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Letter of love to my bike

Love

This is a reluctant biker's letter of love to her bicycle.

I have always been in love with the idea of biking, but my parents never bothered to teach me how to ride. I would always look jealously at those sitting atop two wheels, riding away without a care in the world. And I would talk about how great I bet biking was - like having super long legs because you could travel really far distances quickly.

Fast forward to Beijing, and it shamed me not to be able to ride. This is a city made for cycling. It's very flat, and there are wide bicycle lanes everywhere. Plus the horrendous traffic simply makes biking such an attractive option. I knew it was time to finally bite the bullet. Everyone had told me biking would transform my entire Beijing experience. My friend gave me a dingy grey bike and the first time I was terrified. And bad. I was wobbling and crashing and constantly having to get off the seat and put my feet on the ground. But I was determined, and the next day I managed not to hit anyone. The third day something began to click. I realised that when I was heading uncontrollably one direction, swerving the other was a bad idea. By the fifth day I was biking like it was the most natural thing in the world. Biking and I were, clearly, just meant to be.