This Day, That Year

Item from May 4, 1997, in China Daily: Motorcycles are stealing the scene from bicycles and overshadowing automobiles on city streets and rural roads in China, where 1.2 billion people rely on 300 million bikes and less than 2 million passenger cars to commute.

People are enthusiastic about motorcycles, which are perhaps the best transportation method for a developing country.

China's motorcycle market has suffered a downturn in recent years because cities such as Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, have banned them to control traffic congestion.