Beijing's Hipsters Saddle Up

Dubbed the (Vintage Ride) and spanning ten miles (before concluding with a fashion show), hundreds of hipsters across China are taking to the streets. And it's not just about style...

PANTING, TAO STOPS PEDALLING AND TAKES A REST, WAITING FOR HER friends to catch up. She’s just cycled over Beijing’s Bahe River, which is thick with smog. As her friends arrive, they breathe heavily. They’re not used to their bikes, and their clothes are weighing them down. Still, they’re laughing. It’s Beijing’s third-ever ‘Vintage Ride’, and they’ve been planning their outing (and outfits) for weeks. An unofficial offshoot of London’s ‘Tweed Run’, the event is one of three retro-inspired cycle rides in China every year.

‘The vintage scene in China is quite complicated,’ explains Bonnie, 28. ‘We’ve cut away from the country’s communist past and experienced very fast economic growth – the past feels almost unrecognizable, so nostalgia is a huge movement.’