People donned historical costumes to take part in an event in the German city of Karlsruhe, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the invention of the bicycle on May 27, 2017. /CFP Photo
German civil servant Karl von Drais invented the first two-wheeled bicycle in 1817. In German, the bike without pedals was called a Laufmaschine or “running machine”. In English it was called a Draisine. /CFP Photo
Von Drais patented his invention in 1818. It was the first commercially successful two-wheeled, steerable, human-propelled machine. It was initially manufactured in Germany and France. The term bicycle was coined in France later on in the 1860s. /CFP Photo
Decades ago, China used to be called “the kingdom of bicycles” but time and development changed that. In recent years, the country has become the biggest car market. However, a shared-bicycle boom has revitalized the traditional transportation tool nationwide. /CFP Photo
