This is how Beijing rolls— supposedly

Which is to say, not all that differently from any medium-to-large size city, USA North America. Beijing’s automotive taste, if this heavily-edited film is to be believed, appears to be commensurate to that of twentysomething American and Canadian males who are interested in modified cars (to our European readers: “tuning culture”).

Nice video, but we want to see the real Beijing! We have a hard time believing that this is it.


~ by velofinds on February 6, 2013.

Posted in Moving images, Music to drive by
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

13 Responses to “This is how Beijing rolls— supposedly”

  1. Never been to Beijing, but i did spend 3 weeks in Shanghai. The cars are not cheap and shitty, more like your average new(ish) Japanese and European cars.
    Plenty of videos on Youtube about daily, real Beijing, like this one:

    VonKugel said this on February 6, 2013 at 5:37 am

  2. Cool vid. I’ve been to Beijing a couple of times, both for manufacturing work and as a tourist. These guys are very wealthy compared to a “middle-class” Beijing resident, but I think that is kinda the point of the video. Foreign cars are VERY expensive in China due to tariffs – a new M3 is RMB 1,105,000 or $177,000. I thought it was interesting when the guy was texting on his iphone that the texts were in Chinese characters but the keyboard showed a latin alphabet.

    Ed O'Malley said this on February 6, 2013 at 8:59 am

    • > but the keyboard showed a latin alphabet

      Phonetic input of Chinese characters is the accepted norm these days.

      Kuroneko said this on February 7, 2013 at 12:16 pm

  3. I was waiting for the three day/600 mile long traffic jam, but I just saw deserted streets?

    I wonder what the fine is for speeding in China?

    Randy said this on February 6, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    • > I wonder what the fine is for speeding in China?

      As a one time resident of China, I can advise this depends on how well connected your Daddy is.

      Kuroneko said this on February 7, 2013 at 12:13 pm

  4. song name please!!!

    miriam said this on February 6, 2013 at 10:12 pm

  5. Beijing looks more like this these days… http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/01/chinas-toxic-sky/100449/

    royce said this on February 6, 2013 at 11:06 pm

  6. > This is how Beijing rolls— supposedly

    Supposedly, indeed! Like much in China these days, the aspirational aspects of embracing other culture drive much. Including this nice little vid. Reality though is far, far removed – with all the bicycles, crappy cars, broken buses, grubby trucks, and toilet smells you can imagine littering the normal streets.

    Kuroneko said this on February 7, 2013 at 12:25 pm

  7. I was hoping for something more ostentatious. Looked like Richmond, BC more than Beijing!

    Automobiliac said this on February 7, 2013 at 6:00 pm

  8. motoringconbrio said this on June 18, 2013 at 11:22 pm

Comments are closed.