Zixingche culture

Projections for car purchases in China are sky-high: About 20 million households own cars, country-wide, and although the growth in sales has slowed in the past few months, there are still hundreds of thousands of people buying automobiles every year.

Gone, then, are the days when the streets here were clogged solely with the two-wheeled forms of transport.

But that isn't to say they're ceding supremacy, or that bikes are anything less than ever-present here in Shanghai. I definitely haven't seen any city--including Amsterdam, almost as famed for its bikes as it is for its hallucinogenic pursuits--with nearly as many bikes.

Most roads have designated bike lanes that are crowded with swarms of bicycles, and cyclists tend to take over other lanes, as well. Row upon dense row of bikes, with kickstands down and rear wheels locked to frames, line Fudan University campus, and numerous streets across the city.

Virtually everyone here seems to have a bike, and bikes seem to be the primary way people get around in their immediate vicinity. I would venture to guess they're still the major mode of transportation after public transit. But they seem almost exclusively utilitarian and commuter-oriented; I've seen the odd mountain bike kicking around, but have yet to witness anyone using a bike for exercise. Whereas in many North American cities bicycle commuting seems to be the exception, rather than the rule (especially with bike theft being so damn prevalent), here the opposite is true.

And forget panniers--the shit people pull with their bikes here is beyond impressive: Many of the street stalls selling everything from books to fruit to cheap DVDs are actually enormous, rectangular fold-out crates attached to bike trailers; almost all bikes I've seen are equipped with a basket or a rack or both, and they're usually loaded down with miscellany. Plenty of cyclists, particularly on campus, tool around with people perched side-saddle on their bike racks. In addition to the old-school tinkling bells, some bikes have loudspeakers--I'm regularly woken up around 6:30 a.m. by tinny broadcast voices from bikes passing the nearby intersection.

I'm sure bicycle prevalence is far smaller now than it was when the CCP championed the two-wheeled wonders a few decades ago, but cyclist commuter culture seems well-enough entrenched to last at least a little longer. This is, I think, due in part to their practicality in a country where pragmatism is paramount and there just isn't enough physical space for everyong to have a car and due in part to their affordability. But bikes also figure pretty prominently in the collective psyche, I think. With the possible exception of popularizing that stylin' suit, pushing bikes on the masses might've been the best thing Mao did.