At some point you have to embrace where you are living and just assimilate into the culture. At least that's the theory I've been telling Bill when I decided I was going to go buy an e-bike to get me around town!
You see in Suzhou and in China in general e-bikes are a very common way for people to get around town. I've had quite a few instances where a taxi has not been available for me or I've been walking/carrying goods for a few miles where an e-bike would've come in really handy! Also, a lot of the expats I've met have been telling me in the summer I won't want to be walking, I'm going to need an e-bike or I'm going to melt! So why not sooner than later is what I figured.
I made the huge mistake of thinking that buying an e-bike would be a very simple process. Go there pick one out, pay for it, drive it home. Sounds simple enough to me. WRONG! First of all, again like anywhere in China, no one speaks any english. It takes us about 30 minutes to figure out where the actual e-bike shop is within this shopping mall we've gone too. When we finally find it there are about 50 different bikes. We start looking at the 2 seater ones, the guys in the store hand one to me... Of course I get on, how hard can it be?
ZOOM, CRASH, BOOM there I go right in the store! Oh yes I did this, I crashed the bike in the store! About 6 different store clerks come rushing around me to see if I am okay and they take the bike away from me! Bill is laughing so hard he's about ready to pee his pants! From there I'm done, I tell Bill to just pick out a bike and lets get out of here! So of course Bill picks out the speed racer bike! We have no clue how much power this little speed racer has, all we know is that 2 people will fit on it and that it has a box on the back. We pay - which we have to go all the way upstairs (we're in a basement garage) to the real store pay with a credit card, come back, fill out registration(all written in Chinese) and then pump up the tires... that's Bill's job!
The lady hands us the keys and away we go! So all in all it was a pretty fast process, minus my hiccup with the crash and our hand signals to figure out all the paying and registering of the bike. Bill wouldn't let me drive home after my incident and he's limited me to the compound roads until I get the hang of it. One week in the compound for practice, then I can hit the real roads I'm thinking! I'll be buying a good helmet in the US in June, for now the crappy Chinese will have to do!
Once we got back to the compound we had to figure out the parking situation, find the compound office(a needle in a hay-stack) and try to tell them we want to pay for a parking spot with electricity. It was an adventure to say the least and I'm pretty sure we picked the day that no one on duty decided to speak any english and barely understand what we were trying to say. Enough hand gestures and we managed to get what we needed! We think at least! Now we've truly started to assimilate into Chinese culture. We just need a basket full of chickens on the back and a few children in the middle.
NOT TO WORRY... HELMETS WILL BE WORN!!!
You see in Suzhou and in China in general e-bikes are a very common way for people to get around town. I've had quite a few instances where a taxi has not been available for me or I've been walking/carrying goods for a few miles where an e-bike would've come in really handy! Also, a lot of the expats I've met have been telling me in the summer I won't want to be walking, I'm going to need an e-bike or I'm going to melt! So why not sooner than later is what I figured.
I made the huge mistake of thinking that buying an e-bike would be a very simple process. Go there pick one out, pay for it, drive it home. Sounds simple enough to me. WRONG! First of all, again like anywhere in China, no one speaks any english. It takes us about 30 minutes to figure out where the actual e-bike shop is within this shopping mall we've gone too. When we finally find it there are about 50 different bikes. We start looking at the 2 seater ones, the guys in the store hand one to me... Of course I get on, how hard can it be?
ZOOM, CRASH, BOOM there I go right in the store! Oh yes I did this, I crashed the bike in the store! About 6 different store clerks come rushing around me to see if I am okay and they take the bike away from me! Bill is laughing so hard he's about ready to pee his pants! From there I'm done, I tell Bill to just pick out a bike and lets get out of here! So of course Bill picks out the speed racer bike! We have no clue how much power this little speed racer has, all we know is that 2 people will fit on it and that it has a box on the back. We pay - which we have to go all the way upstairs (we're in a basement garage) to the real store pay with a credit card, come back, fill out registration(all written in Chinese) and then pump up the tires... that's Bill's job! 
The lady hands us the keys and away we go! So all in all it was a pretty fast process, minus my hiccup with the crash and our hand signals to figure out all the paying and registering of the bike. Bill wouldn't let me drive home after my incident and he's limited me to the compound roads until I get the hang of it. One week in the compound for practice, then I can hit the real roads I'm thinking! I'll be buying a good helmet in the US in June, for now the crappy Chinese will have to do!
Once we got back to the compound we had to figure out the parking situation, find the compound office(a needle in a hay-stack) and try to tell them we want to pay for a parking spot with electricity. It was an adventure to say the least and I'm pretty sure we picked the day that no one on duty decided to speak any english and barely understand what we were trying to say. Enough hand gestures and we managed to get what we needed! We think at least! Now we've truly started to assimilate into Chinese culture. We just need a basket full of chickens on the back and a few children in the middle.
NOT TO WORRY... HELMETS WILL BE WORN!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment