老外在中國，對中國的人和事有什么看法？《中國日報》Second Thought欄目系列文章帶你走近老外的真實內心世界。

Everywhere you look in Beijing these days, bicycles stand propped against walls and lined in rows stretched across sidewalks. Pedestrians have taken the development in their stride, dodging only a bit more often or widely to the right or left to skirt the obstructions.
最近在北京的大街小巷都可以看到，自行車停靠在墻邊，排列延伸到人行道上。而對此現象行人也不覺異樣，走在人行道上總能靈活繞開這些占地兒的自行車。

Lines of blue, of yellow, of silver and orange bikes cut off their access from the no man's land of the car-filled streets to the relative safety of the curb. Piles of bikes amass in seemingly random patterns across the city.
這些藍色、黃色、銀色和橙色的自行車切斷了從來往車輛川流不息的大街上到相對安全的路邊的通道。城市到處可見橫七豎八停放的自行車。

Isn't it wonderful!
是不是很驚訝！

I've loved bicycles ever since I was 6 years old. My big sister let me try hers. We lived on a short dead-end street that sloped gently downhill toward a chain-link fence. I climbed on the peddles－the seat was too high－and stood stiffly while momentum carried me toward the fence.
我從6歲開始就愛上了騎自行車。那時我大姐允許我騎她的自行車，我們住的那條小街沒有出口，向下曲折蜿蜒，盡頭是鐵絲網柵欄。因為車座太高上不去，我就直挺挺地站在腳蹬上面，利用一股沖勁兒從高處向柵欄溜下去。

Realizing just before I would hit it that I didn't know how to brake, I turned sharply and traced a tight circle until the bike finally slowed and fell over.
就在撞到柵欄千鈞一發之際，我突然意識到我還不會剎車，于是就一個急轉彎扭轉車頭，在地上蹭出一個圓圈，讓自行車慢慢停下來，最后倒在地上。

I was hooked.
從這件事以后我就迷戀上了騎自行車。

Bikes have always been part of my life, until now, when I find myself without a bike of my own.
自行車一直是我生命中的一部分，直到現在，我發現我竟然沒有一輛屬于自己的自行車。

Welcome the age of bike-sharing.
歡迎進入共享單車時代。

The idea is not new. It has existed in some form or another in Europe for years.
共享經濟并不是一件新事物，早在多年前，歐洲就興起了這樣或那樣的共享經濟模式。

I recall a common joke in Amsterdam in the early 1980s was that if you needed a bike you could always take one from the hundreds left abandoned at the Dutch Railways' Central Station. But this was something different.
我想起了上世紀80年代流行在阿姆斯特丹的一個小笑話，假如需要一輛自行車，你總是可以在中央火車站幾百輛遺棄的自行車堆里滿意而歸。不過，這與共享單車并不同。

In the 1960s, a Dutch counterculture movement called the Provo launched its White Bike Plan. The "asphalt terrorism" of motorists had lasted long enough, they proclaimed.
上世紀60年代，荷蘭的反主流文化運動團體Provo發起了“白色單車計劃”，他們聲稱汽車司機的“馬路恐怖主義”已經讓人受夠了。

Activists painted 50 bicycles white and left them unlocked on the street, after an opening ceremony alongside a well-known statue in a square near the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
在阿姆斯特丹王宮附近一個廣場上的某著名的雕像旁邊舉行了啟動儀式之后，Provo積極分子便將50輛自行車噴刷成白色，不上鎖放在街道上供人免費騎乘。

The group offered "emancipation" through "the first free, collective means of transportation", but their plan failed. Who would have guessed it was illegal to leave a bicycle unlocked in a public place? No sooner had the ceremony finished than the police impounded the white bikes.
該團體第一次提出了“免費、共享交通工具”的解放理念，然而這一計劃最終失敗。誰會想到不上鎖的單車放在公共場所是違法的呢？啟動儀式剛結束，警察就扣押了這批白色自行車。

In 1974, a successful bike-sharing program began in La Rochelle, France, and it continues to this day.
1974年，一個成熟的共享單車計劃在法國拉羅謝爾誕生，并一直延續到今天。

Similar programs have since proliferated throughout Europe－perhaps President Xi Jinping witnessed during his recent state visit to Finland the workings of Helsinki's city bike system, which reserves a role for the bicycle in the capital's public transportation system.
自那以后，類似的共享經濟開始在歐洲范圍擴散。習近平主席在最近對芬蘭進行國事訪問期間或許也親眼目睹了赫爾辛基城市單車系統的高效運轉，單車在芬蘭首都的公共交通系統中始終占有著一席之地。

China has more than kept apace of the global trend of bike-sharing. I started noticing bikes for rent in Beijing maybe a year or two ago. First, they were grouped in racks, but later companies emerged whose bikes could be found wherever the last users left them.
中國早就緊跟全球單車共享這一趨勢。我在一到兩年前開始關注單車租賃情況。起先，這些自行車分門別類整齊排放在一起，但不久后，共享單車公司開始出現，無論上一位使用者把單車停放在哪，都能找到蹤跡。

The first bikes looked flimsier, too, but most now they look indestructible.
第一批單車看起來非常容易遭到破壞，不過，現在的大部分單車都變得比較堅固。

It all happened so fast, what will next year bring?
一切都發展得如此迅猛，明年又將會有哪些新變化呢？

You have to wonder if car owners in Beijing won't tire of sitting in traffic jams and join the trend.
假如北京的車主對交通擁堵并不感到疲倦，而是依舊成為浩浩蕩蕩堵車大軍中的一員，這時你就一定會想這個問題。

作者：John Lydon
翻譯：張璽元（中國日報網愛新聞iNews譯者）
編審：丹妮