Bikes, China's icon, thrive despite car invasion

Morning rush hour in Beijing and Shanghai used to be rivers of cyclists flowing in a majestic hush down broad bike lanes. Today, many of those lanes have been taken over by cars and buses, their roar and honk drowning out the tinkle of bicycle bells.

Yet despite China's leap into modernity, the bicycle is far from dead--its numbers are growing. For many Chinese, pedal power remains a mainstay--for commuting, sending children to school or making a living.

And getting around the traffic jams.

As the Chinese fall in love with cars, and Westerners fall out of love with them, China is once again a winner. According to the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based environmental think tank, of the 130 million bikes manufactured worldwide last year, China made 90 million, and exported two-thirds of them. About nine in 10 bikes bought by Americans are made in China.

In China, the bicycle's enduring role epitomizes the country's wider transitions--from countryside to city, from planned economy to freewheeling capitalism. Multiplying cars may be a sign of affluence, but the bike's staying power is a reminder that most of China's 1.3 billion people have yet to make it into the middle class.

In the shadows of Shanghai's skyscrapers and towering elevated highways, it is bicycle wheels that have enabled migrants like Wang Chunliang to make the great leap from countryside to the big city.

Tan and sturdy, the 30-year-old hauls flowers and garden supplies from an outdoor market to upscale Shanghai homes on a three-wheeled bicycle cart called a "sanlunche" (pronounced san-loon-chuh). That and a little gardening earn him about $300 a month--enough to live on and support his family in rural Anhui, hundreds of miles away.

"Compared with some jobs, this isn't too bad. And it's a decent living," says Wang, shrugging off the perils of traffic and bad weather.

In Shanghai and other cities, pedal-pushing rural migrants can be seen everywhere, delivering goods, gathering waste for recycling or peddling anything from popcorn and pirated DVDs to books and baby rabbits.