Alright, I had got a bike on April 7th and was loving the freedom of riding around. Riding in China is a little adventurous but none the less fun and practical. I beat my friends home from where I had purchased the bike by about 5 minutes while they were in a taxi paying Y10. I felt great about everything. I got my parking settled at the building I work at and it was very reasonable, about Y6 per month. So everything is wonderful, right?

Well as it turns out, maybe not. A few days after I bought the bike I was riding home from a club near my work. I left the club and hopped on the bike. I will spoil your surprise now by telling you I got a concussion and was not able to remember all the details but I headed down a fimiliar street in the oncomming bike lane. The area I work in doesn't have a proper crossing nearby so I was going to wing it until I was able to cross and get into the correct lane.

About 20 meters from where I could have crossed I hit a taxi (again, I can only guess at the details) who had his lights off.

I bounced off his hood well enough to warp it and cracked the windshield with the right side of my face.

The memorys I have are of another foreigner asking me if I wanted to call the police and talking some with my other foreiger friends. I was taken to a hospital and had a CT scan and nothing very alarming came up, really, I was lucky and I know that.

I took at few days off work of course and tried to reach a settlement with the cab company. As it turns out the only person who could pay was the cap driver himself (or maybe not as I think the cap company stood far more to loose in a real legal prosess, they may have paid it for him, they were present at all the proceedings which makes me suspect I could have got them for some kind of reasonable settlement). I was unable to properlly procescute those parties because of matters I wont get into here. Also the cops gave me a break on the BA test as they thought I was drinking and that was very nice, a little silver lining to the clouds.

On to the fallout, I had a ruined bike (which I was suposed to pay almost Y100 to get out of impound), I hadIMAG0090.jpg a wrecked eye (see pictures) and I was very upset about the pathetic amount of the offer. On their side they had a taxi without a windshield which IMAG0091.jpgwas impounded.

Now I've got a new bike and a new appreciation for security so I've got some horns ordered and I'll get a helmut and some lights forIMAG0043.jpg it. Attached are pictures of the old bike, pictures of the sceen and my new bike. I really would like to continue biking in China, as to me it's byIMAG0087.jpg far the most practical method but I've got a wake up call about the dangers present.

I will attach some pics I hope you all will find informative.IMAG0086.jpg

I should upload pics before I write I guess because these are all out of order and in my text as I see.
One picture is me about 30 minutes after the wreck, the next is me the next day, the third is my bike new, the third is the windshield of the cab, the fourth shows how my bikes forks were bent.

Anyhow, I'm fine and hope to avoid anything like this in the future.

-Maux