Cycle China: Week 4

Shahid started her last legs of cycling in Yangzhou, about 180 miles northwest of Shanghai. This tree-covered walkway connects courtyards in the city's Ge Garden. "Walking down the main streets, one would never guess that the interiors of the old buildings are hiding such detailed gardens behind their walls," she says.

+ View Full Sized Image

Shahid watched this boat pass under a floating pavilion in Yangzhou's Slender West Lake Park, which is modeled after the more famous West Lake Park in Hangzhou.

+ View Full Sized Image

On a nearly two-mile strip of road outside Changzhou, Shahid spotted "every possible type of street lighting imaginable lining both sides of the street," she says. "This amount of production seemed crazy in such a concentrated area, but considering the rate of growth and the size of China, these lights are probably just a small percentage of what's actually needed."

+ View Full Sized Image

By day two of her trip, Shahid changed her plan of taking only local roads and switched to riding on the national roads, which are one tier down from the much more busy highway arterials. She's come across sections of the national roads that are still under construction or newly completed and thus closed to cars but open to bikers. "This happens about twice a week, and I love it," she says. "It's like having my own personal highway."

+ View Full Sized Image

Despite mostly taking the national roads, Shahid still cycled on the local roads here and there. "They gave me a break from traffic," she says. Trucks are less common and she passed or was passed by only the occasional car or bike. Rest stops and shops selling snacks and cold drinks, however, are far fewer and much more spread out on the local roads than the national thoroughfares.

+ View Full Sized Image

Upon arriving in Suzhou, Shahid ran into traffic in the bike lane as she and fellow two-wheeled travelers waited for the street lights to change.

+ View Full Sized Image

In Suzhou, Shahid stopped to tour around, which included a visit to the Tiger Hill Garden. "The historic gardens are not the peaceful sanctuaries one would expect," she reports. "Crowds of tour groups, each with a loud microphoned guide, make the already small courtyard spaces feel even smaller."

+ View Full Sized Image

Bikes are prohibited on the bridge where Shahid planned to cross the Yangtze River. Instead, she rode on a ferry like the one shown in this image. "The ride was everything but a romantic river cruise thanks to the smog blocking the view across the river," she says. Shahid chatted with the ferry attendant, who told her that about 20,000 cars cross on the ferry every day, but only 15 to 20 bikes are seen on the boats in that same time period.

+ View Full Sized Image

"The rubble, scaffolding, and cranes increased in frequency and scale as I got closer to Shanghai," Shahid reports.

+ View Full Sized Image

At last, Shanghai. "I made it just in time to avoid the rain and any possible delays in my travel plans," she says.

+ View Full Sized Image

The rain, however, didn't stop the local cyclists in Shanghai. "The bike lanes were still just as crowded as in good, sunny conditions," Shahid says.

+ View Full Sized Image

Separated bike lanes on busy Shanghai streets let bikers move quickly past cars that are stopped in heavy vehicular traffic.

+ View Full Sized Image

Shanghai boasts a bike-sharing program similar to Vélib’ in Paris and Bixi in North American cities like Montreal and Washington, D.C. Shahid, however, didn't see any of these bikes on the street. "One of the complaints and reasons it's not successful here is the infrequency of stations to pick up and drop off the bikes," she says. "At least they look good on the side of the road."

+ View Full Sized Image

This bike-parking area at a Shanghai subway stop was packed. "It indicated the fact that people are combining biking with public transportation," she observes.

+ View Full Sized Image

Shahid met up with Susan Evans and her Good to China team in their Shanghai studio to talk about biking in the city. Good to China studies projects related to sustainable transportation infrastructure and urban farming. "They say the biggest problem with biking in Shanghai is the fact that each district within the city manages its bike lanes independently, and they aren't all connected," Shahid says. "The disconnect between neighborhoods makes it difficult to ride through the city if you're going further than district boundaries."

+ View Full Sized Image

Shahid (pictured in the middle on the left bench) raised a glass with her SWA Group colleagues from the Shanghai office. "It showed how Shanghai embraces international cultures by celebrating my safe arrival at an Oktoberfest Festival put on by a Chinese development group," she says. Stayed tuned for our final installment of this five-part Cycle China series, in which we chat with Shahid back on U.S. soil.

Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

+ View Full Sized Image