Chinese roads are becoming less bicycle friendly as part of the population is starting to become car crazy. I've read articles that have described how bicycles are being banned from some major roads, so that the roads can be motor-vehicle-centric. (Forecasts suggest that Chinese oil consumption will surpass American oil consumption, which is a pretty staggering amount of oil. So this means that we may be in the post-oil-economy sooner than we had originally expected.)

In the early days of the automobile in parts of the US, it was fashionable for women to dab a small amount of gasoline behind their ear like perfume, since cars were considered fashionable or stylish. (Source: the history book 'Challenging Chicago'.) While I haven't heard of the Chinese using gasoline as perfume, there does seem to be parallels between the early car craze in America and the current car craze in China.