CHINA, NATIONAL, BEIJING, SOCIETY, NEWS BRIEF: Are We Ever Supposed to Own Our New Bicycles?
By Li Zhen
On October 6th, after having lunch in NongYuan Cafeteria, Tracy put her new bicycle in the rack in front of the Guanghua Management School building, at Peking University, locked the chain, went in and began her preparation for the Postgraduate Entrance Examination. After a whole afternoon's study, she left the classroom and could not find her new bicycle anywhere. Suddenly she realized it was stolen.
Tracy, a fourth-year student of HuaQiao University, Fujian Province, came to Beijing this past summer vacation to gain access to the teachers and lectures of the renowned school. She rented a dormitory at DaoXiangyuan, which is not far away from the university. Since the campus is a bit large, she bought a bicycle several days ago, and it was quite convenient for her to travel by bicycle to study everyday, especially when she carried her laptop and lots of books.
She was quite disappointed the moment she realized that her bicycle was stolen. After a night's sorrow, however, she said to one of her good friends the next morning: "Just forget about it, after all, we have much more important work to do. Tomorrow is another day."
On October 8th, Jane, a student of BFSU, went to Peking University to listen to a lecture given by Jing Yidan, a very famous anchor on CCTV. She put her bicycle where she always did with all the others in front of the Science Building, and carefully locked it together with her friend's bicycle. Although a bit worried that it might be stolen because it was new, cool and expensive, she fitted it with two new locks and reminded herself of her belief that people were in essence good.
When the lecture finished, she found that she was not only naive but had greatly underestimated the skill of the thieves. The lock was cut off and her new bicycle was gone forever. It was her second bike--the first one stolen only a week before. Frustrated and heartbroken, she swore never to buy a new bike again.
This kind of phenomenon is quite normal in the Haidian District, a university-centered area in Beijing, especially at Peking University, where lots of people come in and out every day. Most of the students interviewed were quite used to the situation. When every new semester begins, there is a great demand for bicycles, especially used ones. Out of the south gate of Peking University, you can easily find people selling stolen bicycles along the street, with broken locks but quite cheap prices.
"Using the ordinary locks, it is almost useless in preventing bikes from being stolen," said one of the bicycle repairers at the university. "Nowadays the thieves have become more and more skillful and it is a piece of cake for them to unclench or cut the lock off if your lock isn't strong enough."
When we walk around the campus, we can easily find people selling new bicycles. But many of them are actually used ones. People fix-up the secondhand bikes, or recondition them, paint and sell them as new ones.
There is a great demand for secondhand bicycles on the campus because the thieves steal so many only to turn around and sell them back to students. Students are afraid that their bicycles will be stolen, however, they keep on buying stolen bicycles from the thieves even though they know the source. It is a vicious circle.
It is so easy for thieves to enter universities since a university is a public place. The flow of people is large and it's hard for police to keep a close eye on every corner of the campus.
Under the circumstances, we cannot help wondering: when we are ever going to really own our new bicycles?
On October 6th, after having lunch in NongYuan Cafeteria, Tracy put her new bicycle in the rack in front of the Guanghua Management School building, at Peking University, locked the chain, went in and began her preparation for the Postgraduate Entrance Examination. After a whole afternoon's study, she left the classroom and could not find her new bicycle anywhere. Suddenly she realized it was stolen.
Tracy, a fourth-year student of HuaQiao University, Fujian Province, came to Beijing this past summer vacation to gain access to the teachers and lectures of the renowned school. She rented a dormitory at DaoXiangyuan, which is not far away from the university. Since the campus is a bit large, she bought a bicycle several days ago, and it was quite convenient for her to travel by bicycle to study everyday, especially when she carried her laptop and lots of books.
She was quite disappointed the moment she realized that her bicycle was stolen. After a night's sorrow, however, she said to one of her good friends the next morning: "Just forget about it, after all, we have much more important work to do. Tomorrow is another day."
On October 8th, Jane, a student of BFSU, went to Peking University to listen to a lecture given by Jing Yidan, a very famous anchor on CCTV. She put her bicycle where she always did with all the others in front of the Science Building, and carefully locked it together with her friend's bicycle. Although a bit worried that it might be stolen because it was new, cool and expensive, she fitted it with two new locks and reminded herself of her belief that people were in essence good.
When the lecture finished, she found that she was not only naive but had greatly underestimated the skill of the thieves. The lock was cut off and her new bicycle was gone forever. It was her second bike--the first one stolen only a week before. Frustrated and heartbroken, she swore never to buy a new bike again.
This kind of phenomenon is quite normal in the Haidian District, a university-centered area in Beijing, especially at Peking University, where lots of people come in and out every day. Most of the students interviewed were quite used to the situation. When every new semester begins, there is a great demand for bicycles, especially used ones. Out of the south gate of Peking University, you can easily find people selling stolen bicycles along the street, with broken locks but quite cheap prices.
"Using the ordinary locks, it is almost useless in preventing bikes from being stolen," said one of the bicycle repairers at the university. "Nowadays the thieves have become more and more skillful and it is a piece of cake for them to unclench or cut the lock off if your lock isn't strong enough."
When we walk around the campus, we can easily find people selling new bicycles. But many of them are actually used ones. People fix-up the secondhand bikes, or recondition them, paint and sell them as new ones.
There is a great demand for secondhand bicycles on the campus because the thieves steal so many only to turn around and sell them back to students. Students are afraid that their bicycles will be stolen, however, they keep on buying stolen bicycles from the thieves even though they know the source. It is a vicious circle.
It is so easy for thieves to enter universities since a university is a public place. The flow of people is large and it's hard for police to keep a close eye on every corner of the campus.
Under the circumstances, we cannot help wondering: when we are ever going to really own our new bicycles?
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