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Giving New Meaning to “Cargo Bike” 8

ShanghaiCargoBike

Photo by Mark Green / The Urban Country

In China it’s not uncommon for bicycles to carry an inordinate amount of cargo. When I visited Beijing in 2007 I saw bicycles carrying loads of vegetables that would make a dump truck driver envious.

This picture was snapped the other day by The Urban Country’s China correspondent Mark Green in Shanghai, China.

Mark says this particular cargo load was stacked more than 10 feet deep:

“It’s pretty common to see ridiculously high stacked bikes here, but this one caught my attention because of the way the driver seat is cut out, reducing visibility to about 70 degrees. Extra body armour I suppose.”

That’s what I love about the Chinese. They can make practical use out of almost anything, and very little goes to waste. They always manage to find a way to re-use almost everything.

While most people in China yearn for the western luxuries that we enjoy here in North America, many of us in North America yearn for the pragmatic lifestyles of many of the Chinese.

We’re at a paradoxical point in time. Chinese cities on the verge of being overtaken by the automobile, and western cities on the verge of being overtaken by bicycles.

The small decisions we make now will have an enormous effect on future generations.

James D. Schwartz is the editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James atjames.schwartz@theurbancountry.com.

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8 thoughts on “Giving New Meaning to “Cargo Bike”

  1. Ryan Jan 29,2010 2:31 pm

    And I thought I carried a lot on my bike.

  2. David Hembrow Jan 29,2010 6:56 pm

    Fabulous. The rest of us are mere beginners. Mind you, I dare say side-winds are a bit of an issue even for this guy…

  3. Kevin Love Jan 29,2010 6:57 pm

    I have 65L panniers on my Pashley. I’ll sometimes come home from the grocery store with the panniers full, big items lashed to the rear racks, and two large cloth reusable shopping bags on each handlebar.

    I can carry a full shopping cart of groceries. When I get home, I sometimes get comments like “going down the Ho Chi Mihn Trail?”

    But then I make the commentators help me unload the bike!

  4. Alex Jan 11,2011 3:16 am

    Every summer they do this “cargo ride” thing in Vancouver where people load up loads like that on their bikes and go for a ride, although the loads aren’t quite that big!!

    http://momentumplanet.com/downloads/slideshows/79/slides/0/index.html

  5. Glenda Aug 1,2011 9:02 pm

    Innovative and resourceful; those are the virtues the Chinese have.

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  6. glenngrant Aug 2,2011 2:02 am

    Innovative and resourceful; those are the virtues the Chinese have.

    new homes for sale ny

  7. Pingback: The Urban Country Goes to China ← The Urban Country

  8. Pingback: Future Bicyclist & Cargo Bikes ← The Urban Country

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