Cycling fans put sector on the road to recovery

Gao Shusan ditched his Peugeot 3008 in April and began cycling to office, putting him among a growing contingent of health-conscious young urbanites who are changing their lifestyles to be more environmentally friendly.

Now the 31-year-old battles narrow bicycle lanes each day, much like his father and the millions of other Chinese who in recent decades helped China become known as "the bicycle kingdom" before it emerged as the world's biggest auto market in 2009.

Bikes were so closely associated with the image of the country, in fact, that when George H.W. Bush visited Beijing in 1986 in his role as the head of the US Liaison Office, he was given two of them from the central government - one for him, another for his wife.