After I bought a bicycle (took me 3 years!) it became my main transport and my good friend. Not only it saves you a lot of money, but also it's a very pleasant way to get from point A to point B, especially at night when it's not too hot and not that many cars and people on the streets. Although quite often I have to ride it in the middle of a day, and here comes an interesting experience!
Bicyclists in Beijing ride however the hell they want. At first sight you see total chaos. Though once you start riding in it, you begin to understand it from the inside. First, Chinese people really do show the turns. Second, I've never seen a bikes collision, even that a lot of people ride on the wrong side of the street all the time. In Russia we call it "against the hair". This part of riding in Beijing totally blows my mind for a couple of reasons. First, no one gives you dirty looks (or what I call Evil Yellow Eye™) for doing that; everyone just takes it for granted. All the bikes successfully flow around each other, sometimes not even looking at each other. After two month I learned how to dissolve in the mood of this strange collective unconscious. This is some ineffable feeling of unity of action, it's like we are all parts of one inconceivable creature. As you ride in this stream, your vision kind of defocuses so it covers everything in front and on the sides of your bicycle. At this point you don't see the others, you feel them. It's especially noticeable when someone drops off this "wave". For example, when someone is going towards you and suddenly you don't feel them, and it bothers you even if you far enough to bypass safely, then you see that this guy was typing a message on his phone or something like that. You also feel it clearly on stoplights. While the red light is on, there is a whole flock of bicycles gathers together, which takes off at the same time with one breath just before the light changes into green. You don't have to look at the stoplight to feel that. You would say that there are always people who want to cheat and cross on the red light when there are no cars. That also feels very sharp, when this part "gemmate" from the main mass.
All these things make me think that a human being is something way beyond. Every person contains unbelievable resources. I can believe that on a certain coil of Evolution humans will no longer need words or even reading minds, because they will have something more supreme, something like this, that we already can experience, even though right now it's just too close to the herd instinct, I'm sure it will grow. You can feel the incredible potential of it already. This is so amazing!
Bicyclists in Beijing ride however the hell they want. At first sight you see total chaos. Though once you start riding in it, you begin to understand it from the inside. First, Chinese people really do show the turns. Second, I've never seen a bikes collision, even that a lot of people ride on the wrong side of the street all the time. In Russia we call it "against the hair". This part of riding in Beijing totally blows my mind for a couple of reasons. First, no one gives you dirty looks (or what I call Evil Yellow Eye™) for doing that; everyone just takes it for granted. All the bikes successfully flow around each other, sometimes not even looking at each other. After two month I learned how to dissolve in the mood of this strange collective unconscious. This is some ineffable feeling of unity of action, it's like we are all parts of one inconceivable creature. As you ride in this stream, your vision kind of defocuses so it covers everything in front and on the sides of your bicycle. At this point you don't see the others, you feel them. It's especially noticeable when someone drops off this "wave". For example, when someone is going towards you and suddenly you don't feel them, and it bothers you even if you far enough to bypass safely, then you see that this guy was typing a message on his phone or something like that. You also feel it clearly on stoplights. While the red light is on, there is a whole flock of bicycles gathers together, which takes off at the same time with one breath just before the light changes into green. You don't have to look at the stoplight to feel that. You would say that there are always people who want to cheat and cross on the red light when there are no cars. That also feels very sharp, when this part "gemmate" from the main mass.
All these things make me think that a human being is something way beyond. Every person contains unbelievable resources. I can believe that on a certain coil of Evolution humans will no longer need words or even reading minds, because they will have something more supreme, something like this, that we already can experience, even though right now it's just too close to the herd instinct, I'm sure it will grow. You can feel the incredible potential of it already. This is so amazing!
Now imagine this with motorscooters and you have Saigon!
ReplyDeleteVery well said Leru! When I was biking to and from work in Beijing I always felt like I was part of a school of fish - where we'd all swerve around cars or pedestrians at the same time, somehow magically making room for each other. It was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteLovely imagery, Leru. Would love to try riding a bik through Beijing some day to feel what that's like.
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