Cyclists gather at Beijing's Olympic Forest Park for their outings. [Photos by Wang Jing / China Daily]

A group of enthusiastic cyclists, that calls itself "Green Power", meets twice a week in the evenings to pedal around Olympic Forest Park. Tiffany Tan reports.

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening, a colorful band can be seen pedaling around Beijing's Olympic Forest Park. These helmeted riders, in red, yellow, green, blue and white uniforms, exercise for about an hour before disembarking at a junction by the park's south gate. Sitting or standing by the grassy sidewalk, they swap stories and jokes, while a few perform bicycle stunts, before everybody heads home at around 10 pm. This semiweekly activity has been going on since the early spring of 2009, when two amateur cyclists decided to make time for their passion amid their busy lives in the Chinese capital.

"It's impossible to ride together during daytime on weekdays because we all have work," says Yang Fan, 31, one of the duo, who works in research and development at a multinational consumer-goods company. "Nighttime is the only time we can get together."

His co-organizer, Li Fang, took up cycling in 2008 to lose weight, and realized that the sport was not designed as a solitary activity. "You need to be with others," says the 28-year-old advertising consultant, who linked up with Yang through an online cycling forum.

In the past two and a half years, Yang and Li's initiative has grown into a by-invitation-only group of 30, including the teammate who is now Li's husband. Every weekend, the members go on cycling trips to the suburbs, and once in a while, go out for dinner or drinks.

But anyone is welcome to ride with the group, which calls itself "Green Power", and whose members now sport white-and-black jerseys with a big, green "G". Through word-of-mouth and online discussion forums, individual cyclists and about five other groups have also joined Green Power's rides, injecting the activity with an air of excitement and camaraderie.

Among the "friends of Green Power" is Shannon Bufton, a 35-year-old Australian who co-founded Smarter Than Car, a non-profit Beijing organization, which promotes cycling as a more eco-friendly form of transportation. He says the Olympic Park rides are a good way to socialize and at the same time prepare for competitions.

"The best thing about it is it's good training, getting to ride for an hour with some of the fastest amateur riders in Beijing," he says. "If you do this every week, then you can also get very fit and ready for racing." Some of the cyclists in the pack can go as fast as 40 km/h.

Although cycling on city streets at night, at such speed, has obvious risks, there is also less traffic.

"If you ride early in the morning, the traffic is bad. After 9 pm, the traffic starts to slow down," says Bufton, who has ridden with night cyclists in Dubai and in his home city of Melbourne. "It's a bit safer for riding."

Professional trainers agree that cycling in the city is better done at night, specifically because the air is less polluted - a concern in Beijing's often murky air.

"There are fewer cars at night than during daytime, so there is also less car exhaust fumes," says Alvin Wong, a physiotherapist at Reform, an exercise therapy studio in Beijing. He says cyclists breathe more deeply and at a quicker rate than pedestrians, so "cycling in a polluted environment can increase the chances of lung disease".

"If cyclists have some lung or heart disease, I would suggest cycling indoors, especially during winter in Beijing," says Wong, a performance enhancement specialist, who works with professional athletes.

Yang Fan admits that working out after a long day in the office is often a struggle. "I just want to go to bed," he says with a laugh. But the father of a 3-year-old boy says he's grateful he makes the effort to join the Olympic Park rides as the exercise always leaves him feeling "refreshed".

In summer, there sometimes can be close to a hundred cyclists doing laps around the Olympic Park. Now that winter is just around the bend, their numbers are dwindling. But they'll be back in full force in spring, a blur of color in the chilly Beijing evening.