Bill and Brenna were in Shandong Provence, China, for a couple weeks and came home just before the earthquake struck Sichuan. When we were there, the mood of the country was celebratory in anticipation of the Olympics this summer. “Beijing 2008″ and “Go China!” were the cries everywhere we went. Being cyclists, we fit right in with the masses and bought some bikes for $11 each and set off riding all over Qingdao on our single speed cruisers.
We were visiting a former TAI Cycling member, Turner Gutmann, who’s teaching at a university with his wife, Sara. Turner was invited to participate in a cycling tour from Qingdao to Beijing ahead of the Olympics to promote cycling, awareness of cycling and the main sponsor — a milk company. The ride organizers put on a Bike Talent Show Series over a few weekends in various locations and the winners of the talent show were put into a lottery to win a spot on the 7-day bike tour, along with a new road bike.
I entered the show, which was outside a big supermarket in a very busy downtown area of Qingdao (home of the famous Tsingtao Beer). Events were:
1. stall for 30 seconds
2. carry cases of milk boxes from one side of a balance beam to the other — 1 mintute
3. ride figure 8′s around milk boxes for 1 minute
4. answer trivia questions about the 2008 Beijing Olympics
5. sing a song
6. blow up little balloons until they popped in your face
So apparently, I did pretty well and won the contest. But since I couldn’t stay for the trip, I deferred my spot to Turner, who was already on the list, but we were confused if he was really selected or was still in the lottery.
Well, a couple weeks later, Turner just got his new bike and is headed to Beijing as I write this. I’ll be sure to update with some more photos from his trip.
We will all be focusing in on China for earthquake news, the Olympics and to see how the country changes and copes with so much bittersweet attention.
