In Photos: 'Graveyard of Bikes' Depicts Total Failure of China's Share Cycle-scheme

Handlebars tight in snaking rows of colour, thousands of abandoned bicycles line an open field outside the city of Shenyang, relics of a shared bike mania that has overwhelmed China's cities. The turquoise, blue and yellow bicycles, arranged in long lines, some piled on top of each other, bear the logos of the companies that dominate China's bike-sharing sector -- Hellobike, Didi and Meituan. In picture, an aerial photo shows abandoned public shared bicycles at a lot in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning province. (Credit: AFP)

Low cost-shared bikes burst onto Chinese streets in the middle of the last decade. But the two-wheelers soon took over pavements and spilled over into bike lanes and streets, parked haphazardly by users who sometimes simply tossed the bikes into shrubbery, creating a headache for urban authorities and pedestrians.(Photo Credit: STR / AFP) / China OUT

Many bikes suffered damage or were stolen, while some were even repurposed into makeshift barricades when Covid-19 broke out last year. The problem is a familiar one to cities around the world battling to round up stray bikes.
(Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT

Mountains of damaged bikes belonging to other companies have also been discarded rather than repaired, in contrast to the "green" image usually associated with urban cycling.The bikes now jostle for space on Chinese streets with hordes of shared electronic scooters. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT

Chinese cities have vowed to curb the chaotic fleets of bikes, with Beijing saying it will remove 44,000 bikes from the city centre this year in order to cap bike numbers.
(Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT