 3pm yesterday with a magnitude 8.9 quake in the north-east part of the country, and it was the largest recorded earthquake in Japan's history.
Based on how the logarithmic scale works, this particular earthquake was 10 times higher in intensity than then 2008 quake that struck Sichuan province. The distance from Shanghai to the Japan quake was about 1600km so it could certainly be felt here. People have reported light shakings on ground floors, etc.
Interestingly enough, I was out riding a motorcycle down the Hu-Qing-Ping highway on a trip out to Luxu and Sino Canada where I used to work as a teacher a couple years ago. This fun little Friday afternoon ride on a bumpity-bump-bump concrete highway masked any effects of the earthquake shaking, as I would have certainly noticed it otherwise!
This is disaster in the works, will just see what happens next
Anyone else think that far too many severe earthquakes in diverse places have happened in the last several years?
Spring is Good. Daymares are Bad.
Today's weather: High = 17 Low = 7
Sunny
After a whole week of this kind of weather, spring is officially here by the definition used in Shanghai. For that to happen, the average temperature must be above 10 degrees for 5 days in a row -- which it now has!
Spring / Fall --> average is between 10 and 20 degrees
Winter --> average is below 10 degrees
Summer --> average is above 20 degrees
The winter this year was brutally cold in January, in fact it set a record, but the cold was short-lived. Since most of us took off to the tropics during that time, we also weren't affected that much.
This is actually a better deal than last year where the chilly weather lingered until almost May. This year, it has been an extremely dry winter and the rains have not yet arrived. So the grass is very much parched brown.
Yesterday, a few of us Grade 12 teachers went with the students on a marathon field trip to celebrate their "becoming an adult" It was an interesting ceremony with emotional speeches, students reading letter from parents, great lunches, and a typical Chinese travel experience while being carted around in groups to see this "tourist attraction" and others.
Since they had to pick Wuxi as the location, which is 140km from Shanghai, it meant a long and arduous bus journey each way with the inevitable traffic congestion. About 3 hours each way for the commute. Add this to the Chinese sightseeing experience with crowds and delays, and the whole event from start-to-finish was 13 hours.
For goodness sake, next time please choose a location closer to the city center and avoid long-distance road travel. The frenetic growth of private cars is choking the life out of everyone else and making China travel a nightmare -- or should I say daymare. This turned what would have been an otherwise fun and interesting experience into one of those horrendously tedious all-day affairs that I have suffered about a dozen times in China. On average, I go through a daymare like this about once every year, connected to various events such as "banquets" with school officials, family-related affairs, weddings, or the most dreaded one of all: a weekend retreat.
Wuxi is one of countless newly-developed industrial towns in Jiangsu province that have basically transformed themselves in the last ten years. The model is the same. Tear down the old houses, put in apartments, shopping malls, and factories. Make the streets wide, throw in zillions of traffic lights, put up guardrails, hire police and guards to keep strict order, and ban motorcycles from the area.
Let's just say this is a Jiangsu province specialty, and all those newly industrialized cities near Shanghai are enjoying super rapid growth rates. They have the space to build the wider roads and larger buildings, as the population right in Shanghai would reduce such growth.
If you look at the list of cities that ban motorcycles, Jiangsu province takes the cake for having the highest number. In these cities, they enforce the ban greatly with police to back it up. This is evidenced by not seeing a single bike the entire time I go visit these places. Just a countless bunch of slow moving e-bikes and private cars. Yuck. Not my kind of province.
I'll take the big city any day.
Sunny
After a whole week of this kind of weather, spring is officially here by the definition used in Shanghai. For that to happen, the average temperature must be above 10 degrees for 5 days in a row -- which it now has!
Spring / Fall --> average is between 10 and 20 degrees
Winter --> average is below 10 degrees
Summer --> average is above 20 degrees
The winter this year was brutally cold in January, in fact it set a record, but the cold was short-lived. Since most of us took off to the tropics during that time, we also weren't affected that much.
This is actually a better deal than last year where the chilly weather lingered until almost May. This year, it has been an extremely dry winter and the rains have not yet arrived. So the grass is very much parched brown.
Yesterday, a few of us Grade 12 teachers went with the students on a marathon field trip to celebrate their "becoming an adult" It was an interesting ceremony with emotional speeches, students reading letter from parents, great lunches, and a typical Chinese travel experience while being carted around in groups to see this "tourist attraction" and others.
Since they had to pick Wuxi as the location, which is 140km from Shanghai, it meant a long and arduous bus journey each way with the inevitable traffic congestion. About 3 hours each way for the commute. Add this to the Chinese sightseeing experience with crowds and delays, and the whole event from start-to-finish was 13 hours.
For goodness sake, next time please choose a location closer to the city center and avoid long-distance road travel. The frenetic growth of private cars is choking the life out of everyone else and making China travel a nightmare -- or should I say daymare. This turned what would have been an otherwise fun and interesting experience into one of those horrendously tedious all-day affairs that I have suffered about a dozen times in China. On average, I go through a daymare like this about once every year, connected to various events such as "banquets" with school officials, family-related affairs, weddings, or the most dreaded one of all: a weekend retreat.
Wuxi is one of countless newly-developed industrial towns in Jiangsu province that have basically transformed themselves in the last ten years. The model is the same. Tear down the old houses, put in apartments, shopping malls, and factories. Make the streets wide, throw in zillions of traffic lights, put up guardrails, hire police and guards to keep strict order, and ban motorcycles from the area.
Let's just say this is a Jiangsu province specialty, and all those newly industrialized cities near Shanghai are enjoying super rapid growth rates. They have the space to build the wider roads and larger buildings, as the population right in Shanghai would reduce such growth.
If you look at the list of cities that ban motorcycles, Jiangsu province takes the cake for having the highest number. In these cities, they enforce the ban greatly with police to back it up. This is evidenced by not seeing a single bike the entire time I go visit these places. Just a countless bunch of slow moving e-bikes and private cars. Yuck. Not my kind of province.
I'll take the big city any day.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Long-Term Plan Towards Legality
It's a topic that I've been going on about for almost 3 years now, and have made little action toward, but the question is more pertinent now that my scooter and motorcycle riding "career", more like a hobby, has taken off and has generated substantial rewards.
This career all started out of necessity, since I lived and worked far out in the Shanghai suburbs in a school out that way. A convoluted trip to/from downtown ended up taking almost 3 hours using a variety of transport means, or it ended up breaking the bank. The use of a scooter reduced the trip to about an hour, and saved so much money it was incredible. Aside from that, the freedom of tootling around the countryside on a scooter, and then later a motorcycle, was unspeakably good.
However it didn't take long to figure out that the motor vehicle laws in China were very complex and contradictory, most certainly as they applied to scooters and motorbikes. The general consensus is that the city governments want the bikes out of the downtown areas, and they dictate policies that favor cars. Bikes are still very much in growing demand for rural areas, and my last post may have been overly pessimistic to say that the ban would extend to the countryside. Actually, that's how the farmers and migrant workers make their living -- getting around on motorbikes which they really depend on.
So I ended up doing most of this riding career illegally, and feeling terrible about it, but at the same time aiming to eventually get out of this and become legal. This is no easy feat, but it's worth making the attempt. I already put a dent in that plan two years ago by successfully taking the written test to acquire a Chinese drivers license for cars. I am happy to say I did this the legit way, without paying someone off who writes the test on your behalf or who bribes the traffic police.
Unfortunately I lost that license the following summer, along with my passport, two laptop computers, a graphing calculator, keys, and all kinds of other valuables. Talk about dumb eh. Not only that, but I went back home during that same summer to acquire drivers license updates and other crucial permit documents to help my 'becoming legal in China' cause. Then, due to ridiculously stupid planning errors on my part, the whole thing went belly up and I'm now back to square one.
Bottom line is that I'll have to repeat the whole thing from scratch, starting again this summer. But this time the planning will be much better and I aim to make some good progress. This is what will need to be done:
1. Replace the lost Chinese car drivers license, the only document not having been replaced yet.
2. Go back home and re-acquire a learners license for motorcycles by taking the written test again this summer
3. Take the motorcycle safety training course, skills test, and road test arranged by the company back home in summer
4. If passed, acquire a motorcycle license from back home and get it officially translated into Chinese.
5. While I'm at it, upgrade my Canadian car license to an enhanced one.
6. Go back to China and upgrade my Chinese car license so that it has a motorcycle designation
7. Move out to the inner suburbs and get police registration for a house that is outside the middle ring road
8. Apply at the traffic police office with all the other documents in hand to register the motorcycle for a suburban "C plate"
9. If successful, won't have to worry about playing those stupid cat and mouse games with police, or going on a city-wide hunt for fuel anymore.
There is much to be said about the danger of riding motorcycles in general, and much discouragement about it. If this is in a North American context, then I could not agree more. The high speeds make it very dangerous to ride back home, and it is not something I aspire to do. I only want to do the test, learn new skills, get the license, and then use it for China. As a friend put it really well regarding Canadian traffic conditions, "The cars go really frickin fast. They expect you to know what you're doing." In other words, accidents are deadly at high speeds. Sometimes I wish that the roads in Canadian cities would become so congested that people would get used to slowing down.
I haven't had a serious accident in almost 3 years of riding. While part of that is skill, the low speeds are the key factor. When it comes to riding in China, it is all about safety, safety, and safety. Safety in this context means slowing down and avoiding others, because nobody follows the rules. Cars are used to looking out for bikes, and vice versa, as everyone is attempting to avoid an accident at all costs.
So I've been schooled in this kind of environment where slow starts, cautious approaches to intersections, and a constant survival mentality are the way to go. When I take the motorcycle training course back home I'll need to unlearn some of these things and learn how to start off quicker from intersections, and get better at the gear shifting. There are all kinds of other skills that will need to be learned and unlearned, and it should be quite the experience.
This career all started out of necessity, since I lived and worked far out in the Shanghai suburbs in a school out that way. A convoluted trip to/from downtown ended up taking almost 3 hours using a variety of transport means, or it ended up breaking the bank. The use of a scooter reduced the trip to about an hour, and saved so much money it was incredible. Aside from that, the freedom of tootling around the countryside on a scooter, and then later a motorcycle, was unspeakably good.
However it didn't take long to figure out that the motor vehicle laws in China were very complex and contradictory, most certainly as they applied to scooters and motorbikes. The general consensus is that the city governments want the bikes out of the downtown areas, and they dictate policies that favor cars. Bikes are still very much in growing demand for rural areas, and my last post may have been overly pessimistic to say that the ban would extend to the countryside. Actually, that's how the farmers and migrant workers make their living -- getting around on motorbikes which they really depend on.
So I ended up doing most of this riding career illegally, and feeling terrible about it, but at the same time aiming to eventually get out of this and become legal. This is no easy feat, but it's worth making the attempt. I already put a dent in that plan two years ago by successfully taking the written test to acquire a Chinese drivers license for cars. I am happy to say I did this the legit way, without paying someone off who writes the test on your behalf or who bribes the traffic police.
Unfortunately I lost that license the following summer, along with my passport, two laptop computers, a graphing calculator, keys, and all kinds of other valuables. Talk about dumb eh. Not only that, but I went back home during that same summer to acquire drivers license updates and other crucial permit documents to help my 'becoming legal in China' cause. Then, due to ridiculously stupid planning errors on my part, the whole thing went belly up and I'm now back to square one.
Bottom line is that I'll have to repeat the whole thing from scratch, starting again this summer. But this time the planning will be much better and I aim to make some good progress. This is what will need to be done:
1. Replace the lost Chinese car drivers license, the only document not having been replaced yet.
2. Go back home and re-acquire a learners license for motorcycles by taking the written test again this summer
3. Take the motorcycle safety training course, skills test, and road test arranged by the company back home in summer
4. If passed, acquire a motorcycle license from back home and get it officially translated into Chinese.
5. While I'm at it, upgrade my Canadian car license to an enhanced one.
6. Go back to China and upgrade my Chinese car license so that it has a motorcycle designation
7. Move out to the inner suburbs and get police registration for a house that is outside the middle ring road
8. Apply at the traffic police office with all the other documents in hand to register the motorcycle for a suburban "C plate"
9. If successful, won't have to worry about playing those stupid cat and mouse games with police, or going on a city-wide hunt for fuel anymore.
There is much to be said about the danger of riding motorcycles in general, and much discouragement about it. If this is in a North American context, then I could not agree more. The high speeds make it very dangerous to ride back home, and it is not something I aspire to do. I only want to do the test, learn new skills, get the license, and then use it for China. As a friend put it really well regarding Canadian traffic conditions, "The cars go really frickin fast. They expect you to know what you're doing." In other words, accidents are deadly at high speeds. Sometimes I wish that the roads in Canadian cities would become so congested that people would get used to slowing down.
I haven't had a serious accident in almost 3 years of riding. While part of that is skill, the low speeds are the key factor. When it comes to riding in China, it is all about safety, safety, and safety. Safety in this context means slowing down and avoiding others, because nobody follows the rules. Cars are used to looking out for bikes, and vice versa, as everyone is attempting to avoid an accident at all costs.
So I've been schooled in this kind of environment where slow starts, cautious approaches to intersections, and a constant survival mentality are the way to go. When I take the motorcycle training course back home I'll need to unlearn some of these things and learn how to start off quicker from intersections, and get better at the gear shifting. There are all kinds of other skills that will need to be learned and unlearned, and it should be quite the experience.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Potentially Moving To Inner Suburbs
Today's weather: High = 13 Low = 5
Cloudy
The recent batch of posts on Shanghai's latest move to ban fuel for scooters is discouraging, but it's always been my long-term goal to try and find a way to legally ride a motorcycle around, and to go through the proper licensing and registration channels.
To do that, part of the plan would very well require me move out of the downtown areas. Not very far mind you, just outside the middle ring road, which would allow me to register with the police in an area where I could then apply for a suburban license motorcycle plate, known as a C plate. Granted, this would still cause problems for driving into downtown for work, although I can justify it as my company is barely 10% distance inside the ring road. The commute would increase to perhaps 20-25 minutes in the area I'm interested in. The bike would then be required for work -- or else it would be up to an hour using subways or other means of transport.
From a commute perspective it's not the most attractive option, and downtown remains the best choice which I've been enjoying for the last year.
However, from an economics perspective, a move to the 'inner suburbs' between the ring roads may be the way to go. I have been in contact with the school over trying to increase my housing allowance, and it is not likely to happen. The rent downtown is going through the roof, and it will certainly go northward of 6000 RMB a month once the contract ends. The gap between the allowance and the rent would then be too much, and I'd end up with no effective salary increase.
In the area I'm considering known as "Minhang District" it is possible to live in a king's palace based on the housing allowance that I am already given -- and still pocket a bit of profit! It would be similar posh housing conditions as when I lived in Songjiang, with the added bonus of potentially getting a suburban motorcle license plate.
It certainly is tempting that's for sure. More research to be done, and I'll make a call by July what's going to happen as that's when my downtown apartment contract is up.
Cloudy
The recent batch of posts on Shanghai's latest move to ban fuel for scooters is discouraging, but it's always been my long-term goal to try and find a way to legally ride a motorcycle around, and to go through the proper licensing and registration channels.
To do that, part of the plan would very well require me move out of the downtown areas. Not very far mind you, just outside the middle ring road, which would allow me to register with the police in an area where I could then apply for a suburban license motorcycle plate, known as a C plate. Granted, this would still cause problems for driving into downtown for work, although I can justify it as my company is barely 10% distance inside the ring road. The commute would increase to perhaps 20-25 minutes in the area I'm interested in. The bike would then be required for work -- or else it would be up to an hour using subways or other means of transport.
From a commute perspective it's not the most attractive option, and downtown remains the best choice which I've been enjoying for the last year.
However, from an economics perspective, a move to the 'inner suburbs' between the ring roads may be the way to go. I have been in contact with the school over trying to increase my housing allowance, and it is not likely to happen. The rent downtown is going through the roof, and it will certainly go northward of 6000 RMB a month once the contract ends. The gap between the allowance and the rent would then be too much, and I'd end up with no effective salary increase.
In the area I'm considering known as "Minhang District" it is possible to live in a king's palace based on the housing allowance that I am already given -- and still pocket a bit of profit! It would be similar posh housing conditions as when I lived in Songjiang, with the added bonus of potentially getting a suburban motorcle license plate.
It certainly is tempting that's for sure. More research to be done, and I'll make a call by July what's going to happen as that's when my downtown apartment contract is up.
Ramifications of the Fuel Ban on Scooters
Last couple of posts highlighted the details of the latest effort for the Shanghai government to crack down on what they consider pests like flies: unlicensed scooters.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. Gas scooters were effectively outlawed in 2006. After a year of getting people to switch over the LPG scooters as an alternative, they launched a powerful crackdown. It was common to see the police taking away scooters by the truckload to the impound lot, as well as numerous road checkpoints.
It's not just Shanghai either. There are dozens and dozens of cities in China that have implemented bans on motorcycles and gas scooters. The severity and actual reality of the ban depends on how much it is being enforced. Some cities with a "ban" such as Wuhan can be filled with scooters and motorbikes, and the only problem is trying to license them legally. Shanghai is somewhat similar, but you still see the illegal bikes everywhere. Whether or not the fuel ban will get them off the road remains to be seen.
Other cities such as Hangzhou and Guangzhou are truly devoid of such bikes within the city centers as you cannot see them. So it begs the question as to how those other cities manage to actually do it, and no doubt Shanghai is interested.
The reasons why city governments want these vehicles off the road downtown are as follows:
1. Noise pollution. Understandable given how loud these suckers can be if they are illegally modified. Many times I am woken at night as they roar through my downtown neighborhood and blast their airhorns.
2. Air pollution. This was certainly a problem in 2000-05 in Shanghai when the streets were filled with gas scooters. It was nowhere near the current problem in Vietnamese and Indonesian cities, but still, you could choke on the exhaust.
3. Safety. Most the bikes are unlicensed and uninsured, so getting into an accident is lose-lose for all involved. There have been numerous cases of hit-and-runs with unlicensed bikes and the danger to pedestrians.
4. Image of the city. As the city develops more, they want to showcase cars, not bikes. Nuff said.
5. Congestion. I don't quite buy the argument in Shanghai that two-wheeled traffic creates more congestion for the car users, but this is certainly a reality in Indonesia. If the balance tips a certain way, it can be utter bedlam.
Since 2006, the city of Shanghai effectively cut off the circulation of new motorbike license plates within the downtown areas. Whatever downtown plates remained in circulation could be exchanged for car plates (which in and out of themselves, cost a FORTUNE and are auctioned off montly) or resold. As the years go on, the motorbike plates get scarcer and it is virtually impossible to get a legally registered downtown plate.
All this being said, in the rural areas it is still possible to get a plate, known as a "C Plate". In fact, the price is not very expensive. While a time-consuming bureaucratic process which I'm about to attempt for next year, this is in fact the best option for those who want to ride around legally. The restriction on a 'C plate' is that you can't ride into the downtown areas, but there is no problem with getting gas or tootling around in the countryside.
I actually should have gone for this a couple years ago when I lived in the suburbs as such a plate would have come in most handy.
Generally, the sale of motorcycles is sky-high for people in rural areas and there are no restrictions for riding there. It is mainly the city centers that governments don't want to see these eyesores.
So why bother continuing to ride around downtown given all this? Well, time-savings and punctuality are the biggest reasons. Nothing quite like a leisurely sleep-in and a 5 minute motorcycle ride to work, as opposed to 30+ minutes on the crowded subway with lots of walking and convoluted routes thrown in.
There is much to be said about responsible riding and keeping the speeds low, making sure to be courteous to others. By far the majority of illegal scooter riders are locals who have souped up their bikes or have illegally modified LPG bikes. This can all be done at a massive 'underground' (not literally) scooter market in the north of the city which can do basically anything involving bikes.
This market has now developed a black market for gasoline, given the recent ban. A selected 'petrol runner' will legally fill a large tank, whether a motorcycle or a car, and then siphon it off to illegal scooter riders using a simple device bought from Ebay. The market price hasn't stabilized for this yet, but it is slightly higher than the pump price and the 'petrol runners' can make a lot of money by selling large amounts. Another option is to store the fuel in bottles and containers seen at the myriad of (also illegal) motorcycle shops around the city that service the scooters
This market has also begun to sell fake Shanghai license plates and the sales are brisk. They buy them direct from the factory that produces the real license plates, so the quality is in fact 100% real. It is one of dozens of copies of someone else's actual license plate who participates in this venture by offering to use his registration. The fake Shanghai plates are then used by scooter riders who pull up to the gas station and get fuel. The market price for these is very cheap, only about 300 RMB. They can even come with the vehicle registration booklet.
What I fear about this is that the sales will be too brisk, and the gas stations and traffic police are going to catch on real quick. I have since been going to the suburbs to get gas, as I enjoy the long rides anyway. Most of the locals will not do this, and instead prefer to buy the black market gas or use the fake plates downtown.
The sad thing about all this is I had predicted 3 years ago that the police would do a gas station crackdown on bikes. In an offhand comment made to a friend I had said, "If the police really want to get these scooters off the road, they will go after the gas stations and make them refuse a fuelup". And now that has happened.
So here are the latest pessimistic predictions about what could happen next:
1. The fake plate sales will be super brisk and the gas stations will catch on, in conjunction with the traffic police, requiring stricter checks of licenses and registration at the pump
2. The prohibitions against scooter refueling will spread to gas stations in the rural areas. Could get into some friction with the farmers over that, but the scenario is likely.
3. People will attempt to use the self-serve stations, especially the petrol runners. The self-serve stations are where you purchase a pre-paid card and swipe it at the pump, but of course it can only be used for cars.
4. Crackdowns will occur at the scooter market like in the past, this time targeting the black market fuel.
5. The traffic police will launch a massive anti-bike crackdown sometime later this year or Jan 1st next year, similar to what was done in the past.
The war has only just begun.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. Gas scooters were effectively outlawed in 2006. After a year of getting people to switch over the LPG scooters as an alternative, they launched a powerful crackdown. It was common to see the police taking away scooters by the truckload to the impound lot, as well as numerous road checkpoints.
It's not just Shanghai either. There are dozens and dozens of cities in China that have implemented bans on motorcycles and gas scooters. The severity and actual reality of the ban depends on how much it is being enforced. Some cities with a "ban" such as Wuhan can be filled with scooters and motorbikes, and the only problem is trying to license them legally. Shanghai is somewhat similar, but you still see the illegal bikes everywhere. Whether or not the fuel ban will get them off the road remains to be seen.
Other cities such as Hangzhou and Guangzhou are truly devoid of such bikes within the city centers as you cannot see them. So it begs the question as to how those other cities manage to actually do it, and no doubt Shanghai is interested.
The reasons why city governments want these vehicles off the road downtown are as follows:
1. Noise pollution. Understandable given how loud these suckers can be if they are illegally modified. Many times I am woken at night as they roar through my downtown neighborhood and blast their airhorns.
2. Air pollution. This was certainly a problem in 2000-05 in Shanghai when the streets were filled with gas scooters. It was nowhere near the current problem in Vietnamese and Indonesian cities, but still, you could choke on the exhaust.
3. Safety. Most the bikes are unlicensed and uninsured, so getting into an accident is lose-lose for all involved. There have been numerous cases of hit-and-runs with unlicensed bikes and the danger to pedestrians.
4. Image of the city. As the city develops more, they want to showcase cars, not bikes. Nuff said.
5. Congestion. I don't quite buy the argument in Shanghai that two-wheeled traffic creates more congestion for the car users, but this is certainly a reality in Indonesia. If the balance tips a certain way, it can be utter bedlam.
Since 2006, the city of Shanghai effectively cut off the circulation of new motorbike license plates within the downtown areas. Whatever downtown plates remained in circulation could be exchanged for car plates (which in and out of themselves, cost a FORTUNE and are auctioned off montly) or resold. As the years go on, the motorbike plates get scarcer and it is virtually impossible to get a legally registered downtown plate.
All this being said, in the rural areas it is still possible to get a plate, known as a "C Plate". In fact, the price is not very expensive. While a time-consuming bureaucratic process which I'm about to attempt for next year, this is in fact the best option for those who want to ride around legally. The restriction on a 'C plate' is that you can't ride into the downtown areas, but there is no problem with getting gas or tootling around in the countryside.
I actually should have gone for this a couple years ago when I lived in the suburbs as such a plate would have come in most handy.
Generally, the sale of motorcycles is sky-high for people in rural areas and there are no restrictions for riding there. It is mainly the city centers that governments don't want to see these eyesores.
So why bother continuing to ride around downtown given all this? Well, time-savings and punctuality are the biggest reasons. Nothing quite like a leisurely sleep-in and a 5 minute motorcycle ride to work, as opposed to 30+ minutes on the crowded subway with lots of walking and convoluted routes thrown in.
There is much to be said about responsible riding and keeping the speeds low, making sure to be courteous to others. By far the majority of illegal scooter riders are locals who have souped up their bikes or have illegally modified LPG bikes. This can all be done at a massive 'underground' (not literally) scooter market in the north of the city which can do basically anything involving bikes.
This market has now developed a black market for gasoline, given the recent ban. A selected 'petrol runner' will legally fill a large tank, whether a motorcycle or a car, and then siphon it off to illegal scooter riders using a simple device bought from Ebay. The market price hasn't stabilized for this yet, but it is slightly higher than the pump price and the 'petrol runners' can make a lot of money by selling large amounts. Another option is to store the fuel in bottles and containers seen at the myriad of (also illegal) motorcycle shops around the city that service the scooters
This market has also begun to sell fake Shanghai license plates and the sales are brisk. They buy them direct from the factory that produces the real license plates, so the quality is in fact 100% real. It is one of dozens of copies of someone else's actual license plate who participates in this venture by offering to use his registration. The fake Shanghai plates are then used by scooter riders who pull up to the gas station and get fuel. The market price for these is very cheap, only about 300 RMB. They can even come with the vehicle registration booklet.
What I fear about this is that the sales will be too brisk, and the gas stations and traffic police are going to catch on real quick. I have since been going to the suburbs to get gas, as I enjoy the long rides anyway. Most of the locals will not do this, and instead prefer to buy the black market gas or use the fake plates downtown.
The sad thing about all this is I had predicted 3 years ago that the police would do a gas station crackdown on bikes. In an offhand comment made to a friend I had said, "If the police really want to get these scooters off the road, they will go after the gas stations and make them refuse a fuelup". And now that has happened.
So here are the latest pessimistic predictions about what could happen next:
1. The fake plate sales will be super brisk and the gas stations will catch on, in conjunction with the traffic police, requiring stricter checks of licenses and registration at the pump
2. The prohibitions against scooter refueling will spread to gas stations in the rural areas. Could get into some friction with the farmers over that, but the scenario is likely.
3. People will attempt to use the self-serve stations, especially the petrol runners. The self-serve stations are where you purchase a pre-paid card and swipe it at the pump, but of course it can only be used for cars.
4. Crackdowns will occur at the scooter market like in the past, this time targeting the black market fuel.
5. The traffic police will launch a massive anti-bike crackdown sometime later this year or Jan 1st next year, similar to what was done in the past.
The war has only just begun.
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Edited Chinese Article: Refueling Ban
Since the English language papers won't have much on this topic, it has to be the Chinese language news. I found a very useful article in the Chinese section and ran it through google translate. The first attempt was rather hilarious with lots of chinglish, but the gist was surprisingly accurate. I made my own edited version, based on google's work, referring to the original language, and my own knowledge on this topic from the English news and experience.
The most interesting thing that came up during the translation is the play on words with the phrase "jia you" which is the literal Chinese translation of "add oil". Not only does this refer to filling a vehicle with gas, it is also used at sporting events to cheer on teammates. It is exactly how we sould say "come on" or "let's go". I nearly split myself laughing as the articled translated "let's go scooter" or "come on scooter" on occasion.
But actually, this play on words is entirely 100% true and relevant. The Shanghai traffic police is waging war against the scooters. These underdogs are going to need all the cheering on they can get if they are to survive this latest purge, let alone win the battle.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since yesterday, traffic police launched a campaign against scooters, motorized tricycles, two-stroke motorcycles, motorized wheelchairs, and other miniature vehicles used to transport disabled people. For many years despite repeated prohibitions at gas stations, these vehicles were still being fueled. Now the traffic police department has begun to cooperate with the gas stations, in the attempt to cut off the refueling of these unlicensed vehicles.
Last night, the reporter visited more than 10 gas stations in the city. Without exception, all refused to provide fuel to his gas-powered moped. The traffic police had prominently posted signs that display "No Refueling of Scooters" at the gas stations.
However, there are still individual gas stations between the middle and outer ring roads that provide services to unlicensed mopeds.
"Sorry, we cannot fill your bike." At 10 o'clock last night, the staff at a gas station in Datong Road refused fuel to the moped of our undercover news reporter. They did so without hesitation. The staff went on, pointing to the 'No Scooter Refueling' sign and told reporters, "This sign was placed here just two days ago by the traffic police and they have left their phone number. You'd better get out of here quickly, otherwise you will lose your vehicle."
Another reporter faced a similar scene that was repeated in nearly 10 gas stations along Hutai Road, in the north of Shanghai. He got the same answer: certainly they would not give him fuel.
A gas station's staff told reporters that previously, they would often see unlicensed mopeds pull up to the pump -- a headache. The scooters would pull in as they pleased, and jump the queue of cars getting fuel. The attendants could not help but to quickly put gas in the scooters and send them on their way, otherwise the car drivers would get upset and cause a row. However, since the traffic police have now taken measures to support gas stations in the ban, the staff members refuse to fill up those mopeds anymore.
"Previously, whether or not to fuel up those bikes was an individual company decision. But now that the traffic police and the safety supervision department have joined forces with us to implement the ban, we can now refuse to refuel those vehicles." The staff told reporters that most of the moped drivers will leave immediately after encountering a rejection, while a small number will remain and quarrel. Once they learn of the possibility of the police getting involved or going to a police station, they will leave.
"Now, the gas stations in the downtown areas (within the middle ring road) have basically reached a consensus, refusing to fuel scooters. If you are looking for a place to refuel, you can go outside the middle ring road and try your luck", said a station staff. Not all of the gas stations are saying no to refueling scooters. The farther away from the urban areas, the greater the chances of being able to fill up the bike. There remain individual gas stations that have not been informed of this new policy.
Going further north along Hutai Road, the reporter found a station where the staff filled up his scooter. The reporter asked whether they would still fill it up if it wasn't a Shanghai license plate. The staff told him the rule wasn't about whether or not the license plate is from Shanghai, but whether the bike actually has a license plate and the driver has a license to drive the vehicle. Complicating issues was the fact that bikes with Shanghai plates could fuel up without the need to show a drivers license, but not for outside plates. Also, there is confusing regarding the legalities of scooters vs. motorcycles. The latter are regarded as motor vehicles, while the former are not. Thus, scooters are not legal in Shanghai roads to begin with and can not be fueled.
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(Aside: if you're confused about this, then same here. I can't make heads or tails out of that last paragraph, both from trying to read the original language and trying to wrap my head around these amgiguous motor vehicle laws. Hopefully the translation was accurate)
记者继续沿着沪太路向北，一直到了中环以外，在乾溪路附近的一家加油站，当记者询问是否可以为燃油助力车加油时，工作人员爽快地同意了，称加或不加都是加油站自行决定的。“我不会问你是外地还是上海牌照或者有没有牌照，只要你把车开过来我们就帮你加油，我们没有接到助力车不能加油的通知。”这位工作人员告诉记者。
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Past the middle ring road, the reporter went to a nearby gas station on Qian River Road. When asked by reporters whether the staff could fuel his scooter, they readily agreed saying that it's up to the station whether or not to fill up the bikes.
"I will not ask you whether you have an out-of-town plate or a Shanghai license plate. As long as you bring the scooter here, we'll help you refuel. We have not received notice of prohibiting mopeds from refueling", the staff told reporters.
In some private gas stations, one insider told reporters that he had heard there are some conditions where scooters are allowed refueling if they purchase goods at the station.
Although going to the suburbs (outside middle ring) is an option to go and grab some gas for the bike since the downtown options are now blocked, the price adds up by doing this.
"There are still a variety of ways to fuel up", an industry source told reporters. By fueling the scooters through these alternative methods, the price is only slightly higher than before. According to reporterss, a more common way is to buy gasoline from other drivers, including car and motorcycle drivers. Or, there is the option of using jerry cans.
The industry source said that although this new ban may not eliminate all the loopholes, by controling the fuel source, it has already produced results to get the scooters off the road. He has recently seen a number of bikes parked at home, some people have even sold their scooters, and have changed to other modes of transport.
According to a gas station official, before the implementatino of the ban there were dozens of unlicensed scooters coming in to refuel eery day. Now, after the ban, that number has dropped to ten vehicles per day. Yesterday, traffic police announced the beginning of strictly regulating this ban, since the inception of the ban 23 days ago.
The most interesting thing that came up during the translation is the play on words with the phrase "jia you" which is the literal Chinese translation of "add oil". Not only does this refer to filling a vehicle with gas, it is also used at sporting events to cheer on teammates. It is exactly how we sould say "come on" or "let's go". I nearly split myself laughing as the articled translated "let's go scooter" or "come on scooter" on occasion.
But actually, this play on words is entirely 100% true and relevant. The Shanghai traffic police is waging war against the scooters. These underdogs are going to need all the cheering on they can get if they are to survive this latest purge, let alone win the battle.
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Since yesterday, traffic police launched a campaign against scooters, motorized tricycles, two-stroke motorcycles, motorized wheelchairs, and other miniature vehicles used to transport disabled people. For many years despite repeated prohibitions at gas stations, these vehicles were still being fueled. Now the traffic police department has begun to cooperate with the gas stations, in the attempt to cut off the refueling of these unlicensed vehicles.
Last night, the reporter visited more than 10 gas stations in the city. Without exception, all refused to provide fuel to his gas-powered moped. The traffic police had prominently posted signs that display "No Refueling of Scooters" at the gas stations.
However, there are still individual gas stations between the middle and outer ring roads that provide services to unlicensed mopeds.
"Sorry, we cannot fill your bike." At 10 o'clock last night, the staff at a gas station in Datong Road refused fuel to the moped of our undercover news reporter. They did so without hesitation. The staff went on, pointing to the 'No Scooter Refueling' sign and told reporters, "This sign was placed here just two days ago by the traffic police and they have left their phone number. You'd better get out of here quickly, otherwise you will lose your vehicle."
Another reporter faced a similar scene that was repeated in nearly 10 gas stations along Hutai Road, in the north of Shanghai. He got the same answer: certainly they would not give him fuel.
A gas station's staff told reporters that previously, they would often see unlicensed mopeds pull up to the pump -- a headache. The scooters would pull in as they pleased, and jump the queue of cars getting fuel. The attendants could not help but to quickly put gas in the scooters and send them on their way, otherwise the car drivers would get upset and cause a row. However, since the traffic police have now taken measures to support gas stations in the ban, the staff members refuse to fill up those mopeds anymore.
"Previously, whether or not to fuel up those bikes was an individual company decision. But now that the traffic police and the safety supervision department have joined forces with us to implement the ban, we can now refuse to refuel those vehicles." The staff told reporters that most of the moped drivers will leave immediately after encountering a rejection, while a small number will remain and quarrel. Once they learn of the possibility of the police getting involved or going to a police station, they will leave.
"Now, the gas stations in the downtown areas (within the middle ring road) have basically reached a consensus, refusing to fuel scooters. If you are looking for a place to refuel, you can go outside the middle ring road and try your luck", said a station staff. Not all of the gas stations are saying no to refueling scooters. The farther away from the urban areas, the greater the chances of being able to fill up the bike. There remain individual gas stations that have not been informed of this new policy.
Going further north along Hutai Road, the reporter found a station where the staff filled up his scooter. The reporter asked whether they would still fill it up if it wasn't a Shanghai license plate. The staff told him the rule wasn't about whether or not the license plate is from Shanghai, but whether the bike actually has a license plate and the driver has a license to drive the vehicle. Complicating issues was the fact that bikes with Shanghai plates could fuel up without the need to show a drivers license, but not for outside plates. Also, there is confusing regarding the legalities of scooters vs. motorcycles. The latter are regarded as motor vehicles, while the former are not. Thus, scooters are not legal in Shanghai roads to begin with and can not be fueled.
--------------------------------------------------
(Aside: if you're confused about this, then same here. I can't make heads or tails out of that last paragraph, both from trying to read the original language and trying to wrap my head around these amgiguous motor vehicle laws. Hopefully the translation was accurate)
记者继续沿着沪太路向北，一直到了中环以外，在乾溪路附近的一家加油站，当记者询问是否可以为燃油助力车加油时，工作人员爽快地同意了，称加或不加都是加油站自行决定的。“我不会问你是外地还是上海牌照或者有没有牌照，只要你把车开过来我们就帮你加油，我们没有接到助力车不能加油的通知。”这位工作人员告诉记者。
--------------------------------------------------
Past the middle ring road, the reporter went to a nearby gas station on Qian River Road. When asked by reporters whether the staff could fuel his scooter, they readily agreed saying that it's up to the station whether or not to fill up the bikes.
"I will not ask you whether you have an out-of-town plate or a Shanghai license plate. As long as you bring the scooter here, we'll help you refuel. We have not received notice of prohibiting mopeds from refueling", the staff told reporters.
In some private gas stations, one insider told reporters that he had heard there are some conditions where scooters are allowed refueling if they purchase goods at the station.
Although going to the suburbs (outside middle ring) is an option to go and grab some gas for the bike since the downtown options are now blocked, the price adds up by doing this.
"There are still a variety of ways to fuel up", an industry source told reporters. By fueling the scooters through these alternative methods, the price is only slightly higher than before. According to reporterss, a more common way is to buy gasoline from other drivers, including car and motorcycle drivers. Or, there is the option of using jerry cans.
The industry source said that although this new ban may not eliminate all the loopholes, by controling the fuel source, it has already produced results to get the scooters off the road. He has recently seen a number of bikes parked at home, some people have even sold their scooters, and have changed to other modes of transport.
According to a gas station official, before the implementatino of the ban there were dozens of unlicensed scooters coming in to refuel eery day. Now, after the ban, that number has dropped to ten vehicles per day. Yesterday, traffic police announced the beginning of strictly regulating this ban, since the inception of the ban 23 days ago.
Bad News for Scooters/Motorbikes in Shanghai
Today's weather: High = 13 Low = 3
Partly cloudy
What follows is a rather sad trend for those who enjoy driving scooters and motorbikes to get around the city. After having finished an extended bicycle trip, I'm now back to using a motorcycle to get around Shanghai as my primary mode of transport. Basically I ride around a Yamaha 125cc motorcycle and have been doing this kind of 'career' for the past 2.5 years.
The benefits of using a motorbike in Shanghai are enormous:
1. Freedom to go at your own schedule
2. Punctuality in a city where late arrivals and delays are commonplace
3. Save money
4. No need to put up with crowded buses, subways, or scarce taxis in rush hour
5. Good mental stimulation to focus during traffic.
6. Speeds are low, so it is safe.
On the surface, the traffic in Shanghai looks chaotic with everyone breaking rules. To some extent that is true, but the key to safety lies within the low speeds. Basically every road user distrusts the other one, and every road user wants to avoid an accident at all costs. It only makes sense, as an accident is the worst possible thing that could happen. So the key stategy is to keep the speed low, always watch the other person driving, and be prepared to react. It makes for a safer traffic environment for everyone.
Contrast this to a western country where the traffic speeds are too high, the acceleration and braking is rapid, and people trust that the others will follow the rules. In terms of motorcycle riding, that is far more dangerous than China.
However, the unfortunate reality is that the vast majority of scooter and motorbike riders in Shanghai are doing so illegally. You can refer to the 'MyChinaMoto' forums as to why this is the case, and what exactly it means to be street-legal. Be prepared to sift through a lot of conflicting information.
The city outrightly banned gas scooters in 2007, stopped issuing new license plates, and launched a series of crackdowns, but they never successfully got rid of the bikes. As a crackdown petered out, the bikes would come back in full force, like they are now. Local people saw the obvious advantages as mentioned above, and found a myriad of ways to keep riding despite it now being illegal. For example, they used LPG powered bikes and modified them to run on gasoline. Or the factory that produced license plates now made fakes copies, etc. etc.
The most recent trend has been for the police in individual districts (mainly downtown ones) ordering that gas stations refuse to sell fuel to these vehicles. The sign above states that no gas is allowed for 'power assisted vehicles' which is a grey enough term to refuse unclicsend scooters, those with out-of-town plates, modifed bikes, and anything else they deem fit. Suburban districts are still OK for a fill-up, as I recently discovered. These districts fringe the outside of Shanghai 'province' and this is where you'll find most of the farmers and common people who depend on fuel to their power-assisted vehicles in order to make a living.
Getting fuel for the bikes is becoming quite a headache now. But all this has done is generate a black market for petrol downtown and for people to go further from the city to fuel up. Word on the street from my Chinese friends is that the police want all illegal scooters off the road by the end of this year. The 'seige tactics' may be the beginning, and a new crackdown could be in the works.
Meanwhile, I still want to get somewhere on time, so I'm still riding.
Partly cloudy
What follows is a rather sad trend for those who enjoy driving scooters and motorbikes to get around the city. After having finished an extended bicycle trip, I'm now back to using a motorcycle to get around Shanghai as my primary mode of transport. Basically I ride around a Yamaha 125cc motorcycle and have been doing this kind of 'career' for the past 2.5 years.
The benefits of using a motorbike in Shanghai are enormous:
1. Freedom to go at your own schedule
2. Punctuality in a city where late arrivals and delays are commonplace
3. Save money
4. No need to put up with crowded buses, subways, or scarce taxis in rush hour
5. Good mental stimulation to focus during traffic.
6. Speeds are low, so it is safe.
On the surface, the traffic in Shanghai looks chaotic with everyone breaking rules. To some extent that is true, but the key to safety lies within the low speeds. Basically every road user distrusts the other one, and every road user wants to avoid an accident at all costs. It only makes sense, as an accident is the worst possible thing that could happen. So the key stategy is to keep the speed low, always watch the other person driving, and be prepared to react. It makes for a safer traffic environment for everyone.
Contrast this to a western country where the traffic speeds are too high, the acceleration and braking is rapid, and people trust that the others will follow the rules. In terms of motorcycle riding, that is far more dangerous than China.
However, the unfortunate reality is that the vast majority of scooter and motorbike riders in Shanghai are doing so illegally. You can refer to the 'MyChinaMoto' forums as to why this is the case, and what exactly it means to be street-legal. Be prepared to sift through a lot of conflicting information.
The city outrightly banned gas scooters in 2007, stopped issuing new license plates, and launched a series of crackdowns, but they never successfully got rid of the bikes. As a crackdown petered out, the bikes would come back in full force, like they are now. Local people saw the obvious advantages as mentioned above, and found a myriad of ways to keep riding despite it now being illegal. For example, they used LPG powered bikes and modified them to run on gasoline. Or the factory that produced license plates now made fakes copies, etc. etc.
The most recent trend has been for the police in individual districts (mainly downtown ones) ordering that gas stations refuse to sell fuel to these vehicles. The sign above states that no gas is allowed for 'power assisted vehicles' which is a grey enough term to refuse unclicsend scooters, those with out-of-town plates, modifed bikes, and anything else they deem fit. Suburban districts are still OK for a fill-up, as I recently discovered. These districts fringe the outside of Shanghai 'province' and this is where you'll find most of the farmers and common people who depend on fuel to their power-assisted vehicles in order to make a living.
Getting fuel for the bikes is becoming quite a headache now. But all this has done is generate a black market for petrol downtown and for people to go further from the city to fuel up. Word on the street from my Chinese friends is that the police want all illegal scooters off the road by the end of this year. The 'seige tactics' may be the beginning, and a new crackdown could be in the works.
Meanwhile, I still want to get somewhere on time, so I'm still riding.
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