An overview of different APPs and services available to rent public shared bikes.
Biking is one of the most convenient and fast ways to make your way around Beijing. If you haven't been to Beijing in the last few years the idea of riding a bike here might be frightening but it is actually a very fun experience.
The air in Beijing has gotten better and better over the last years and we only have a few days each month where you should limit your time outside. The climate is very dry so you barely will see any rain, the city is extremely flat, with almost no hills apart from the odd overhead street crossing or tunnel. Almost every street has wide, dedicated bike lanes lined by trees and there are shared public bikes available everywhere.
On your bike, you can simply pass the cars stuck in traffic jams, combine your commute with some sightseeing, and get some light exercise in.
There are three big bike-renting services in Beijing which you can easily distinguish by their color. I don't know any exact numbers about the total bikes available but to my eyes, it seems that the numbers from each service in the city are pretty similar.
Contrary to other cities in Beijing these big bike-sharing providers only provide normal bikes, no E-Bikes.
All bikes have seats that are adjustable in height, a bell, and a front basket. However, you should make a quick check before getting on the bike to ensure that the brakes are working and there are no major issues with the pedals or the handlebar. If you booked any of the multiple-day passes and after unlocking you find the bike not working properly simply lock it again and choose a different bike. You also have the option to report the bike as broken in the APP.
So far I haven't found that there are general rules about the quality of the bikes. Every bike-sharing has different types and generations of bikes in different states of maintenance. Just lookout for the newer-looking bikes and do the functionality test before getting on.
Hello Bike
This is the bike renting service from Alipay. You can either download a separate APP via the Appstore (just search for Hellobike or the Pinyin version of Haluochuxing 哈罗出行) or simply use your Alipay APP to rent those bikes (my recommendation).
These are the light blue bikes with 哈罗 printed on them.
All bike rental services will require you to do a real-name authentication before you can rent your first bike. This usually takes up to 24 hours to process so you should do this at least one day before you plan on renting your first bike. The real name authentification will require your phone number (ideally, with all services, a Chinese phone number), your passport, and a profile picture of you.
Once this is set up you can open your APP, scan the code on the bike and start your ride.
In Alipay, you hopefully already have a payment method set up so that the cost for the ride can be automatically deducted once you finish your ride.
To rent a bike go to Transport > Bike > Scan to ride.
A single ride usually costs between 1.5 and 1.8 RMB but you can also opt to buy 7/30/90-day passes or even longer time periods for unlimited rides and a very cheap price (my 30-day plan costs me around 14 RMB).
Once you scanned the code the lock automatically opens. You can start your ride and when you are done, simply close the lock again, and wait for the notification in the APP that the ride has ended. It might happen that you want to leave the bike in a restricted area where it is not allowed to park bikes. In this case, the lock will automatically reopen after a few seconds and you will need to move the bike to a different area. There are not many areas like this in the city, one I can think of right now are the streets directly around Taikooli Shopping center in Sanlitun.
You also have the option to report damages to the bike via the APP or force-close the lock if you are convinced you still want to leave your bike parked at that place.
Unfortunately, as soon as you scanned the bike the APP interface is no longer available in English so you might have to use translation APPs to navigate around.
Reserving a bike in advance is not possible but you can use the map in the APP in order to get a rough idea of where the next available bike is parked.
Meituan
The yellow and black bikes around the city belong to Meituan (美团). One of the big delivery and food ordering APPs that also provides a lot more services.
To use these bikes you need to download the Meituan APP and either first click on the bike icon (骑车) in the top navigation or directly scan the code on the bike (扫一扫).
Using this service also requires a real name authentication first which will take up to 24 hours. It is possible to sign up with a foreign passport I just made the experience that it needed several attempts until it went through. Alipay was much quicker but I think it is still worth a try because oftentimes you might only find bikes from one provider near you and it's easier if you can choose.
You also need to add a payment method if you haven't already done so and the prices and conditions for renting a bike are pretty similar to those of Alipay.
Didi
I personally still didn't manage to install Didi on my phone but if you managed to do so you will also be able to use their bike renting services. Didi bikes are white-green and one big advantage is that the APP interface is available in English.
Unfortunately, Didi was banned from App stores so it is quite difficult to newly download and install the APP if you haven't already done so before.
Closing comments
When it comes to choosing the best provider for you I guess it comes down to what you can set up and works fastest for you.
If you have Didi und your phone I would definitely recommend going with this APP as the whole interface is available in English. If you cannot download the APP, Hellobike and Meituan are both equally good options, both fully available for real-name authorization for foreigners as well.
The availability of the bikes throughout the whole city is very good. Only at very specific times, it might happen that there are no bikes near you. The general rule to keep in mind is that people will use bikes in order to commute to work in the morning. This means you will find a lot of bikes in Business areas and near subway stations. In the evening these bikes will then be found in the more residential areas.
There are constantly workers from each provider collecting bikes on the street and reallocating them to key locations.
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