Cup of Cha
This is China

I’ve lived in China for four years, give or take, and I’ve only ever had one bike stolen. This is a miracle. It’s true, I may have just jinxed myself, but I was looking at my bike today, and it’s not in great shape anyway. If someone stole it I could just buy a new one. They only cost about 25 Euros anyway (Note: when converting RMB into foreign currency I only use Euros since the Dollar is dropping faster than Cuba Gooding Jr’s stock after Boat Trip.)

Not having bicycles stolen is pretty unusual in the Chinese experience. In Chengdu one got nicked during my second year, but that was considered a damn fine record. Some of my colleagues had such bad experiences that they had given up on the bike altogether. One teacher told me that she had had 16 bikes stolen in 4 years, but that another friend of ours had stopped buying them after her 27th went missing over a seven year period. The old joke in Chengdu was that people didn’t buy bikes, they rented them for a month, after which you could rent the same one from the second-hand market.

In all fairness, I did not have a bike my year in Dalian, so that helped my stats. With its hills and spread out design, bikes are not of much use, so it’s more like one in three years. My current transportation cost 250RMB (about 27 Euros, give or take). It’s lasted me about eight months, but to look at it you might think I store it on a construction site, which given that I live in Beijing, I essentially do. Twice I’ve left the key in one of my two locks twice, although once it was in a storage are with a guard, and the second time I realized within five minutes. Apparently thieves aren’t prepared for such stupidity, and they passed it over.

Aside from the fact that people have to re-stock bikes continuously due to theft, they aren’t exactly built to last, anyway. I mean, if you pay 27 Euros for a bike, there’s a good chance the manufacturer hasn’t checked the paint for lead, if you know what I mean. The bell on my current bike, and yes, I have a bell, and I’m still a manly man, has been replaced twice, and it currently squeaks like a sparrow getting stepped on by a toddler. The basket has broken once, and I seem perpetually out of air, even though I’ve replaced the tube. What I’m saying is, I’m pretty happy with it, but I wouldn’t be crushed if I had to replace it.

And I think that’s the attitude you need to have with bikes in China: someone will probably steal it, and if not it’s likely to disintegrate to dusk in a year or two, so be prepared. And I’m okay with that. Everything must come to an end, even a Forever.

Tags: bike, theft
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