Cycling in Beijing offers a glance at the people
Cycling in Beijing offers a glance at the people
By Harry Bhaskara
BEIJING (JP): The bicycle is still the most popular means of
transportation in Beijing despite the invasion of taxis on the
city's streets.
To many residents, bicycles are cost-efficient, reliable,
environmentally friendly, and promote health for their riders.
"Cars are very expensive and only a few can afford them. Most
of the cars in the streets are state-owned," said Maggie Shu, a
Beijing resident.
Cycling in Beijing will almost let you forget that you are in
one of most crowded cities in the world.
First, Beijing covers 25,000 square kilometers, or more than
20 times more area than Jakarta. Second, as a result of careful
planning, the bicycle lanes are considerably wider than those in
other Asian cities.
Most of the streets are divided into city blocks; so with a
bike and a map one can feel the pulse of life in the city.
"We can see more and travel leisurely at our own pace," said
Yap Ming Chan, a tourist from Singapore, who was surprised to
learn that bikes are available for rent at the star-rated hotel
where he was staying.
A bike rents for 25 Yuan (about US$3.00) per day, he said.
Outside the hotel one can rent a bike for only 5 Yuan with a
deposit of 200 Yuan.
In addition to a parking area for cars, the hotel also has a
parking lot for bicycles with a guard on duty round the clock,
Yaun said.
At a glance
Bikers in Beijing include a cross section of the urbanites.
One can see the scantily clad vegetable traders, petty traders,
well-dressed office workers, school children in their uniforms,
husbands and wives, young lovers, the elderly, mothers and babies
and even fashionable Beijing belles.
Squeezed in between are the tricycle carts used to transport
various goods.
Along the willow-lined streets, other nuances of city life are
revealed to the cycler, such as the simple side-street vegetable
markets, the construction workers laboring well into the night
and young girls quite safe biking alone after dark.
Cycling to Beijingers is almost second nature. They are so
skilled at it that they often come within inches of cars or buses
without incident when negotiating the busy streets.
Perhaps the most striking scene is the masses of Beijingers
pedaling along seemingly unaware of each other.
A girl in a miniskirt seems to go unnoticed. A school student
reads a book while cycling to school.
"They mind their own business," said In Satilah Hamzah, a
tourist from Malaysia. "It is good in a way."
Unlike in Jakarta, where bicycles give way to cars, it is the
buses and the cars that tolerate bicycles in Beijing.
The traffic here reflects one aspect of the life of the
people, said a foreigner.
"Bicycles represent the masses. There is a kind of antagonism
between bicycles and the more modern forms of transport," said an
American expatriate who has lived in Beijing for more than three
years.
Despite the few privately owned cars, automobiles began
clogging Beijing's wide and well-paved roads about two years ago.
Motorcycles, however, are conspicuously absent. The city buses
and the underground train still serve this city of 12 million
people.
Rickshaws are seen only in some areas frequented by tourists.
The 1980's open economic policy has led to a boom in the
number of bicycles.
According to the China's Foreign Trade magazine, the country
produced 40 million bicycles last year and is the largest
bicycle-producing nation in the world.
Indeed Beijing still has a chance to prevent itself from
becoming another Bangkok or Jakarta by keeping the inflow of new
cars at a minimum, although the ubiquitous yellow taxis, the
minibuses and the sedan taxis, are poised to flood the streets.