The Peking Bicycle Company and Humber Bikes of Nottinghamshire

This is an old photo well known to collectors and historians that seems to have suddenly started doing the rounds on social media the way things do these days…  it’s the Daqing bicycle shop in Peking (c.1900-1912).

There’s many reasons this is interesting – a great shot of a full shop frontage, text running in three directions, late Qing modernity etc etc. 

But also in this period we find ourselves in of a sudden gush of dubious China Experts offering their opinions on the complexities of the China Market and its many mysteries only they can solve, I love that Daqing were the China reps for Nottinghamshire’s Humber bikes. All these supposed China experts would charge you a fortune and claim you need specialist skills to establish a relationship like that now, but presumably Humber and Daqing did it all fine 125 years ago with a few letters, some cargo ships and perhaps a travelling salesman passing through Peking.