Bikes, China’s icon, thrive despite car invasion

Few options for most in Shanghai
All the same, Shanghai's more than 20 million people have few options. The subways and buses can handle only one-quarter of commuting volume. A modest family car costs about $6,000 and licensing it $5,000 — adding up to more than most Shanghai workers make in a year. A scooter sells for about $300.

So by bicycle or scooter they wind their way through rush hour traffic, many wearing cotton masks to filter out exhaust fumes. They weave on and off sidewalks, dismount to squeeze between buses and curbs, slip haphazardly through gridlocked intersections and, sometimes, glide triumphantly past traffic jams.

Later in the day comes a second set of cyclists. Clanging cowbells to be heard above the din of the street, they roam the city hunting for scrap metal or discarded appliances. Some balance TV sets, computer terminals, even refrigerators and mattresses, on the backs of two-wheelers.

Life on wheels can be a cat-and-mouse struggle.

"It's easy to park, and easy to escape when the police come after us," says Wang Dali, a migrant from Anhui province who sells pirated DVDs of movies such as "Kung Fu Panda" and "Sex and the City" off the back of his old Phoenix.

"We aren't allowed to sell in these areas, since it's said to give the city a bad image," said Wang, looking a decade older than his 33 years from a lifetime spent outdoors in the sun and wind.

"Only we poor rural people do this, but we have to, to make a living," he said.

Bike companies are changing
Meanwhile, bike companies have been retooling.

Twenty-two years ago, when Chen was first assigned to work at Shanghai Forever's rusting factory in downtown Shanghai, the company was still only turning out 40-pound heavy-duty bikes built to carry loads and entire families on the crossbar, handlebars and rear carrier.

Today, Forever's Web site displays dozens of models, from high-tech mountain bikes to foldables that can squeeze into a briefcase.

Chen is confident that despite China's enchantment with the automobile, bicycles are here to stay.

"Bicycles can help protect the environment. People need them for exercise," he says. "The bicycle will never be obsolete. No matter how well developed the automobile and aircraft market grows, the bicycle still has its purpose."

Wu Liqiang, manager for the host of a Shanghai TV show, agrees.

He vividly remembers his first bicycle, in the 1970s, a chic black Forever.

"The feeling I had riding that bicycle was amazing. It was just about as cool as driving a Porsche would be now," says Wu, now 50. "Girls were very glad to go out with me because they could sit on the back of my bicycle and enjoy the breeze and sunshine."

He owns a bright-blue VW Polo but hardly ever drives it.

"The traffic's getting worse and worse and you end up wasting hours on the road," Wu says, adding, "The bicycle is still the best vehicle for China."

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