New to biking in Beijing

Hi all. I moved to Beijing in 2004, from Canada. Last year I bought a little electric scooter to get to work and back. It was great, easy to get in and out of traffic and ride around the traffic jams. Recently I bought myself an r9, goes faster but mostly so I could go farther than 2 hours in a stretch. I love the bike. Have been kind of naive with the purchase though and surely wish I had investigated and came to this web site before I bought it. A lot of grey areas and even after 7 years my Chinese is not so good. I was looking for a small bike that I could use legally without problems. My bike is now sitting in the traffic management bureau of the Beijing traffic police gathering dust. I will however get a first hand knowledge of what is and what isn't ok. I am skeptical but there is a lot of grey area.

Good luck getting the bike back. Kinda sucks going from riding one day, to not riding the next. Tempting as it is to plead (foreigner's) ignorance, that is far less of a "get out of jail" ticket than it once was, and enforcement is slowly becoming the norm rather than the exception. Ultimately that's a good thing -- rule of law and all that jazz -- but that doesn't much help you with your R9. I'm hoping you (with an assist from your wife) can find sufficient grey area to get the bike out, and see what you can do to reduce your future vulnerability.

Keep us posted. I bet it'll be an enlightening tale!

By the way, is there an explanation for your forum name xiaoqiang?

cheers

Hi xiaoqiang - welcome to the forum.

What's been happening with your bike? Did you get it back?