Two Bicycles in Beijing

Fresh from the factory, two personified bikes—Lunzi and Huangche—rest together in a bike shop in Beijing, delighting in one another’s company until each is sold to a different buyer. Huangche’s owner is a girl wearing a sky blue sweater who thinks his yellow color is perfect for her. Lunzi’s owner is a delivery boy, who races around Beijing with his messenger bag. As he travels, Lunzi keeps a hopeful eye out for Huangche’s yellow frame, but each glimpse of yellow proves to be something other than her friend—a woman’s purse, a kite, or flowers. Just when she loses hope, Lunzi’s owner and Huangche’s owner cross paths at the bakery, and the two old bike friends are reunited as a friendship begins between the owners. This simple story of friendship is also a fun vehicle for introducing young readers to a small handful of Mandarin Chinese vocabulary words as well as some sights of Beijing: Nanguan Park, the National Art Museum, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and more. Even with limited text, Robeson incorporates touching, poetic moments—“Side by side, / old friends / and new.” Wu’s cross hatching and colored pencil-like illustrations are appealing with their soft, sketched quality. Definitions for Mandarin Chinese words included in the story are provided in endnotes, though a pronunciation guide would also have been helpful.