photography
The Jianbing: A Chinese Galette
/////
Asia Society’s coal + ice (煤＋冰) Exhibit at Caochangdi (草场地) in Beijing
The Asia Society is hosting a photography exhibit that presents workers and scenes of coal mining aside photos of receding glacier lines. As a result of the exhibit’s success, it will be open for another month, until the end of December (2011). More info at the Asia Society and more photos available here.
Ordos in red, within orange Inner Mongolia
Coincidentally, as I was leaving the exhibit, I stumbled on a small coal distribution yard. Speaking with a driver outside as he had a smoke and petted his mutt, he said that he drove to and from Ordos, a coal boomtown in Inner Mongolia.
/////
Cycling in China
Recent studies show that approximately 20 percent of trips in China are taken by bicycle (e-bikes inclusive). While this number has receded dramatically from the early reform era where Changan running in front of Tian’anmen Square was quiet but for Beijing workers rolling by on single geared Flying Pigeons, this number is still remarkably high–Portland, the US city with the highest use of bicycle transportation lies at 5 percent. The cycling leaders of Northern Europe lie around 50 percent.
High use of bicycles results in a society-wide accommodation in both small and big ways that make transportation for those without private automobiles immensely more convenient. Copenhagen’s green wave (video) coordinates traffic lights to allow for uninterrupted passage to the city center for cyclists. Beijing bike lanes will leave any American cyclist drooling.
I hope to expose aspects of cycling culture unique to China, in the hope that they are normalized elsewhere.
/////
The Flying Pigeon
The Flying Pigeon is the classic Chinese bicycle. I was fortunate to own one for a few months.
/////
The Mingyong Glacier
/////
