Last Thursday, as Typhoon Pulasan bore down on Shanghai, some of the city’s top bicyclists braved the heat and hit the road for the 2024 Tour of Shanghai. Featuring teams from 20 countries and regions around the world, the event is designed to bring racers to the city’s often-overlooked suburbs like Songjiang and Fengxian. And organizers of this year’s race had another focus in mind: spotlighting Shanghai’s history of bicycle production.

Although cycling has declined in recent years, Shanghai remains a center of bike culture in China. After China’s first bicycle was produced here in the late 19th century, the city’s streets were teeming with them by the 1930s. Then, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it became a manufacturing hub; its Phoenix and Forever brands would become synonymous with the good life in the latter half of the 20th century.

In this piece, Sixth Tone’s photo editors look back at the history of bicycle production and use in Shanghai.

(Header image: A father and his child bike down the neon-lit Nanjing Road in Shanghai, 1994. Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket via Getty Images/VCG)