Beijing's green and pleasant bike ways

In the springtime, a young (or old) man's heart turns to ... bikes. Wandering around Beijing on my bike restores me mentally and spiritually. My wife says it's my religion.

Visitors to Beijing often see it as a city of traffic. It certainly has too many cars for my liking, but it has large green spaces. And, it's getting greener.

To my surprise, I've found Beijing to be a great biking city. About 19 percent of the population of Beijing commutes by bike. Despite 15 years of biking infrastructure investment, my hometown of Washington has still only reached about 2 percent. Most Beijing streets already have protected side roads for slow-moving vehicles and the presence of many riders provides safety in numbers.