What's an eBike ChinA
An eBike is an electric bike/bicycle. There are many types of eBike in China:
- Electric bicycle: having the shape of a regular bicycle and still having pedals
- Electric scooter: a scooter with an electric engine (same driving position as seating a chair)
- Electric motorbike: same as the scooter but with a motorbike design (seating with the bike between your legs)
- Foldable eBike: Having pedals, much smaller bike that can be folded to be carried
During our time there, it was pretty easy to get an eBike. You just had to buy it and drive it. There was no need for a special driving license, no need to register it nor insure it.
Now it changed and all eBike must be registered. Also, some city in China banned them.
In Chinese we would call the eBike “Dian dong Che” 电动车 (electric vehicle)
Alex's eBike
My eBike was an electric motorbike called small monkey “Xiao Hou Zi 小猴子”
At this time, it was a cool looking eBike and was just getting on the market. After spending over a year and half on the bus everyday (up to 1h30 one way to work), I purchased this eBike for about 5 800 RMB which is about 800€. That’s was more than an ordinary eBike (you could get new eBike for twice this price) but that eBike was just the best at that time. It was able to reach up to 70 km/h, had great brakes and allowed me to reach work in less than 30min.
Let’s talk about safety, Helmet??? Not mandatory at all., I didn’t have one at the beginning but ultimately took one. I never had a crash nor an accident in one year and half using it every day, but we never know. At least it was warmer in winter and would protect my eyes from the dust! I was mainly using it to go to work as it was 30min, 10km one way. Generally, to go out for dinner or to a party, goggle would do the job.
And about the rule, one and only one rule applied there, what’s in front of you! that’s the only thing you need to care about.
Take care of it
Living in a growing city means living with dust. Quickly my eBike would get super dirty and leaving in an apartment is not going to make it easy to clean. But a great way is to simply pay 10 RMB and have a car wash shop clean it. Takes about 15min and they do a quite a good job. Those shops where all around town and are easy to spot. Looks like garages with lots of water in front!
It’s important to take care of it and to maintain it in time in order not to have it break down.
Regarding theft safety, I had a lock on the eBike, it was simple and quick and was meant to be installed on the front brake disk. From time to time I wasn’t using it and where only putting the handlebar lock, but it never was an issue, the bike was always there!
Another advice is to get yourself a good protection for winter to cover your hand and legs. It doesn’t cost much and can be buy online ‘TaoBao” and will keep your warm. It is made to be installed on the eBike around the handlebar
Recharging it
When you buy your eBike, you get along a charger. So, charging your eBike in China should be quite easy, especially that many solutions happen to exist:
- At home, the charger is made to be connected to regular plugs, same as your phone. One solution would be to bring the eBike inside your apartment and to charge it. But that may not be too convenient.
- In front of your home or inside your residence: Lots of building have a dedicated area to charge eBike either for 1 or 2 RMB or with a card that you top up.
- Fast charging shop: lots of convenient store 24/7 have small yellow boxes in front of them allowing you to fast charge your bike for 10, 15 or 20min. Not the best solution for the battery life but it comes handy.
We had in front of our building 30 plugs or so where eBike could be charge at night and no one would even steal your charger.
It happens
Driving an eBike means that one day you will eventually run out of battery. That happen to us all and it happened to me. One cold night, I was working late and couldn’t charge the bike at work. When I left the office, I noticed that I was already almost out of power (Usually I could do 2 days without recharging it, so 2 go/return to my office). But this night I left the office out of energy. It was maybe that I used more power or that the weather was colder.
After a few minutes driving, of course the bike stopped! Oh boy! One solution left, push it… until a fast charging shop where I dropped it for 15min and then kept on. I almost reach my place but ended up pushing it anyway to reach home. The 15min fast charging wasn’t enough!
Cold weathers don’t do great on battery, better charge it every night… the 10km back home at midnight were not cool at all. But stand for a great story.
In real situation
In Rome do as the Romans, that’s what you have to do while driving your eBike. Don’t think about European rules or anything, drive like locals do.
Use the pavement when needed, use the road when possible, burn a red light if the intersection is empty, follow the locals to lean the rules!
Finishing line
One last picture of my eBike next to Tina’s one.
And yes, Tina also had an eBike but that one was almost free of charge as a friend gave it to us. It was an electric scooter and was great until it broke down for good 6 months before we left. But that was an old one.
Where to Stay in Zhengzhou
If you happen to be in ZZ, we would recommend to stay in a modern and known hotel. For my business trip, I stayed at:
“With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding.” – Sandra Lake
