Life at 430km/h 7
Photos and video by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Imagine you could build a train that could take you 100KM in less than 15 minutes. Where would you put this train? From your home to you workplace? To your Grandma’s house? I had the pleasure of riding the Shanghai Maglev high speed train ...
The Americanization of China? 2
All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Today is my last day on Hainan island – China’s southernmost (and smallest) province. Hainan is developing at an extremely fast pace. Hainan was designated as a Special Economic Zone in the 1980’s, and earlier this year China announced its intentions on turning Hainan into ...
Pedaling Haikou City, China 5
Video by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Have you ever wondered what it’s like to ride a bike in China? The short film above shows footage of me pedaling around Haikou City yesterday – the capital of the province of Hainan, China. Haikou’s population is somewhere around 1 million people – and I’d ...
Utility Cycling in China 23
All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country (May 2010) In big Chinese cities – like it or not – bicycles are a vital ingredient to keep the cities moving. From pizza delivery, to painters, to garbage pickup, to cargo shipping, to transporting people – bicycles are everywhere in cities like Shanghai and ...
Handicap Bike Parking 14
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In Shanghai, there are a lot of bikes.. a LOT of bikes. With the high costs of car ownership, heavy pollution and traffic congestion, bikes are still a great alternative and you can quickly get around the city. However, bikes are still generally considered to be ...
The Urban Country Goes to China 2
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country (Great Wall of China – 2007) The Urban Country is headed to China for the next three weeks to celebrate our marriage and whatnot. We are on a 13-hour direct flight from Toronto to Shanghai tomorrow and after 4 days in Shanghai we will head south ...
Reasons NOT to Buy an iPad 5
After avoiding all the iPad hype since its release on April 3rd, I felt it necessary to at least comment on the latest iPad “app” (if you can even call it an app). In an effort to find useful real-world applications for the all-new iPad, a company called Maya has developed an application to allow ...
Toronto Inches Forward At Record Speed 5
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country This week the beautiful spring weather brought along with it some relatively happy news for cycling advocates in slow-moving Toronto. BIXI bike sharing has being revived, and our first segregated bike lanes will operate on a pilot program this summer on University Avenue. But not everyone ...
Biking it My Way 13
Some time ago, my friend – the filmmaker and fellow cycling advocate – Mike Rubbo asked me if I would like to engage in international collaboration on two videos that highlight women cyclists who – in Mike’s words – choose different bikes for different hikes. So I set out to find a woman who would ...
Toronto Cycle Chic 4
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Toronto saw some amazing weather this past long weekend, and Han and I didn’t waste any time in getting out on our bikes. We took our dog Mojo out to Cherry beach using our bike chariot on Friday, and we rode to Chinatown on Sunday for ...