From Shanghai
Well, even though I'm in Shanghai now and have no bike, I thought I can still blog a bit about what it's like here.
Shanghai is probably the richest city in China right now, and most of the development took place in the last 20 years. While there are still plenty of bicycles on the streets, there are by far more cars here now. Traffic is probably worse than LA, although my experience only comes from a few trips in taxis. With the new riches, people are caught up in "living the luxury life", and getting the same mentality of a bigger SUV being better. While there are definately no where near the number of SUVs on the streets here as compared to SoCal, it's one thing I really don't like seeing. It's bad for traffic, and more importantly, it's horrible for the environment, and most of the time, a waste of natural resources.
Last time I was in the city, I kind of remeber hearing that motorcycles (really the little scooters) were banned in Shanghai. Well, I guess that has changed now. There are plenty of electric scooters on the roads, also some electric assisted bicycles. But there are very few bigger motorcycles. I have only seen a few cruiser style bikes on the streets, and I would guess those are probably very low powered. I have not seen any sport bike yet. But then again, with the craziness of the traffic and drivers here (no one seem to care much about traffic laws, and there is absolutely no courtesy to anyone) I would never ride a motorcycle on the streets with all those cars.
When and if I get some batteries for the camera, I will add some photos of the city.