Manufacturers also can expect to begin paying more -- not for bikes, but for workers. Major coastal cities in southeast China, where manufacturing industries are densely located, are struggling with a shortage of skilled technical workers.

In China, there are three categories of skilled personnel: primary, intermediate, and advanced. Statistics show last year the total number of domestic skilled workers was over 165 million -- one-fifth of the country's total. Among them, advanced technicians numbered nearly 48 million. That's only 6.2 percent of total industrial employment. However, in industrial powers like Japan and Germany, advanced technicians account for 40 percent and 50 percent of the overall industrial personnel. It's estimated that by 2020, there will be a gap of 22 million advanced technicians across the country.