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A Ride in China
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A lot of things that we own and see around us today come from China. China nowadays refers to the mainland, the home country of Mao Tse Tsung. I find myself inside Guangdong Province at our factory working alongside Bob, our resident factory manager from the US, who happens to be a bike rider. Bob rides a motorcycle to work and has a spare bike at his home nearby. How about a bike ride he says?

Riding a motorcycle in China is a unique experience. Less than 3% of the citizens of the relatively more affluent Shenzen area own cars. Most citizens ride bicycles and those with good jobs are fortunate enough to make the jump from bicycles to motorcycles. Four-stroke single-cylinder road motorcycles are very common in displacements ranging from about 90cc to 150cc. Scooters are also popular.

A good commuter bike will cost you less than 4,000Yuan which is about US$500. Virtually all the machines are Chinese made and supported by large local dealers that advertise brandnames unheard of in other countries. There are a few twin cylinder machines and foreign models are extremely rare. Motorcycles are normally used for personal necessities and entire families can be seen riding on one. Given this market, superbikes like 4-cylinder rice rockets do not make sense and are extremely rare.

I had been in China for several days now but I never realized I would be seeing and experiencing so much more of the country in just my first bike ride alone. Over at Bob's apartment, my 150cc Chinese single starts at the mere press of the electric starter and the engine has a nice solid mechanical sound to it. We blast off the driveway and pass the apartment guards who give us a formal military salute as we exited the residential complex. Bob is riding a 250cc Chinese V-twin and our bikes look like mini HD sportsters. The riding posture is American cruiser and the similarity to Milwaukee is undeniable.

This was going to be a days ride from the city of Changan towards its countryside and adjacent cities. Late April weather was a constant 85F, sunny skies and great tropical weather much like that in the Philippines. The vehicular flow is 'Keep Right' and we plow into our first urban traffic intersection. The stoplight is a solid red light and everyone passes right through the red light as if it wasnt there! Gee, this is just like how its done in Manila when the traffic cop is not looking! I very quickly felt right at home with the situation but there is just one small difference. The cop here is wearing a red band on his elbow and he IS looking. However, passing a red light is acceptable and the traffic police dont mind provided you do it carefully because the guy crossing the intersection on his green light might run into you! I cross my first red light and another biker running across the intersection on his green avoids me and doesnt pay any attention to my antics. Another thing to watch for is that pedestrians will cross anytime without looking. You are expected to blow your horn and If you dont blow your horn, you are expected to stop. I press the horn button on my bike and am suprised at how loud the tiny horn is.

We reach another intersection and this time, bikers and other vehicles are stopped on the red light. We filter thru the stopped traffic until we are right up by the intersection. There is a 2-digit numerical display up by the stoplight that counts down in seconds how much time is left to wait for the green. Some vehicles at the back blow their horns urging the guys up front to go ahead and cross the red light. Just as the display counts down to show zero, the green "GO" lights up but the red light stays ON. I put my trusty 150cc single into gear and launch off at full throttle passing under the red and green lights above. Bob does likewise and we leave behind the mass of bikers, busses, trucks, a few cars and agricultural machines. After a few seconds I look at my rear view mirror and there is NOBODY behind, I have a big grin in my face as I ride aside Bob who had a similar grin on his face!

We cruise along at 60kph and there is open road space in front and behind us. We are on the coutryside and avoiding the expressways. Travel along the expressways is very serious business out here and is a constant reminder that this is not a poor country. It is common to see late-model Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Buicks cruising along at more than 160kph at anytime. Some of these cars are right-hand-drive from Hong Kong with two side-by-side license plates, many are left-hand-drive and local to the area. Our small bikes and no helmet is a no contest so we remain content on our low speed exploration of the country.

At the outskirts of town we see modern towering apartments alongside old structures and homes. One begins to see more of the older China as we venture deeper into the countryside. We see agricultural plots and old brick homes, there are chickens on the roadway and children come out of their homes to watch us pass. I stop to take a picture of an ancient brick house and people try to strike up a conversation with me. They are very friendly but we have no language in common so we try to communicate by sign language and we all laugh at how silly this can get. Very few people speak any english. There is no need to, everything in China is in Chinese! There are about 25 different Chinese dialects but the people can all communicate with each other using the common written Chinese alphabet (about 8,000 'characters', each depicting one word). Being the absolute illiterate that I was, all I could do was smile and wave good bye, and the citizens would merrily do likewise and forgive my ignorance of their language.

We continue our ride and we run straight into a goverment check point. The authorities are wearing their olive-drab uniforms and are very intimidating with their bright red bands wrapped around their elbows. They order us to the side of the road for inspection and speak to us in Chinese. We speak back in English and the guards react by talking to each other in Chinese. Then they wave us to continue on and let us go. Later on I learned that this was a rare experience and most of the time, a gruelling investigation of one's personal business was in order at those inspections. After all, this is communist China and Chairman Mao's picture is on the 100 Yuan bill.

We pass by a Macdonalds and grab a BigMac for a late lunch. Instead of a packet of ketchup, we receive a packet of genuine Macdonalds seaweed to go with our fries and burger.

After lunch, our ride takes us towards another town and the scenery is remarkably similar to rural cities in other Asian countries. There are lots of Chinese 'pickup trucks'. These are agricultural water cooled single-cylinder tractors to which is attached a trailer that can haul freight or passengers. They can go up to about 40kph on the highways and some are hauling enormous loads. There are also some real pickup trucks in miniature size with the same type engine. Due to the absence of traffic, it is very easy to pass slower moving vehicles. There are also many full size busses and mini busses. There are regular taxis typically made up of recent model VW Jettas. There are also many private cars and vans in the more busy areas. Every intersection is an experience, the guy with the biggest horn wins all the time! Despite all the chaos, I never saw any argument between drivers and they always try to share the roadspace with one another no matter what. This seems a byproduct of their communist upbringing where people are taught to share communal resources among one another.

We reach the next town and head for its downtown area. I could easily imagine that I was in Manila's China-town district. Even get to see some kids dodging traffic selling newspapers. We go to a shopping area and park our bikes amidst a sea of bikes in the parking lot. We do some shopping then return to the parking lot to look for our bikes. We begin riding and avoid a nearby traffic jam by running over the sidewalk, dodging pedestrians, jumping curbs a few times, and then going the wrong way on a one way street in order to get back on the main road. Some other bikers follow us. A cop sees us but he just watches.

Back on the main road we hustle along in the 5pm rush hour traffic, passing other vehicles wherever and whenever possible. Everyone else does the same, the only code to follow is to pass with respect. The roads are well paved and there is rarely any standing traffic. Vehicles blow their horns and merge with one another at every intersection. I learn to 'hide' beside another vehicle whenever crossing an intersection so when cross traffic does not stop, I get shielded by the inevitable collision but no such thing ever happened. We pass near a local airport and I watch unfamiliar aircraft slowly pass overhead as we cruised along. We see fruit vendors by the side of the highway selling fruits of unfamiliar shape, color and size. The vendors wave their arms urging us to stop. We stop by a dog corral and look at several very handsome German Sheperds for sale. The owner is a large man with Mongolian features and he shook his head and laughed when he saw us on our bikes. We were obviously not gonna buy a dog.

Dinner at night was Hunan food at a restaurant which served our meal on white

linen covered tables lined up on the sidewalk. This seems a common practice among restaurants and it is a great feature for bikers. You can park your bike on the sidewalk right beside your dinner table! The restaurant displays the live critters out by the front so you pick your kill and the chef turns it into your dinner within a few minutes. Delicacies like snake, snail, scallop, frog, pigeon and untold others are available and when they say its fresh, they arent kidding. Anything that moves is on the menu and the culinary expertise to prepare it is remarkable. As we waited for our food, I peek into the kitchen to view the activity. There are at least 6 chefs in there and the commotion and yelling is so intense it seemed like someone's dinner had escaped from the chopping board. We quench our thirst with liberal doses of Tsing-Tsao beer that come in 1-liter brown bottles. The waitresses pour the beer onto our glasses and keep them filled. After dinner, some fragrant chinese sweet rice wine made a good dessert. Every restaurant turns into a bar as the food is consumed and the activity turns to drinking. As the drinking intensifies, our hosts and others around us maintain their conduct even after several rounds of bottoms-up toasts called "Kampai".

Night time riding was exhilirating with the excellent weather and no traffic. Night life seemed to focus around town centers and busy streets. The sights to be seen are not quite what one would expect in a traditional communist country. We rode by a town center where there was a large congregation of people watching a basketball game between teams all dressed up in uniform. Along some very old district which had narrow streets, we saw people milling around someone's front yard. The homeowner had placed his tv set out in the open front yard facing the street and all his neighbors were out watching a show on his tv. At another town square, there are flashing colored lights and the sound of Chinese disco music coming from an elaborate sound system. The local teenagers are all smiling and laughing as they formed in several rows learning some kind of line dancing. At another town square, there is a giant TV set and hundreds of people are seated on the ground watching a movie. There are sporadic bursts of applause from the people as they cheered their favorite actors along. Nearby shops like hardware stores and groceries remain open until midnight and locals hang around and chat with store owners who live just upstairs of their shops. We stop and buy some ice cold green tea soda for refreshment as we watched the busy night life go by. Peace and order is phenomenal and should serve as a model for the rest of the world.

Over the next couple of days, I was back to business in the morning, eagerly looking forward to riding again by days end. The conclusion of my China trip was a car trip going south towards Hong Kong. At the immigration checkpoint by the Hong Kongborder, I see a biker riding a Honda rice rocket crossing the border into HK and he was bored like as if he had done the crossing so many times. Must be a courier for I cannot imagine how any soul can get bored at this critical border crossing especially on an extremely rare bike. After the bamboo curtain, the road switches from 'keep right' and becomes 'Keep left'. Upon entry to Hong Kong, you start seeing the HK police on their police version BMW motorcycles. I remove leftover RMB Yuans from my wallet and replace with HK dollars. This is modern China's 1 country, 2 systems policy.

As I waited for my departure at Hong Kong's enormous brand-new airport, my trip had come to an end but I realized I had just witnessed a beginning. If Mao were still around today, he would probably be happy to see the fruits of his labor. I think its all turning out nicely. This mighty country and its wonderful people will change the world.

Alex Samson
Los Angeles