This is the third day since my foot was wrapped gypsum and bandage. I have stayed at home for three days. Hopefully, I can get back to office Monday noon to have my regular lunch meeting, and the regular dinner with the team. There is actually not many things I can do except keeping my foot away from any additional shock.
Wheelchair
Wendy got a wheelchair on Baixing (link) at 300 RMB. Nice wheel chair but Shanghai is not a good place to use it.
Before dinner, we test-ran the wheelchair at the pedestrian. Terrible experience. The edge of the pedestrian and the road is still not well connected (I mean the slope designed to make wheelchair go on and off pedestrian easier), so I am always stuck there, with bikes and cars running to behind me.
Walking Stick
It seems the walking sticks I got from my team work much better. I believe I am the third person breaking the foot in recent years, so we share the same pair of walking stick. That is more nimble than wheelchair. I am thinking about selling out my wheelchair at 300 RMB again on Baixing.com. That is the beauty of second-hand trading – price does not drop when you buy and sell second-hand stuff.
Four Weeks
There are still four to six weeks to go before I get my foot out of the gypsum and bandage. Hmm…. Let me continue to report the life of a disabled person in Shanghai.
Remember what I said in the comment two days ago that you would be on the go by next Monday? In fact, as long as you don’t press your injured foot on the ground, it won’t hurt. I agree, a walker is much handier than a wheelchair. Plus, hardly any buidling has wheelchair ramp in Shanghai. Just be sure that when you use the walker, you have someone by you so in case you fall, that person can prop you.
You are right to be very careful about not bumping or impacting that foot in any way while it is healing. That’s the main reason I did not go back to work with my broken ankle. The campus where I work has very uneven pavement, so even in a wheelchair with the leg elevated, there would have been “bumps” and vibrations which would have affected and slowed the mending of the bone.
It’s good that you have walking sticks you can use too. We call them “crutches”. If you use them most of the time, you will soon develop very strong upper arm muscles :-)
Get well soon!!!
Jianshuo,
Hope you recover soon.
About the wheelchair, I think that your competitor did a great job, you could find a nice wheelchair easily through taobao.com with a better deal AND they are brand new. Buy & sale brand new or 2nd hand goods are not strength of your business. I noticed that you are focusing on use Baixing’s search engine to have the classifieds well organized, the problem is your database is not big enough to satisfy the site users.
In your case:
Trough taobao: you could buy a decent and brand new wheelchair with 250 RMB and money back guarantee. (you will have more than 100 sellers to choose from)
Through baixing.com: you paid 300 RMB got a 2nd hand wheelchair.
You may not care about it, but your customers do.
Thanks Wendy for the comment on Baixing. For the wheelchair, I bought a very nice wheelchair with many functions – HBG19. The cheapest price on taobao is 668, and many with good reputation sell it above 800 RMB. I feel I just need a nice wheelchair instead of a toy. On Baixing, there are many other wheelchair selling at 50 – 60 RMB (Taobao sell the same at the price you mentioned: 250), but I don’t feel that is good enough.
The interesting thing is, when you want to get it, you get it from the neighborhood – practically after 1 hour. Then you use it. After you finish using it, you sell it back to people who need it, still at 300 RMB price – the next unlucky guy who just need it for one month or two.
See, that is the value of Baixing. I am so happy with the wheelchair since it is almost brand new. Buying a new one and sell it later cost me 350 RMB in difference in price, but for second hand, the difference is 0. If we don’t have a website like Baixing, you sell the wheelchair to second hand dealers, the possible price they gave is likely to be 50 RMB.
Wheelchair access is difficult in many cities. Six weeks is a long time. I wish you well.