Wen Ying
Living in the historic city of Beijing, I enjoy cycling around to see its deep corners. The mobility is great. The air is fresh. The stretch is needed. But the only problem is, I do not own a bike and those provided by bike-sharing apps are not always a joy to ride.
So I recently found myself in a Trek store, the leading American bike brand.
The store owner was kind but unable to help. After a busy weekend, all his reasonably-priced, suitable for commute bikes are sold. And by “reasonably-priced”, I mean those tagged in the thousands of yuan, or hundreds of US dollars.
Upon a little research, I found that bikes are huge in China these days. China’s leading retailer JD.com reported a surge of 180 percent in revenue from selling bikes priced between 1,000 and 2,000 yuan last year. For those above 5,000 yuan, revenues even jumped five times.
The larger context is that Chinese consumers are making greener choices. A 2023 report by the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy—a Chinese think tank—shows more than 75 percent of Chinese surveyed prefer to two-foot it or two-wheel it when the destination is close by. Last year, Chinese consumers bought up 60 percent of global EV supply.
The Chinese are taking to biking for fitness, recreation and socializing, all for a higher quality of life. They are also growing fonder of fresh, tropical fruits, including durian from Thailand which saw a nearly 30 percent year-on-year growth in 2023; embracing exotic healthy products such as avocados, whose imports doubled in the past five years; holidaying in another city, which was up by 90 percent in 2023; and light meal kits, whose providers increased by more than 80 percent in number last year. American firm IPG Mediabrands projects a 445 billion yuan health and wellness market in China in 2027, expanding by about six percent each year.
An open and competitive Chinese market is making all this possible. Wiscounsin’s Trek and China’s very own Phoenix and Forever bikes are competing on an equal footing for riders’ attention. America’s iPhones and Huawei’s Mate series are both favored by those looking for a sharp phone. The UK’s Land Rovers and German BMWs purr on China’s motorways as freely as BYD electric cars. Chinese regulators as well as consumers are biased towards nothing but quality and innovation.
The most recent aggregate number shows retail sales was up by 3.5 percent in 2024. More granular figures point to faster growth in services than in goods, bigger increase in rural areas than in cities, and double-digit growth in telecommunication services.
A McKinsey report released earlier last year also finds rising Chinese consumer spending in services and tourism and double-digit growth in sportswear, consumer health, and urban outdoor apparel, which explains my difficulty in getting a Trek bike.
The reports cites an August 2024 survey that shows Chinese consumers are among the most confident in the world, leading their counterparts in America by 18 percentage points, the UK by 29 percentage points and Japan by 46 percentage points.
Unlike the mature advanced economies, the Chinese economy and society are both transitioning. New patterns are replacing old ones. Things are happening on the Chinese market so fast that if you are not prompt, you will miss an opportunity just as I missed my Trek.
(Wen Ying has contributed to the Jakarta Post, New Straits Times, China-US Focus, and currently lives in Beijing.)
