International Pioneering – China Segment 3 by Priscilla Hofert
CHINA SEGMENT 3: OUT AND ABOUT by Priscilla Hofert, October 2022
In 1997 when we were first in China, the majority of the Chinese people traveled by bicycle. I was amazed to see Chinese men sometimes riding a kid-sized bike. Mostly though, they were regular sized bikes.
Our fellow Chinese teachers helped us find two bikes. I had asked
for a bike small enough so I could put my feet down on the ground and still be seated. It had been more than 20 years since I had ridden a bike. Amazingly, once I tried I remembered… except for one very important thing. I had only ever ridden a coaster-brake bike, so getting my mind around using hand brakes was a new skill, which took some time and falls to ingrain on my mind.
Bicycle repairmen were most knowledgeable! Once, John got on his bike and the pedals worked but the wheels did not turn, so we thought, “Oh dear! Now we will need to buy another bike!” So we walked the bike to the nearest bike repairman, only a half a block away. The bicycle man looked carefully at the bike, moved the peddles, then, to our great surprise, took a hammer and HIT the bike HARD several times, and amazingly, the bike was fixed!” He charged nothing for this. When I would fall and break off the hand brakes, the repair was done at very little cost, like for pennies. Thus we came to greatly admire the bike repairmen. Think now, when they have to repair their cars, how very expensive that is compared to repairing a bike!
Our second year in China we found folk art for sale at the local market, which was not at all costly. Several years later, the price increased a lot, which is wonderful, as these paintings were truly great works of art. I purchased some to decorate my bare kitchen wall. How I loved them!
Most fun of all was visiting the three markets within walking distance from our campus. Every season there was fresh produce harvested that day for us to choose from. How I miss those markets!! How we loved our vendors!
Last, but not least, getting train tickets to travel to Beijing was very scary. John was the brave one. He had to stand in line, amid loudspeakers blaring, and try to shout our destination to the ticket person behind a glass and hope that the ticket they gave him was the right one.
During Spring Festival time the crowds were crammed together, both at the ticket windows and at the waiting areas. I still can’t believe we got through the crowd and ended on the right train!
John and me on our bikes 
Local artwork 
Me shopping in winter 
John shopping in summer 
Getting train tickets to BeijingWaiting for the trainWaiting for the train 
Waiting for the train