Bike-rental in China takes a tacky new turn with golden bikes

The streets of China are covered with gold…. gold bicycles that is. The new bikes are a product of cooperation of Beijing-based bike sharing company Coolqi (酷骑单车) and Haier, a well-known consumer electronics company from Qingdao.

Besides the golden paint accentuated with royal blue details, the biggest novelty offered by the bikes is the onboard phone charger. Unlike Coolqi’s regular lime green colored bikes, the deluxe golden edition is equipped with Haier’s phone holder and Micro-USB, USB Type-C, and Lightning charging cables.

Chinese media have already branded the new entrant to China’s bike-rental market as “tuhao” (土豪) bikes, a term denoting China’s nouveau riche with a taste for tacky, over-the-top accessories and vehicles. Chinese netizens have been equally cruel, calling the bikes ugly and expressing fears of going blind due to excessive bling. Some have even turned to Haier’s account on microblogging platform Weibo to ask whether the company was worried about affecting road traffic safety. Haier, in turn, stated that the color is “festive.”

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