ABSTRACT
It is difficult to believe now, but I used to bike all over Beijing. After graduating from college, and working a summer job, I moved to China’s capital city to study at Beijing University, the country’s top educational establishment. Not long after arriving on campus, I visited a state-run department store (there were no private stores back then) and picked out a black (well, all the bikes were black) Flying Pigeon brand classic cruiser. My Flying Pigeon was a men’s bike, but since it had a 22-inch frame, smaller than the standard 28-inch frames, it suited me. As a foreign student I was able to buy a bike directly from the store without having to wait for a ration permit. This was in 1985, six years into China’s reform era and the shift from a centrally planned economy to a global market economy.
