Profits from repairs are small. A punctured tire earns Li around 3 Yuan ($0.50), new bearings for a worn out pedal get 8 Yuan ($1.20), and re-inflating a tire gets 3 Mao ($0.04), before you subtract the cost of the parts. The price for bigger repairs is always open for bargaining. Beijing’s bike repairmen usually earn between 1500 and 2000 Yuan ($230-310) each month, about half the average income for a Beijing resident.

Repairmen work all year around. “The only time I close my stall is when it snows” Li said. Although temperatures in Beijing can drop as low as -20º C in winter, fiddly repair work makes wearing gloves unfeasible. “My hands are just used to it by now.”

Bike repair stands can become unlikely community centers, as most repairmen put stools on the street for customers to sit on. The number of stools at Li’s stand has grown to five, and on one April afternoon they are occupied by resting workers from a nearby construction site, dressed in blue work overalls, concentrating on a card game called “fight the landlord.” Three or four adolescent security guards, responsible for directing traffic on the street, also find themselves pulled in by Li’s stall. “The repairs are something interesting to look at,” one security guard says.

The hangers-on at Li’s stall are exclusively male, and generally migrant workers from other parts of China, looking for a sense of community in an unfamiliar city. “It’s not an interesting job, just getting your hands dirty everyday,” Li said. “But talking to customers, and watching the card games is probably the most fun part.”

Not all bike repairmen manage their social relations so well. On another lane less than 200 m from Li’s stand, sixty-one year old Mr. Tong finds communication with his clients more challenging. “I’ve never learnt standard Chinese,” he said in a thick southern accent. Although he’s lived in Beijing for ten years, most of Tong’s time is spent with family from his hometown. “Can you understand him?” a Beijinger who emerged from his house wearing pajamas asked. “I have no idea what he’s saying!”

Bianchi