Bikes out in new cultural revolution

BEIJING - Bicycles are as potent a symbol of China as dragons, pandas or the Great Wall, but greater riches means the "Kingdom of Bicycles" has to fend off the challenge of a powerful invading force - millions of cars.

But the bikes are fighting back. A senior Government official has urged people to get back on the saddle as a way of cutting devastating pollution and easing China's worsening traffic.

The sight of packs of bicycles thronging the wide boulevards of Beijing was one of the iconic images of the post-revolution era. There were 500 million cyclists in China back in the early 1980s when China started to open up to the outside world.

Nowadays, bicycles have been banned in parts of Shanghai to stop congestion, and in Beijing, which has anything between four and 10 million bikes, people use their bikes 60 per cent less than they did 10 years ago.

The number of cyclists has dropped as rapidly as car ownership has expanded, leaving riders in Beijing to compete for space with two million cars, a quarter of a million of which were bought in the past two years.

Deputy Construction Minister Qiu Baoxing called for a return to the bicycle and has attacked planners for making it hard to get around on bikes.

"The explosive growth of motor vehicles has caused severe traffic jams and is posing a grave challenge to the country's energy security and urban development," Qiu said.

"The Ministry of Construction is firmly opposed to the elimination of bicycle lanes and has ordered cities to restore them," he said, pointing out the irony that Chinese cities were cutting back on bike lanes to make more room for cars, just as Western cities were building more cycle paths.

A bicycle was a significant investment 20 years ago but now it's a means of getting around for either the very poor in the cities, or the very rich who use them to go mountain biking.

Most people who have made money in the recent boom want to be seen in a shiny big car, not pedalling a bike.

Some refuse to cycle because the air is so foul, despite promises to clean the environment for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"I still love bicycles, but not as much as I used to, partly because the environment in Beijing has become less agreeable. You don't enjoy cycling when you're breathing foul air," said one man who bought a car last year.

The car industry is a "pillar industry" crucial to China's economic development, and the Government seems to have taken sides with the car.

While Beijing is flat and has an existing network of wide bike paths, increasingly they are being turned into lanes for cars or parking spaces.

Facing a suicide mission every morning to get to work or school, cyclists are a demoralised bunch.

"I have to cycle to school, but I prefer to take buses or some other mode of transport because It is not safe to ride on the street," said Xie Kai, 24, a student at Tsinghua University.

Zhou Zhe, 25, a secretary at a consulting agency, lives in downtown Beijing and makes good use of her portable mini-bicycle - a very popular option for short hops.

"But I usually take the subway or taxi to work, simply because they are much faster than a bicycle," she said.

It's not all bad news for the bicycle, and some reckon that simple economics will get people back in the saddle.

High oil prices are gradually feeding into prices at the pump, despite Government subsidies for petrol. And Beijing residents are still reeling from a 25-per cent increase in taxi fares last month which makes taking a cab a less attractive option. China may also take a leaf out of London's book and bring in a congestion charge.

Wang Fenghe, chairman of the China Bicycle Association, said China would continue to be a "Kingdom of Bicycles", as sheer convenience would win out in the end. But even he was forced to give up cycling recently after he was knocked off his bike by a car and injured.

The big push

* Beijing has anything between four and 10 million bicycles.

* Poorer air quality and a rise in car ownership has seen bike use fall 60 per cent in 10 years.

* The city has two million cars, 250,000 of which were bought in the past two years.

* The Government has ordered cities to restore bicycle lanes in an effort to encourage more people back into the saddle.

- INDEPENDENT