Taking a break from talks with Chinese leaders, the US president pedaled up and down along a steep dirt path yesterday afternoon at Laoshan Olympic Mountain Bike Course in Beijing's western suburbs.

George W. Bush was joined by six young Chinese cyclists who are preparing for the Olympics, three men and three women.

They presented the president with a beige sweater, their training uniform.

"How do you say, 'take it easy on the old man'?" Bush joked when the group posed for the pictures.

Bush's bike is worth more than US$3,000, according to reports.

It is reported that when the nine-people group, including two of Bush's secret service agents, set out, a US journalist asked Bush if it reminded him of his rides at his Crawford, Texas ranch.

Better than Crawford, was Bush's reply.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kong Quan said later yesterday that Bush did not accept the arranged routes and chose a more zigzag biking path.

"His shadowy silhouette disappeared in the shrubbery and we couldn't see him often at the foot of the hill," Kong said.

Bush appeared to be in high spirits after a 45-minute ride and gave each of the accompanying riders a pair of socks as souvenirs, according to Kong.

There were no reports of injuries this time?-- in the UK in July it was reported that Bush crashed into a Scottish police officer while racing through Gleneagles during a summit.

Last year, he suffered minor abrasions after falling off a mountain bike near Crawford.

This is not the president's first bike ride during his current four-Asian-nation tour.

He is reported to have left his hotel in Busan, the Republic of Korea, at 6:55 am for a spin through a military installation on November 17.

Reminiscing nostalgically on a recent TV interview about riding his bike through Beijing's alleys 30 years ago, Bush described his experience as "fantastic."

Bush, then 29, visited the capital in 1975 for the first time, when his father headed the US liaison office.

However, Bush's "fantastic experience" is hard to repeat due to the traffic conditions in Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao told the US guest at a luncheon.

(China Daily November 21, 2005)