It seems everybody here is buying a new mountain bike for around 1500- 8000rmb

You can see them driving around in big groups or as individuals. IT really is a hype right now in this region. If you just look at the number of shops that are selling them compared to just one year ago you will see that this reuters reporter came to the right conclusion .

Sorry, but saving a few bucks a month on a translator should come second to having reporters who actually KNOW how to be reporters. You have inexperienced people doing the job and hence letting people down and the above article is a perfect example.

Also, I do speak Chinese, just not well enough to conduct interviews.

Anyway, I am a bike enthusiast. Have been for years. All I can say from living here or years is that China has a very lame biking culture. Perhaps 1 in 1 million bikes here are nice bikes. And as for manufacturing goes, there is not one high end bike part manufactured in China.

The parts list on one of my bikes, a single speed dirt jumper, mountain bike, reads like a part list of the first world. farm, made in Canada. Pedals, handle grips, stem, made in the USA. Rear hub, brakes and rotors, made in Germany, handle bars, cranks, and front hub, seat post, made in Taiwan, Spokes and hoops, made in Sweden, fork, made in Italy… have I forgotten anything…. Not a damn thing from China.

Building a new bike now (my 4th in China, I have 2 24″ wheel BMX cruisers here too). Waiting for my 18,000 rmb frame to arrive from America. Hand built in the USA, oh yeah. Another 18k spent on the rest of what makes up a bike, and I’ll be able to hit the HangZhou hills. Building this bike, getting parts (the right parts) has proven to be extremely difficult. I figure it’ll be 9 months from my first order before I have it put together and use-able. That’s China. an extremely hard place to get a good bike

So I scoff at this report. Not because of the bullockness of the claims about Chinese buying nice bikes, but because they make it sound like it’s as easy as apple pie to buy (To build from parts actually. Only newbies buy bikes), in China. Hahaha! Chinese wouldn’t know a nice bike if it bit them in the ass.

Oh yeah. His most expensive bike worth nearly 2000 US dollars…. hahaha. I thought they were interviewing “rich” Chinese. And the guy that came into the shop asking what’s the best and most expensive.. Hahahahaa. what a douche! I would have sold him the crappiest bike there for 10x it’s value. It’s not like he’d ever ride the damn thing. Perhaps a Giant with a “ge” sound for the G, an ‘ee” sound for the I, and an “ah” sound for the A and told him it was a famous French brand… Haahaha!

I’m sure you would be similarly shocked and angered to be passed over for a job with the Associated Press in Paris despite not speaking French.

I had a couple interviews at local mags and such as well, and wasn’t hired for what i suspect was a different reason, the editors don’t want people who actually know what they’re doing working there….cause the editors have no idea how to actually do their jobs and are intimidated.

Either way, I have had a hard time trusting “publications” out of China ever since seeing how it works.