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Photo from China News Service.
It seems like everywhere I turn these days there is news about China. I guess 1.3 billion people and a rapidly growing economy is news worthy huh? None of the news I have heard has much to do with bikes. So I decided to venture across that crazy Internet and search for bike stuff related to China.
Thus I announce the first “country week” on Bike Hacks. This week I’ll post some stuff I have found and hope that others might be able to chime in with their own insights. If anyone has been to China and has comments about bike stuff, we’d love to hear from you. If you live in China, even better!
The first news I bumped into was unfortunately kind of depressing. This quote comes from a Time Magazine web article:
It seems impossible that Beijing traffic could actually get worse–and crazier–than it already is but now we’ve shifted from something like 1000 new cars on the streets every day to 1500, believe me, it is getting worse by the week.
Holy moley! 1,500 new cars per day? I can hear the atmosphere screaming now. I then ran into an article on the history of the bicycle in China via a site called All About China. I am no scholar of Chinese history but I can say that “The Party” did at least do one thing right. Check out this quote:
The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 was a turning point for the bicycle industry. The Party decided to promote the bicycle as the people’s vehicle and started a massive production drive. Bicycles were taken into account in city planning and those who used bicycles to travel to and from work were given benefits. The lack of a public transport system was solved! China’s first Five-Year Plan included the growth of the bicycle industry by 60 percent, and by 1958, China was producing more than a million bicycles annually.
Benefits for riding a bike? Now that’s a revolutionary idea I can get behind!
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Filed Under: culture
1 comment for this entry ↓
1 Colin // Mar 11, 2008 at 9:16 am
I live in Nanjing, PRC. Everyone here rides bikes- old people, entire families, salvage-recylcers, various workmen (some transporting full tanks of propane), farmers with their produce, street peddlars with their mini shops built on a trike, business men, cops, mailmen, students, and quite often I may see dogs or cats in the basket. Most bikes are old and in disrepair. Rusty/ black is a favourite colour scheme. There are Flying Pigeons (fe ge), Forevers (Yong Jiu), and Phoenixs. These are the most common brands and most that you see are over 10 years old. They are all big (28″wheels sometimes) black, heavy, pieces of junk. But they never die. They have terrible brakes, and I find the frame geometry rather lazy. But they are easy to maintain (only one gear) and parts are cheap and interchangeable. The more modern bikes are Giants and mountain bikes. I have found a place in Shanghai that produces bikes for export and sells a few locally. I bought a carbon fibre frame from them and a Felt frame they overproduced on the contract. Naturally,It was a great deal. Outside of Beijing, Shanghai, China is a real rural country and really fun for bike trips. Cars are used to having bikes around them, and the road is quite safe.
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