On the western outskirts of Tianjin, a port city near Beijing, idle workers at a bicycle factory reminisce about better days.

"Even last year, shared bikes were all the rage, but we get no orders any more," said one of the managers at Luoda Bicycle, in the Tianjin suburb of Wangqingtuo, who gave his name only as Mr Xue. He added that the hot item this year was electric scooters.