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Cycling the city

The unexpected beauty of China's bicycle graveyards – in pictures

This article is more than 8 years old

For the past 18 months many cities in China have been flooded by millions of dockless share bikes. Those that block pavements or apartment entrances have been removed by authorities to vast storage areas. Viewed from afar they create compelling and mysterious patterns – but also represent waste on an enormous scale

Numerous abandoned public shared bikes can be seen in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province. Photograph: Pacific Press/Barcroft Images

Tue 1 May 2018 06.10 EDT

Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 10.32 EDT

An aerial view of the rental bikes detained by the local urban administration authority of Luyang district in Hefei — An aerial view of the rental bikes detained by the local urban administration authority of Luyang district in Hefei. Given that the shared bikes have several users a day – some of them inexperienced riders who swerve into traffic - they are often damaged, vandalised, or abandonedPhotograph: Feature China/Barcroft Images
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Shared bikes found illegally parked, in an enclosure in Nanning — Share bikes found illegally parked in an enclosure in Nanning. Dubbed ‘Uber for bikes’, the customers rent bikes using their smartphones and can drop them off anywherePhotograph: Costfoto / Barcroft Images
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Tens of thousands of abandoned shared bikes piled up at a carpark in Nanjing city — Tens of thousands of abandoned share bikes piled up at a car park in Nanjing. The bikes are crammed into the 82-metre-long and 60-metre-wide parking space reaching a height of nearly two metresPhotograph: Imaginechina/Rex/Shutterstock
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Discarded Bluegogo shared bicycles crammed into a carpark in Beijing — Discarded Bluegogo share bicycles crammed into a car park in Beijing. Bluegogo, China’s third largest bike-sharing company, went bankrupt last yearPhotograph: Imaginechina/REX/Shutterstock
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Numerous abandoned public shared bikes in Wuhan — Numerous abandoned share bikes in WuhanPhotograph: Pacific Press / Barcroft Images
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Piles of abandoned shared bikes in Shanghai — Piles of abandoned share bikes in ShanghaiPhotograph: VCG via Getty Images
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Thousands of rental bicycles sit near a flyover in Beijing’s Tongzhou district — Thousands of bicycles sit near a flyover in Beijing’s Tongzhou districtPhotograph: Wu Hong/EPA
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Abandoned bicycles from various bike-sharing services in Shanghai — Abandoned bicycles from various bike-sharing services in ShanghaiPhotograph: Aly Song/Reuters
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A crane unloads shared bikes from trucks in Xiamen — A crane unloads shared bikes from trucks in XiamenPhotograph: VCG via Getty Images
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