I was trying to make my way slowly and carefully from central Shanghai to Yangpu district on my bike when I found myself at the International Cruise Terminal metro station. There, I saw a really interesting derelict building and took a detour to cycle around it to see if I could get in for a closer look and perhaps poke around inside it. It was then that I stumbled across this sad scene.
I was quite a sight to behold. Clearly the city authorities are getting fed up of these multi-coloured QR carriers, cluttering up the streets. I have noticed that recently, in places like at Hongkou Stadium metro station, where the pavements used to be choked with these things, leaving no room for private bikes, I now have to walk around looking for one. 
It seems such a shame that there is so much waste when there are so many people, especially in the countryside in China, who have no bike. And just think of the energy and resources which have gone into this pile of rusting metal.
To me, it demonstrates the gulf between the have’s and have not’s in China. So much waste in the cities when there is still so much need in remote areas.
And while I stood there, surveying the multi-coloured graveyard, I could hear the sad little bleeps some of the bikes as they took their last breath, a very sad scene in so many ways. This shared bike revolution has been a boon for the ‘last mile’ but at what cost?
There needs to be more control over the amount of bikes which are dumped on Shanghai’s streets. If this is not done, there will be many more fields of dead and dying bikes in our cities.