Bikes Are Taking Over Chinese Cities! Learn About 共享单车 (gòngxiǎng dānc hē)

I've been studying Mandarin Chinese in Beijing for nearly a year now. Myself and my fellow students wouldn't dare buy a car and try to navigate the unknown streets of Beijing in it. For us, traveling on foot, train and bus has generally been the way to go. However, recently "共享单车 (gòngxiǎng dānchē) bike-sharing" programs have changed the way we move about Beijing and other Chinese cities.

Decades ago, China was known as the "Kingdom of Bicycles". Before the enormous economic growth of the past decades, bicycles were the main form of transportation in the cities and images of streets packed with cyclists going about their day on wheels were world famous. Over the past years, however, the government has invested in the world's largest train and highway systems. Bike use had been in a sharp decline.

Now, bikes are back! Due to congested roads and rising pollution levels, more and more Chinese citizens are turning to bike-sharing programs for necessary trips around the city and also for fun, casual joyrides. Although bike-sharing programs have been popular for many years in cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Boston, China now has 16 or the world's 20 largest bike-sharing systems and they're all growing rapidly!

共享 (gòngxiǎng) = to enjoy together; share; sharing.
单车 (dānchē) = bicycle.

Put them together and get "共享单车 (gòngxiǎng dānchē) bike-sharing" system.

Míngtiān wǒmen qí móbài dānchē qù gōngyuán ba!
A: 明天 我们 骑 摩拜 单车 去 公园 吧！
Let's take a Mobike to the park tomorrow.

Wǒ shǒujī lǐ méiyǒu móbài ruǎnjiàn, dànshì wǒ kěyǐ qí Ofo dānchē qù.
B: 我 手机 里 没有 摩拜 软件，但是 我 可以 骑 Ofo 单车 去.
I don't have the Mobike app on my phone, but I can go with an Ofo bike instead.

Hǎo!
A: 好！
Fine!

So, if you find yourself in one of China's many enormous cities, keep an eye out for a 共享单车 (gòngxiǎng dānchē) at every corner. You can't miss them!

Something anyone traveling in China should be aware of is over-exaggerated tours that will rip you off. Often walking down a street of a famous area in China, you will be approached by tour agencies trying to get you to buy some tour to nearby areas for some supposedly low price.

This happened to me once when I was traveling in Suzhou. We had just one day left there and wanted to see as many of the unique, local attractions as we could. A man approached us and convinced us to go to their nearby tourism agency office. Once in there, we were surrounded by at least 4 salesmen hounding us about how we are making bad choices and to listen to them and take the tours they advise as they know the area so well. We took them for an agreed upon price. These "tours" turn out to be a huge amount of time in a bus, being left at some breakfast restaurant for a long time in an obvious attempt to make us buy food from their friend's shop, and then one of the tours being a silk museum, which was less of a museum and more of a shop selling silk. Clearly the entire itinerary was a tourist trap and they profited from getting tourists to come to these areas and buy things from the shops.

There is a perfect Chinese word to describe how these salesmen get your money: 忽悠. The verb "忽悠 (hūyou)" was originally from a northern Chinese dialect. It was a folk saying that meant "to flicker." Afterwards, it became a popular internet slang about deception. It has the following meanings:

忽悠 (hūyou) — carelessly guide; deceive; trap.
(colloquial) to flicker; to shine unsteadily; to shake; to rock.
(neologism) to coax; to bluff; to dupe; to trick.

Examples:

Wǒmen qù hūyōu hūyōu tā.
我们 去 忽悠 忽悠 他。
We need to go trick him.

Nĭ bié hūyou wŏ le.
你 别 忽悠 我 了。
Don't cheat me any more.

Afterwards, 忽悠 (hūyou) was given a new meaning. It can mean …Read more

Quiz:

A. Claire persuaded people to trust the leader despite his bad reputation.
B. The teacher encouraged the student to participate in the competition.
C. He convinced John to take a job that included boats even though he knew John was scared of water.
D. I bought a useless bag because the store's salesman persuaded me it matched my shoes perfectly.
See Answer