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Photos: China’s History of Bicycles 4

Photos: China's History of Bicycles
Beijing’s Changan Street in 1986 – Photo courtesy of Beijing Shots  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. The country was known as “bicycle kingdom” ...

Shanghai License Plate Costs Same As Brand New Fully-Loaded Sedan 2

Shanghai License Plate Costs Same As Brand New Fully-Loaded Sedan
Shanghai traffic congestion – Photo courtesy of Bert van Dijk In Canada, as in the United States, registering a license plate for a new car takes mere minutes, and assuming you have a valid driver’s license and insurance, anyone can do it for a nominal fee of about $100. In China, registering a license plate ...

Shanghai Cyclist Hit By Driver Caught On Video 4

Shanghai Cyclist Hit By Driver Caught On Video
Screenshot from a YouTube video of a Chinese cyclist being hit by a turning car A driver’s dash cam caught on video a cyclist in Shanghai getting hit by a driver who had suddenly turned from the centre lane. Despite the unfortunate and misleading title of the video given by Shanghaiist writer James Griffiths, the ...

Alain Delorme’s Totems Series 5

Alain Delorme’s Totems Series
Series Totems 2010 © Alain Delorme In May 2010 I visited Shanghai, spending a great deal of time observing how migrant Chinese workers use bicycles for utilitarian purposes. I was astonished by the capacity of goods that can be transported by bicycle and intrigued by the gap between these workers and the wealth that surrounds ...

Only the poor ride bicycles in Shanghai 12

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country When it comes to using bicycles as transportation, there are few cities I have visited that intrigue me more than Shanghai. Shanghai citizens have a knack for utilizing their bicycles to their full capacity. From carrying fridges, to bathtubs, to beds – to the far ...

Bicycles for Transporting… [fill in the blank] 6

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Earlier this month I posted 30 photos of Utility Cycling in China. That post generated a lot of interest because like me, you are probably intrigued by how the Chinese use their bicycles for practical purposes – like pizza delivery, garbage pickup, cargo shipping, etc. ...

Shanghai Cycle Chic 10

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country During my recent trip to China I was fortunate enough to spend a few days in Shanghai. Before I went to China, I promised Mikael Colville-Andersen that I would snap some photos of “Cycle Chic” action while biking around Shanghai. Mikael popularized the term “Cycle ...

Life at 430km/h 7

Photos and video by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Imagine you could build a train that could take you 100KM in less than 15 minutes. Where would you put this train? From your home to you workplace? To your Grandma’s house? I had the pleasure of riding the Shanghai Maglev high speed train ...

Utility Cycling in China 23

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country (May 2010) In big Chinese cities – like it or not – bicycles are a vital ingredient to keep the cities moving. From pizza delivery, to painters, to garbage pickup, to cargo shipping, to transporting people – bicycles are everywhere in cities like Shanghai and ...

Handicap Bike Parking 14

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In Shanghai, there are a lot of bikes.. a LOT of bikes. With the high costs of car ownership, heavy pollution and traffic congestion, bikes are still a great alternative and you can quickly get around the city. However, bikes are still generally considered to be ...