Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
北京，一个人骑着摩拜单车。在中国各个城市的共享单车市场上摩拜和Ofo是领头羊。
北京——在她北京办公室外面的人行道上，曹达垂（Cao Dachui，音）蹬着一辆时尚小巧、橙银两色的自行车，她踢下车子的金属支架，锁上后轮。从附近的地铁站骑车半英里来到这里只需花费14美分租车，而且她可以把这辆自行车停在任何地方。
BEIJING — Stepping off a stylish, compact, orange-and-silver bicycle on the sidewalk outside her Beijing office, Cao Dachui kicked down its metal stand and locked the back wheel. Her half mile ride from a nearby subway station cost just 14 cents, and she could leave the bike anywhere.
“非常方便，”27岁的曹达垂说，公共汽车和小轿车从她身边呼啸而过，排出汽油尾气的臭味。如果步行到她的广告代理公司需要花费两倍的时间。“生活真的变得更方便了，”她说。她的朋友，23岁的马正（Ma Zheng，音）正在停放自己的共享自行车，也点了点头。
“It’s so very convenient,” Ms. Cao, 27, said as buses and cars roared by, disgorging the stink of gasoline exhaust. Walking to the advertising agency would have taken twice as long. “Life has really gotten easier,” she said. Her friend Ma Zheng, 23, who was parking his own shared bike, nodded.
北京曾经是一个自行车的城市，是这个被称为自行车王国的国家的首都，成百上千万辆的两轮车在国家计划经济体系中主导着城市交通，而汽车则留给官方活动和政界掌权者使用。从20世纪90年代起，数十年来，中国取得了令人瞩目的经济增长，导致了汽车在北京等城市大量涌现，如今，在大城市里，拥有一辆汽车不仅仅是中产阶级的标志，而且几乎是婚姻的先决条件。随着经济的快速发展，汽车将自行车挤出道路，也造成了严重的污染和糟糕的交通状况。
Beijing was once a city of bikes, the capital of a country known as the Bicycle Kingdom for the millions of two-wheelers that dominated urban transport in a state-planned economy where cars were reserved for official business and the politically powerful. Decades of remarkable economic growth, beginning in the 1990s, led to a huge influx of cars in cities like Beijing, where owning one became not just a marker of reaching the middle class but also practically a prerequisite for marriage. As the economy roared, autos pushed bikes off the roads, creating heavy pollution and miserable traffic.
Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
北京的早高峰。这里的通勤者长期忍受着拥挤的公共汽车和实行机场式安检的地铁，所以很多中国人都很欢迎为其提供了另一个选项的共享单车。
现在，北京可能正在回归本源——不过带有一丝现代化色彩。在大约20多家科技初创公司的努力之下，自去年以来，色彩明亮的共享自行车淹没了北京，明黄、翠蓝与橘红色的自行车点缀着以往单调的城市风景。
Now, Beijing may be returning to its roots — with a modern twist. Thanks to about two dozen technology start-ups, brightly colored shared bikes have flooded Beijing since last year, dotting a normally drab cityscape with flashes of bumblebee yellow, kingfisher blue and tangerine.
长期以来，北京通勤者都要忍受拥挤的公共汽车和实行机场式安检的地铁，所以许多像曹达垂这样的中国人都喜欢上了共享自行车带来的的灵活与自由。通勤者推起自行车就可以骑，之后可以把车子随意放在任何地方，只要锁上后轮就好，不必找一个支架或是连上什么设备，这和巴黎或纽约的城市自行车服务完全不同。
Beijing commuters have long endured packed buses and airport-style security checks at subways, so many Chinese like Ms. Cao are embracing the shared bikes for the flexibility and freedom they offer. Commuters pick up the bikes and then ride and drop them off anywhere they like, locking the back wheel, with no need to find a stand or retether them, in contrast to city bike programs in Paris or New York.
城市障碍在这里不是什么新鲜事。滑板车在人行道上穿梭而过，汽车也经常随便停放，甚至是在人行横道上，这让北京的日常生活显得像是一场令人手忙脚乱的视频游戏。但是这些自行车像明亮的糖果一样散布在城市之中，把北京的混乱提升到另一个水平，这让机动车司机们尤为不安。
Urban obstruction is nothing new here. Scooters whiz down sidewalks and cars often park randomly, even on crosswalks, giving daily life in Beijing the feeling of a hectic video game. But the bikes — strewn around the city like bright candies — have taken Beijing’s chaos to another level, and drivers are particularly upset.
“过去的几个月里，自行车简直是疯了。它们就像占领城市的怪物，”29岁的黄林伟（Huang Linwei，音）说，他是一名设计师，每天从北京东郊的通州开车进入市区工作。“不止一次，我很难停放自己的车子，因为自行车停得到处都是！”
“In the last few months, the bikes have been going crazy. They’re like monsters occupying the city,” said Huang Linwei, 29, a designer who drives to work in Beijing every day from Tongzhou, an eastern suburb. “More than once I’ve found it difficult to park my car because the bikes are parked all over the place!”
Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
跨上一辆Ofo单车。通勤者可以跨上单车，骑行一段时间，然后随意停放在任何地方。
另外一些人担心的则是自己的生计。56岁的电动三轮车司机徐建民（音）说，自从数以万计的单车开始在刚刚过去的这个冬天现身街头以来，他通过运送通勤者赚的钱便不如以前多了。
Others fear for their livelihood. Xu Jianmin, 56, an electric rickshaw driver, said he had made less money transporting commuters since the tens of thousands of bikes began appearing this winter.
“我知道我们的生意处于灰色地带，我们没在政府部门那里登记，如果我们受了影响，肯定不会有人在意，”徐建民说。“但我必须挣钱。”
“I know our business is kind of a gray zone, that we are not registered with the government, and of course nobody cares if we’re affected,” Mr. Xu said. “But I have to make money.”
“如果干的是别的工作，我可能也会喜欢这些自行车，”他补充道。
“I probably would like the bikes, too, if I had another job,” he added.
Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
一家共享单车公司的一名员工，把单车汇集起来，送往取车点。骑行者抵达终点后不必找支架或是连上什么设备，这和巴黎或纽约的城市自行车服务全然不同。
Ofo是中国城市共享单车市场的领头羊之一，其女发言人安吉拉·蔡(Angela Cai)说，该公司正致力于解决单车被乱放于公共场所的问题。眼下，在朝阳区的马路边能看到身穿蓝色厚外套的工作人员收集被乱放的Ofo单车。
Angela Cai, a spokeswoman for Ofo, a market leader in bike-sharing in cities across China, said the company was working to address the dumping of bikes in public places. Workers wearing heavy blue coats can now be spotted on side roads in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, picking up discarded Ofos.
北京市政府本月宣布，将在6月底前发布共享单车停放和管理运维规定，希望相关公司予以配合。
This month, the municipal government said it would issue parking, management and maintenance regulations for the bikes by June, and that it expected the companies to cooperate.
骑乘共享单车只需在智能手机上点几下。
Riding the bikes requires only a few taps on a smartphone.
顾客先下载相关创业公司的应用程序，再以电子转账的方式存入一笔押金，然后每骑行一次就通过车辆代码付一次费。在北京这样的地方，依赖移动科技的单车如鱼得水——就连这里的老年人也常常抢先尝试科技产品。
Customers download one of the start-ups’ apps, electronically transfer a deposit and then pay per ride by using a bike’s individual code. Bikes that rely on mobile technology feel right at home in a place like Beijing, where even elderly people are often early adapters of technology.
一些公司提供预订服务，甚至是能让骑行者找到一辆离自己最近的单车的GPS。但该服务并非总像听上去那么好用——不久前，我预订了一辆单车，但转来转去整整10分钟，也没找到它。我当时在一所高层购物中心里，而它有可能被停放在别的楼层，不在我所能搜寻的范围之内。
Some companies offer booking services and even GPS to enable riders to find the nearest pair of wheels. But it doesn’t always work as well as it sounds — when I booked a bike recently, I wandered in circles for 10 minutes without finding it. I was at a high-rise mall, and it is possible the bike was parked on a different floor from those I was able to check.
共享单车旨在服务于那些下了公共交通工具之后，距离工作或娱乐地点还剩最后一截距离的人，每使用一小时最低仅需付费7美分。它们有可能改变城市生活，甚至影响人们关于在哪里居住和工作的决定。在这个拥有2000万人口、其中很多人每天的通勤时间都长达好几个小时的城市里，这些是至关重要的问题。
Costing as little as 7 cents a half-hour and designed to take people the last leg from public transport to their places of work or entertainment, the bikes have the potential to transform urban living and even shape people’s decisions about where to live and work. Those are vital issues in this sprawl of about 20 million people, many of whom spend hours a day commuting.
“有了这样一辆自行车，或许我就可以选择，比如说，住得更远一点儿，或者在一个交通不那么便利的地方找一份工作，”在广告代理公司工作的曹达垂说。
“Having a bike like this might allow me to choose, say, to live a bit further out, or take another job in a place that isn’t as easy to get to,” said Ms. Cao, the employee at the advertising agency.
中国的分析人士称，共享单车异军突起背后有三个因素：大量寻找去处的资金，一个好创意，以及政府的支持。
Analysts in China say there are three factors behind the sudden surge: a lot of cash looking for a home, a good idea and government support.
来自Ofo和财经杂志《财新》的数据显示，2015年3月以来，两个行业领导者——摩拜和Ofo——从国内外吸引到了约7.5亿美元私人投资，其中很大一部分是近期募得的。
Since March 2015, two industry leaders — Mobike and Ofo — have attracted about $750 million in private investment from China and overseas, the bulk of it in recent months, according to Ofo and Caixin, a financial magazine.
但中国数据及分析公司易观的分析员王晨曦（音）认为，容易找到钱只是这个故事的一部分。“这背后是资本的推动，但共享单车是一个好产品，”王晨曦通过通讯应用微信接受采访时说。“资本需要一个出口，就在这时候，共享单车来了。”
But easy money is only part of the story, according to Wang Chenxi of Analysys, a Chinese data and analysis firm. “Behind this is the push of capital, but shared bikes are a good product,” Ms. Wang said in an interview via WeChat, a messaging app. “Capital needs an outlet, and just at that moment, shared bikes came along.”
Ofo的女发言人安吉拉·蔡说，该公司认为，在北京人口的日益增长和交通状况继续恶化之际，“共享单车能以一种环境友好型方式解决‘最后一公里’问题。”
Ms. Cai, the Ofo spokeswoman, said the company thought that as the city’s population grew, and traffic jams got worse, “shared bikes could solve the ‘last mile’ problem in an environmentally friendly way.”
上海的中欧国际商学院的教授林宸（音）说，为共享单车初创企业带来当前投资速度和规模的另一个因素是政府的支持。“只有政府支持一个行业，资本才会快速涌入，”她说。
Another important reason for the speed and scale of the investment in the bike-sharing start-ups is government support, said Lin Chen, a professor at the China Europe International Business School, which is based in Shanghai. “Capital only goes quickly to industries that the government supports,” she said.
共享单车在如此短的时间里变得如此受欢迎，引得一些中国媒体连连质疑这个行业存在泡沫，并预言不同创业公司之间免不了要开展市场份额争夺战，类似的情形曾发生在中国的召车公司身上。最后，优步中国(Uber China)把自己卖给了跟它在中国斗得最凶的对手滴滴出行。
The bikes have become so popular so quickly that they have also led to questions in Chinese media of an industry bubble and predictions of a battle for market share among the different start-ups, like what happened among ride-hailing companies in China. Uber China ultimately sold itself to its fiercest rival there, Didi Chuxing.
中国门户网站搜狐最近一篇文章的标题这样问道：最近特别火的共享单车，是商业泡沫还是下一个滴滴？
A recent headline on the Chinese portal sohu.com asked: “Are the recently extremely popular shared bikes a bubble, or the next Didi?”
共享单车在经常使用它们的人当中激起了一种看得见摸得着的热情——甚至是兴高采烈之感。
Among frequent users of the bikes, they provoke a tangible sense of enthusiasm — even glee.
不久前的一个午后，现年70岁的冯玉琴（音）使用智能手机，给停放在曹达垂的办公室附近人行道上的一辆单车解了锁。她说她以前常常骑着自己的脚踏车或电动自行车去公园锻炼，但车子被盗过好几次。
One recent afternoon, Feng Yuqin, 70, used her smartphone to unlock a bike parked on a sidewalk near Ms. Cao’s office. She said that she used to ride either her own pedal bike or her electric bike to the park to exercise, but that the bikes had been stolen a few times.
“有了这些单车，就不会再遭受损失了，”她说。“这让我很高兴！”
“With these, there’s no loss,” she said. “It makes me really happy!”
作者：狄雨霏(DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW)
联系客服
