Having my bike with me in Beijng was really nice. Nice enough that despite the hassle of having a day on either end where I did not have my bike (because of the cargo train schedule) that it came with me on every subsequent trip to Beijing that fall.

I could get from Beijing West Train Station to the Sanlitun area of town faster than a bus in rush-hour traffic. And the bus took about the same time as a taxi. Admittedly, since I had to pay cargo train fees and had a smaller luggage limit the bike probably cost more than the bus but it gave me a lot more opportunity to explore in Beijing. Among other things, busses don't like to stop to let you spend 30 minutes taking photos of a random statue. Nor are busses in the habit of taking random turns.

Then I moved to the tropics and stopped going to Beijing for the weekend. Probably because Beijing was no longer a 2 1/2 hour train ride away. 5-7 hours by air is a little much for a quick weekend trip. Not to mention being expensive.