Bicycles

Before I came to China, I had absolutely no knowledge, or interest in China, or any of Asia really! I’m more of a west European or American girl. I had nothing against China or anything, just never caught my attention. Through this ignorance I came to China with what I like to think of as a completely open mind. I had neither high expectations nor had I any prejudices.

From living and working in East China for several months, it has allowed me to find the things I love about this culture and things I hate. These discoveries have also highlighted things I love and hate about where I’m from. (I’ll say the whole of the UK because I’m not in Northern Ireland enough anymore!)

Since I have this blog outlet, I thought I’d take some time to comment on particularities of the everyday life I’ve encountered here. Things that are positive and I think should be introduced in my country as well as negative aspects which make me want to go back home ASAP!

This is in no way an argument for/against the way Chinese people live, everyone to their own as my mother always says.

I shall begin with a positive! Bicycles!!!

There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing. Apparently. I don’t know. I do know that there is a hell of a lot in Nanjing! The roads in China are extremely wide, correction, the main roads in China are very wide, all others can barely fit the popular Buick through! In addition to 4 to 6 lanes for cars and buses there is an extra lane on the outer edges of each main road. Fairly decent in breadth and all. This is for the millions of bicycle users that get from A to B everyday.

Can you imagine if so many people took a bicycle to work in the UK instead of taking their own car or jumping in a taxi. I guess people don’t cycle cause the roads are so busy and it wouldn’t be safe to get in amongst all that traffic but if there was a special lane of notable size for cyclists then maybe they would, but if you took away a lane for vehicles and gave it to bikes the congestion would be even greater, but not if everyone ditched the car for the bike. Too many ‘buts’. We should think about it though.

Why do so many people use bicycles in China anyway? Just to beat the morning rush? (Which is dreadful by the way…being stuck in a jam-packed, motionless, heat omitting Nanjing bus at 8am every weekday morning.) My figuring is that most Chinese people can’t afford a car of their own. In fact, I often see a family of three, instead of getting into the family Buick they hop on the family scooter. Dad drives, mum on the back, child in the footrest bit. In addition, everyone lives in apartments here. Where do people park their cars? There is no driveway or garage. Also, even if they could afford a car, could they actually afford to run a car? I don’t have one but I hear it’s very expensive. Most people here, if they don’t physically cycle, they have an electric bike, motioned by a battery, which they can just plug in and charge up next to the TV at home. 

So through poverty, the Chinese get a bit of exercise and help the environment that little bit extra. We have the privilege of being able to choose if we want to drive of cycle. We choose heart attacks and global warming almost every time. Brilliant.