I decided to spend my Sunday afternoon by taking a ride down to the river and take a ferry over to Pudong and cycle along the river on the far side. However, I got to The Cool Docks, where I planned to have a coffee and get the ferry, to find The Cool Docks closed for refurbishment (I cannot beileve it needs it as it’s open been open a few years). The guard told me it was closed until October. I asked him why but didn’t understand the answer!
So the Cool Docks was closed but then I realised I hadn’t brought my travel card with me for the ferry fare and so I gave up the idea of crossing the river and decided instead to cycle along the bank to Nanpu Bridge. There I found a lovely cafe in ‘Ferry Space’ which seems to be a type of shared office – loads of polished concrete made it look an uninviting space to work in. Luckily the cafe was a lot more welcoming and I found a cool seat on a sofa near the window. I settled for a long while reading a book and looking at the (quiet) street outside. It’s all very industrial at this point on the river.
There is a lot of work going on and all the buildings along the river bank seem to be getting renovated or knocked down. I imagine that soon there will be a walk and cafes and other developments there. Currently it’s like one big building site.
Eventually I had to head out rom the cafe into the blast furnace again and hopped on my bike. I found some fantastic lanes around TangFang Alley. But as I cycled through I found several of these very narrow lanes choked with Ofo bikes. Clearly, like my neighbours, the residents had got thoroughly fed up of them and piled them high like scrap metal.
So many places around the city are ruined by the eyesore that is bright yellow and orange shared bikes abandoned and causing a nuisance. You are not strictly allowed to take bikes into residential areas but this doesn’t stop people doing it.
Some communities have signs banning people bringing in shared bikes. Sadly my community doesn’t yet have a sign and so I am often faced with a small pile of them outside the house entrance. 
These lanes are already narrow and the last thing the locals need is for them to made even more hazardous to navigate by this garish yellow scrap. Already the city authorities has determined some roads (the big ones like Nanjing Lu and HuaiHai Lu) cannot have shared bikes parked on them.
This doesn’t stop everyone but it has made the situation a bit better. I can’t wait for the day when the communities take a stricter position on what can only be described as massive litter problem.