Keep in mind that as I am writing this, I am not trying to paint China as a modern Mecca. Like all other places, there are problems. However, I find the cycling situation to be interesting and notable. What I find notable is that there is an infrastructure built around the idea, and expectation, that people will live car free.

I went and looked at the other post that you refrenced. I am going to wait untill I take some pictures this afternoon to respond to some of the issues there except to say that there are no, at least as far as I have seen, bike paths. What there is is a lane on each side of nearly all large streets. The lane is seperated by a barrier. This lane is restricted to taxis making stops, and bicycles (and pedesterians, and darn near anything else). There is nothing to stop a rider from riding on the street, which is often done because often the shops spill into, or set up, in this lane. For that matter, there is nothing to stop a person from riding in the sidewalks other than obsticles, like parked bicycles.

Other than on the toll roads (the freeways) I have seen no restrictions on where I can ride. Some places I get strange looks (like when I lift the bike over a bicycle barrier; however, I have never been stopped. I have even had police offer to help me lift my bicycle over the bicycle barriers (I will try to remember to take a picture of one).

As far as taxing bicycles, in the US we already have that. While bicycles are not taxed (not even a VAT on bicycles) or licensed in China; in the US, most major cities require annual licenses on the bicycles. When I lived in Chico, CA the police were checking for bicycle licenses and citeing people that did not have them.

I have to cut this short (I am actiualy getting ready to go look at a new bicycle). The final comment as I get ready to go is that this is Communist China, not Socalist USA, there is no one looking out for for other people here in the manner of making laws for someone elses own good.