THE EVOLUTION OF BICYCLE'S LIFE IN CHINA!

Today, China is known as the world's bicycle capital. Especially if you consider the bike – share oversupply…. But this Western invention was not easily integrated into the Chinese way of life.

The first mention of bicycles in China was in 1860. At that time, a Chinese official named Bin Chun wrote of seeing a fantastical sight, the 'velocipede', on the streets of Paris.

“On avenues, people ride on a vehicle with only two wheels, which is held together by a pipe,” Bin Chun wrote in his travel diary. “They sit above this pipe and push forward with movements of their feet. They dash along like galloping horses.”

This early form of the modern-day bicycle was taking the world by storm, but China, which had been under Western rule, was not quite ready to open its arms to yet another foreign invention.

Interestingly, Bin Chun and his delegation were on a trip to Europe to evaluate the latest technological innovations and to consider whether they could be used for military purposes.

This trip, while somewhat unsuccessful for Bin Chun, did accomplish one thing; introducing the bicycle to one of the world's largest markets.

Here is how the life of bicycles in China evolved!

At the end of the 19th century, the only people who used bicycles in China were foreigners who lived in Shanghai.

The Chinese were mostly amazed at the passion the 'big-nosed' foreigners displayed at this physical activity.

During those times, no self-respecting Chinese, who had even the tiniest of wealth, would consider moving around on his own.

Instead, they would take the sedan chair, or, if they were inclined to use the latest mode of transport, the rickshaw - which was invented in 1870.

While bicycles were cloistered away from prying eyes in the foreign concessions and colonies of east China, thousands living in the western and northern parts of the country had seen these marvelous contraptions – all thanks to the improbable road trip of a pair of mustachioed American college grads.

In June, 1890, one day after throwing their caps in the air at Washington University, Thomas Allen Jr. and William Sachtleben boarded a steamer to England. In London, they purchased a pair of bicycles in the latest, most durable style – and concocted a plan to see the world.

Almost as soon as they crossed the border from Siberia into Xinjiang, in western China, they were met by flabbergasted crowds.

The arrival of foreigners in itself gave plenty of reasons for excitement. “Our garments were minutely scrutinized, especially the buttons,” they wrote. “Our caps were taken from our heads, and passed around for each to try on in turn, amid much laughter.”

As they moved deeper into China, the crowds only increased. Soon, the two developed a system for arriving in new towns: “On entering a Chinese city, we always made it a rule to run rapidly through until we came to an inn, and then lock up our wheels before the crowd could collect.”

Some took the bikes for the ‘fire-wheel cart,’ or locomotive, about which they had heard only the vaguest rumors.

It’s impossible to say whether or not Sachtleben and Allen were literally the first people to ever ride bicycles in the streets of Beijing – it’s likely that another foreigner or two had previously brought a bike to the city, but the Americans’ bicycles are certainly the best documented.

In the years following the departure of two Americans, bicycles began making inroads among Beijing’s biggest figures. The Guangxu Emperor, who was under house arrest following a coup by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1898, one day attempted to ride the bicycle his eunuch had spotted in the possession of a foreign doctor within the Forbidden City. The ride was not successful – “his queue had become entangled in the rear wheel, and that he had a not very royal tumble, and had given up – as many another one has done,” wrote the doctor’s husband.

Where the Guangxu Emperor failed, however, the Xuantong Emperor (more commonly known as Puyi) succeeded. Two decades after Allen and Sachtleben dazzled China’s citizenry with their bikes, workers within the Forbidden City were prying out the ankle-high wooden dividers between rooms within the emperor’s residency so he could more easily ride his bicycle between them. And the last emperor’s enthusiasm for all things bike was only the beginning of what would become a national obsession.

It was only during the 20th century that imported, and therefore expensive, bicycles were sold to the Chinese.

But sweating and exercise did not fit into the Chinese way of life. So, in the beginning, only the nouveau-riche, especially those who had gone to live and study abroad, accepted the strange invention.

The prostitutes ('sing-song girls') who worked in the ports open to foreign trade were also avid users of the bicycle. They had relatively good income and were already living on the margins of polite society anyway.

But during the 1920s, when the six-day work week became common in the cities, and people had free time for themselves, the enthusiasm for the bicycle rose. In the inner regions of China, the bicycle only became widely accepted during the 1930s and 1940s.

The bicycle industry in China began in the 1930s, when assembly plants for foreign-made bicycles were first established. But Chinese-made bicycles only started appearing a decade later in the 1940s.

In 1936, a Japanese businessman built the Changho Works factory in Tianjin, and started to make "Anchor" bicycles. The brand name was changed to "Victory", and then renamed to "Zhongzi". After the Communists led by Mao Zedong came to power in 1949, the bicycle industry was revived.

In April 1949, Chairman Mao's heir apparent, vice president Liu Shaoqi paid a visit to the factory and commanded that it become the first bicycle manufacturer in New China. Their workers were tasked to build a generation of strong, durable, light, and beautiful bicycles for the New China.

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 initiative.

Bicycles were taken into account in city planning, and those who used bicycles to travel to and from work were given additional benefits.

In the first 30 years of communist China, people aspired to own sān shēng yī xiǎng (三转一响), or "three rounds and sound" -- a wristwatch, bicycle, sewing machine and radio: the markers of a modern man.

On July 5, 1950, the first Flying Pigeon bicycle was produced. It was the brainchild of a worker named Huo Baoji, who based his classic model on the 1932 English Raleigh roadster.

Picture source: Wikipedia; a Flying Pigeon in a Hutong

The Flying Pigeon was at the forefront of the bicycle phenomenon in the People’s Republic of China. The vehicle was the government approved form of transport, and the nation became known as 'zìxíngchē wángguó' 自行车王国 - the Kingdom of Bicycles. The Flying Pigeon bicycle became a symbol of an egalitarian social system that promised little comfort but a reliable ride through life.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the logo became synonymous with almost all bicycles in the country. The Flying Pigeon became the single most popular mechanized vehicle on the planet, so ubiquitous that Deng Xiaoping — the post-Mao leader who launched China's economic reforms in the 1970s — defined prosperity as "a Flying Pigeon in every household".

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, the bicycle was the most popular product in China. Bicycles were often given as wedding gifts, and in 1986, US President George HW Bush received two bicycles as a gift from Beijing.

China's first Five-Year Plan actually included the growth of the bicycle industry by 60 percent, and, by 1958, China was producing more than a million bicycles annually.

The country was known as “bicycle kingdom” and the vast majority of the population used bicycles to get around. People were able to get from A to B without being stuck in traffic. Traffic signals were unnecessary, and hordes of bicycles flew like rivers through Chinese cities.

After 1980, the bicycle, a Chinese cultural icon, came to represent Chinese backwardness. As China looked westward for the secrets of economic success and social sophistication, China's post-1980 generation developed a subliminal shame toward things intrinsically "Chinese" as well as an appetite for consumption. When asked if she'd like to go on a romantic bike ride, dating show contestant Ma Nuo caused an uproar in the Chinese media and blogosphere in 2010 with her tart retort, "I'd rather cry in the back of a BMW than smile on a bicycle."

Below are a few photos courtesy of Beijing Shots that illustrate how prominent bicycles were in the urban landscape in China, allowing people to efficiently get around their cities.

Picture source: theurbancountry.com; the sheer number of bicycles parked at Tiananmen Square in 1984

The following photo shows a bike shop in the 1970’s. Notice the style of bicycles that are being sold in this store. They are bicycles built for everyday city riding in regular clothes, featuring chain guards, bells, fenders, and sit in the upright position.

Picture source: theurbancountry.com; bicycle store in 1970s

That’s how wide the bike lanes were in 1986 compared to the amount of space provided to motor vehicles. This bike lane appears to be at least 3 car lanes wide, or perhaps even 4, and this is just for bicycle traffic in a single direction.

Picture source: theurbancountry.com; Beijing’s Changan Street in 1986

Picture source: theurbancountry.com; Shanghai in 1991

During the 1990’s, car culture began sweeping over China. In this 1998 photo you can see traffic signals and an increasing number of motor vehicles. But bicycles were still king in the “bicycle kingdom”. It wouldn’t be until the 2000’s that cars began to really overtake bicycles in China.

Picture source: theurbancountry.com; Tianjin in 1998 – car culture begins to sweep over Chinese cities

In 2017, bike sharing took off in China, with dozens of bike-share companies quickly flooding city streets with millions of brightly colored rental bicycles. However, the rapid growth vastly outpaced immediate demand and overwhelmed Chinese cities, where infrastructure and regulations were not prepared to handle a sudden flood of millions of shared bicycles….

Information sources

Wikipedia