Finally another update- mostly because now I’m grounded and off my bike for a while after taking a nasty fall two days ago during a huge rain storm here in Beijing. I decided that it would be a clever move to practice my skid-stopping in the rain since the roads would be a bit easier to skid on; I just didn’t realize how slippery the roads had gotten though, and one of my attempted skids resulted in my back wheel kicking out to the side, which sent me to the ground on my left arm (which was actually quite fortunate, since that took most of the shock). Somehow I also landed on my right wrist- which I’d already been having problems with, and I started to feel a dull pain and a loss of movement in the joint.


Here’s a short clip of the rain storm on Friday- it was pouring down.


The aftermath of my arm.

Biking Injury in Beijing


Initially I thought that it was just a sprain, but the first night I couldn’t find a good resting position for my wrist that wouldn’t hurt, and the next morning I felt stiffness in my fingers- reason enough to want to get an X-Ray (X-光 X-guang1 as I learned to say in Chinese; also, 扭伤 niu3shang1 is also how you say, sprain, in Chinese) of my wrist. I was trying to decide whether to go to a local clinic/hospital, knowing that the X-Ray and consultation fees would be a lot cheaper there, but then figured that I would try to claim the checkup fees anyways, so I decided that I’d be a spoiled expat and headed over to Visa Clinic (which I assumed would be cheaper than going to Beijing United Family Hospital). Long story short, I ended up not having to get an X-Ray, and the doc diagnosed it as just a sprain. He prescribed me a  bag of pain killers and sleep aids, but I haven’t taken any yet. I don’t really like the idea of popping pain meds- I’ll stay off the narcotics until I’m really writhing in pain.

Anyhow, the actual reason for the lack of updates is because I’ve started up my daily classes at 1on1Mandarin so my schedule’s gotten quite a bit tighter. But, apart from that update- here’s a random dump of images from the past few weeks in Beijng.


I got a printer from Phebe’s friend. It’s missing a power cord, but whatevs. I’ll pick one up soon. I thought it would be post-worthy because I was trying to figure out how to bring it back to my apartment, and, well, good thing I got the Chrome citizen-sized messenger bag, which actually fit the printer! Plus 1 for biking with a printer in your bag!

HP Printer

HP Printer in Messenger Bag


The previous trip to the computer-district in 中关村 to look for the underground Apple distributor- speaking of which, that reminds me that I need to follow up with them. They were supposed to call me back about the casing for my MacBook Pro 15″.

Computer District in Beijing

Computer District in Beijing

Biking in Beijing

Cycling in Beijing


I was a bit nervous going in here because my local friend had advised me not to leave my MacBook Pro overnight for any repairs, and that I should even ask to watch the repair, lest I run the possibility of having parts stolen/swapped out in my Mac.

Underground Apple Distributer in Beijing

I thought it was pretty amusing to see iPads on sale here. They’re currently not being sold in the official Apple Beijing store yet.

Underground Apple Distributer in Beijing


Beijing is a biker’s city…

Biking in Beijing

Cycling in Beijing

Biking in Beijing

Family Transportation in Beijing


And to close this post-
This delivery guy didn’t have an apartment number to deliver to (actually, my apartment complex doesn’t have assigned unit numbers for each apartment), so he just started yelling the person’s name. It’s a pretty tight knit community though- some of the neighbors downstairs started to direct the delivery guy where to find that person. China is an interesting place… =p

Delivery Guy in Beijing

-Duncan

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Breaking Things – I have the worst luck…

by Duncan Leung June 20, 2010
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Just writing a quick update to share the misfortune that I’ve been having lately. Somehow my personal belongings have just been breaking. Argh- //Update – June 29 2010: Well it seems like someone else is having the same problem with the MacBook Pro Unibody build quality. I found this ad on eBay as I was [...]

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Biking Around Beijing – Biking solo is no fun!

by Duncan Leung June 12, 2010
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I‘m very fortunate to have fellow biking friends here in Beijing- it sure beats biking around solo! Though, it does make it a bit harder when I’m thinking about weaving in between traffic because I have to think about whether my buddy will be able to make the same route behind me. Sticking to the [...]

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The Big Two Four – And I guess I now have no excuse not to cook

by Duncan Leung June 7, 2010
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It was my birthday yesterday- w00t, the big Twenty Four. I don’t really feel old, and I guess I shouldn’t. Twenty four is still young (at least that’s what I keep telling myself). I was celebrating with a group of friends on the East side of Beijing, and they got me an awesome (much needed) [...]

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An Anniversary That Won’t Be Forgotten – 1989 June 4th

by Duncan Leung June 4, 2010
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Twenty one years ago, June 4th 1989. (Paraphrased from Wikipedia) The protests were sparked by the death of a pro-democracy and anti-corruption official, whom protesters wanted to mourn, and by the eve of the funeral, 100,000 people had gathered. Participants included disillusioned Party members as well as free market reformers, who were generally against the [...]

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British Polluters? – “We’re bringing oil to American shores”

by Duncan Leung June 3, 2010
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I came across a video on CNN showing some of the PR mess that BP is currently in (and that should be the least of their worries- they’ve got a far bigger mess to clean up first). But I thought I’d share some of the interesting BP logo parodies I came across: (Images from: http://superpunch.blogspot.com/) [...]

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Beijing in Pictures – Sights and Surroundings

by Duncan Leung June 3, 2010
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My friend asked me to put some images together that I’d taken from the past year in Beijing, and after sending them out I decided that I’d throw them up here on my blog too. I don’t know why, but I decided to make edit these as black-and-white images. Without further ado: -Duncan document.getElementById(“post-1011-blankimage”).onload();

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Tour of Beijing – 50km on two wheels around Beijing

by Duncan Leung June 1, 2010
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I was a bit gung-ho on Monday and decided that I would bike to the US Embassy to pick up my US Visa. It’s about a 15.5km (9.6mi) ride, so it isn’t that much farther than the distance that I biked on Saturday from the Natooke fixed gear shop. But by the time I picked [...]

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First Bike Ride – About 12km from 雍和宫 to 五道口

by Duncan Leung May 31, 2010
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I made my first ride in Beijing on Saturday May 29th from the Natooke fixed-gear shop in 雍和宫 back home to 五道口, which is about 12km (7.5mi). It’s not going to wow any avid bike riders, but I’ve never biked this distance before. The longest distance I’ve biked is from the South campus of the [...]

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1 Year in Beijing – The next steps

by Duncan Leung May 30, 2010

I was supposed to give an update on the 24th of this month but it’s been a packed week- On Tuesday I headed over to the East side of Beijing to get my US Visa at 6am in the morning. I thought that I’d be beating the crowds but to my astonishment when I arrived [...]

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