China is nowhere-land for inline skating – at least if you search in the English speaking internet. I couldn’t google relevant information or email addresses whose owner would answer my innocent questions about the how and where of inline skating in China. Nevertheless on two business trips to China – one to Shanghai in November 2003 with extra days to Hangzhou and Suzhou and one to Beijing in May 2004 - I filled half my suitcase with my skating gear. Here is the result:
General
One of my colleagues in Beijing warned me that China is a safe country with one exception: The Traffic. I found this assessment a bit exaggerated. Traffic in those Chinese cities were no worse compared to cities in Italy o r France. In my humble opinion it is even better. Nevertheless watch out for taxis turning right. They do not always stop or obey red lights.
Road conditions in the city centers – and Chinese cities have big centers! – are excellent. There might be a crack in the asphalt here or there and conditions get worse in the outer suburbs, but certainly the standard is high. The fact, which makes inline skating in the streets of Chinese cities possible and enjoyable at all, is the presence of a specific bicycle lane along almost every road. This significantly lowers the adrenaline level of the prudent inline skater. Of course you still have to pay attention, not only for pedestrians who are not used to fast approaching skaters, but especially for the buses cutting their way to the bus stops.
The joy is a little bit reduced by the heavy traffic and air. Weekends or late evening hours are a better choice for your outing if you prefer oxygen over exhaust fumes.
Skating on the sidewalk is possible, but often very rough and narrow and you will give into the temptation to skate in the bicycle lane very quickly.
Packing List
Hurting yourself because you didn’t wear protection is silly at home, but in a foreign country, where you cannot talk, understand or read anything, it is really stupid. So bring your full protection equipment with you - and wear it. A basic first aid set is a must-carry-with-you in every developing country. And you will quickly notice that China is still in this league when you look behind the high-rise metropolitan skylines.
If you plan to do a late night skate, because you cannot sleep anyway due to your jetlag, then bring some LED flashers with you to make you – the unknown skating object – visible for the untrained Chinese traffic participant. Mounted flashing wheels is also a good idea for this.
A good map is one that is legible for both, you and the local people, in case you need orientation assistance of the kind “where the hell am I here?” (translation without hell: “Wo zai na li ?” (singular = am I) or “Wo men zai na er?” (plural = are we) Chinese taxi drivers might not understand or – even worse - misunderstand the name of your hotel, when you say it. Therefore always carry a card with the name of the Hotel in Chinese letters. China is not Japan, where you find a bright-lighting vending machine for beverages at every corner. Therefore carry something to drink with you. Water is definitely better than any other liquid. Or have you ever washed your hands or a wound with “Speedorade” and alike?
Shanghai
Unfortunately I cannot give you real wheels-on information about inline skating in Shanghai. When I was there, I was either busy in my conference or it was too rainy for a skater made out of candy floss – like me. But separate bicycle lanes are also common in Shanghai. So the following tips are from a how-would-skating-have-been-here-if-it-had-been-dry view:
The skyscraper village on the east side of the Huangpu river with world's 4th highest Jin Mao Tower makes a giganto-impressive skate-tour and has relatively little traffic. Very nice is also the walkway along this side of the river. A good entry point this way is close to the TV tower with its impressive glimmering ball.
The famous and prestigious boulevard “The Bund” on the other (West) side of the river is also skateable, but is in some spots spots packed with people.
The Famous shopping street Nanjing Road is definitely too busy for skating without endangering pedestrians and yourself.
Traffic on the streets of hectic Shanghai seems a to be a little bit faster than elsewhere in China (if it is flowing, i.e. not during rush hour traffic jam time). Maybe because of the high license fee for being allowed to own a car in Shanghai the car owners think they also bought the right to speed.
Hangzhou
This is my favourite place to skate in China. The path circles around the west lake on streets closed for public traffic. A long part travels along a dam, which is cutting through the lake. Crossing the arched bridges, which allow the pleasure boats to pass to their nightly berths, is like a roller-coaster ride on skates. At night, the lights strung along the edges of the roof of the houses reflect peacefully on the silent water. Do this tour before 21:00h, because these lights sometimes are switched off later. Being back at the Eastern lake side close to the city center at 21:00 hours gives you the add-on to astonish your eyes and ears by the colorful water fountain games accompanied by classical European and Chinese music.
Huangzhou was the only place in China where I saw more than one adult skater at one time. I spotted them, when I came back from a bicycle tour to the Lingyin Temple, the village Longjingcun with its famous Dragon Well tea, Qiantang River Bridge and Six-Harmony Pagoda. This highly recommendable one-day tour needs a 5-gears-minimum bicycle and is too hilly to skate.
Suzhou
This town, about 1 hours train ride from Shanghai, is called “Venice of the East”, but that’s an attribute from the past. Most of the canals have been sacrificed for the renovation of the town.
Skating might be well possible here. The town is flat, streets are wide and well-surfaced (except along the few remaining channels), and bicycle lanes are present. But the main attraction you probably came to Suzhou for are the fantastic Chinese gardens, the appointed world cultural heritage by the UNESCO. Putting the skates on and off at every garden should be quite annoying. So my recommendation for Suzhou: Leave your skates in the hotel and instead rent a bicycle.
Beijing
Beijing’s geographical topology is the lazy skater’s dream. It is totally flat. The road conditions in the central city are very good. Getting lost is impeded, because road names are also written in Pinyin English. So the tourist maps you get at your hotel counter should be good enough, if you are familiar with reading city maps. Impeded does not mean total prevention. Once I skate to the Summer Palace in the night (a silly idea, you can only see the dark shadows of roofs between even darker trees) and also the gigantic bronze lion and lioness, which guard the entrance are black like cats at night.
On my way back I missed a turn, so it took me almost 1½ hour to return – about the double time compared to going there. My rescue was the fact that my city map has the road names both in English and in Chinese characters. This way also a Beijingese could read it and show me where I was. But don’t be afraid of getting really lost in Beijing. The last resort would be to stop one of taxis abundantly available and let them drive you back to your hotel.
Of course it is a viable option to just skate around and look. But some of you might look for more detailed directions. So here is my recommendation. Start from your hotel and head directly to the Forbidden City. Skate around it to get an impression of its huge dimensions. Stop at the northwestern corner for a nice Chinese scenery of the Emperors Palace and some anglers fishing in the muddy waters of the moat for some fishes - or a nice skater.
From there go some hundreds meter westward to the bridge between Zonghai and Beihai lake to have a pleasant view of the lakes and Beihai Park’s White Bottle Pagoda (from 1651 a.D.)
On the south side of the Forbidden City there is a chance to make a picture of you and late Chairman Mao.
You can (slowly!) skate through the gate and have a view to the impressive entrance of the forbidden city. Then get back to Mao and use the underpass to the memorial on Tiannamen (Heavenly Peace) Square
In contrary to Western expectations this famous Square is not filled with soldiers, but with everyday people who stroll around and take souvenir picture. Most favourite past time: Fly a kite. Watch out and do not get strangled by one of the almost invisible kite lines. I even saw some other skaters there (but they were children of less than 6 years age). For the night owls among us: The square is closed at 10 p.m. for pedestrians. If you are interested in buying one of the kite chains with up to 50 or more little paper kites, then do not pay more than one RMB, i.e. 12 US cent, per kite (this takes some bargaining). If you not only want to use the kites as home decoration or souvenir, but really want to fly it, then only buy a model where there are at least two, better three, tails attached to each kite.
From Tiananmen square make a short excursion southward passing the famous, but over-prized roasted duck restaurant Quanjude, which proudly presents among others Mr. Bush senior and Mr. Arafat as former guests.
Without the stops this tour should make a nice hour easy-going skating (not counting the way to and from your hotel).
Beijing’s highway-like streets (some have to 12 car lanes) with broad bicycle lanes (5m wide) would even make a nice inline speed skating training area at night when traffic has calmed down – with focus on interval training because of the traffic lights.
The following photos give a slightly wrong impression of nightly Beijing. This town is not a picture-book place for ancient Chinese architecture – although there are several major attractions of this kind. Beijing is more a mixed city of modern skyscrapers and low standard quarters ("Hutong"), the latter being candidates for extinction during the current boom (or bubble?) in China. So don't get fooled from my pictures taken with a tourist's eye!
Skating the Great Wall
This is definitely a crazy idea. The only thing you can do is “strub the wall”, i.e. wear one of Conny’s T-shirts on your wall tour. Like this:
Of course you could bring your skate gear there, put it on and make a pretend-to-be- skating picture. But this will cost you some extra drops of sweat to carry them around. Hiking the Great Wall often converts into climbing, because many sections are so steep that you are well advised to use your hands.
A possibility I did not investigate would be to follow the Great Wall on your skates in the valleys, while the wall is winding on the mountain tops and ridges above you. But this might be difficult too, with many ups and downs in the valley and is in any case better done only with an accompanying car & driver. So there is still some pioneer skating in China left for you…
Conclusion
Inline skating in China cities seems quite feasible and should stay so as long as bicycles are an accepted way of public transportation. If this changes, you probably can forget about the world’s climate and skating (Nevertheless, Shanghai’s administration considers banning bicycles from major streets!). Inline skating was almost not visible, but there were some basic, more toy like skates available in the local shops:
So, if you follow my roll-steps, you still might be a pioneering outsider and trendsetter. At least Chinese culture prevents you from being stared at. The only people screaming for excitement were some senior American ladies when I entered in full skate gear the elevator to the hotel lobby. But a skater in front of the Forbidden City makes a nice picture not only for you, but also for some Chinese photo or video cameras.
So wearing sunglasses for privacy and embarrassment protection can help the shy skaters (if there are any). By the way, being a souvenir subject for Chinese tourist can happen to you also without skates as well as a friendly ”Hellou!” shouted to you from time to time.
Outlook
It is a pity that inline speed skating will not be in the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008. Maybe someone will be devoted enough to the sport and organize an inline skating marathon through Beijing as a spectator sport during the 2008 Games. Not only the road conditions of flat Beijing are excellent, there is also a huge potential of enthusiastic spectators. If the Greek can convert their stadium from shell state to IOC compliance within a few weeks, shouldn’t it be feasible to make a crazy sounding idea a reality in a 4 years time frame?
Keep Rolling!
Clemens
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