I lived in Shanghai for a year back in the late 80's as decadant Western student. Got me an old bike similar to that but way more heavy duty. It was used for heavy transport. Huge rack on back, no cables for brakes - solid steel rod linkage, the thing must have weighed about 40 lbs. Awesome. The momentum and inertia when riding that bike was incredible. I saw guys packing immense loads and towing like a 500 lb bale of hay or something with these while smoking. They had legs like steel. The only shortfall was the crappy cottered cranks. I had to visit the LBS (Old Man with hammer and punch in alley) once every couple of weeks for new pins. Thought about having them welded but the labor costs were minimal and kept the guy in the alley employed. I had to change money in a local coffee shop around there anyway. Gotta love the Black Market. These days I'm sure motorized vehicles rule the road and cyclists are becoming less and less in the big cities. Too bad. Should have seen the locals when I would romp through their village on my Fat Chance. 4 cents/liter for beer! (Ambient Temp only).

So what would a higher quality "Chinese" bike cost these days?