Everywhere you look in Beijing these days, bicycles stand propped against walls and lined in rows stretched across sidewalks. Pedestrians have taken the development in their stride, dodging only a bit more often or widely to the right or left to skirt the obstructions.

Lines of blue, of yellow, of silver and orange bikes cut off their access from the no man's land of the car-filled streets to the relative safety of the curb. Piles of bikes amass in seemingly random patterns across the city.

Isn't it wonderful!