What originally drew my attention to this billboard was the painting of the old Chinese horse-drawn carriage and the tricycle parked in front of it. I thought the idea of showing the ancient transport with the more modern pedal powered made an interesting juxtaposition. When I first came to China in the late 1980s the cycle still dominated the roads and more than 90% of the traffic was bicycles. Nowadays the traffic is 90% cars with fewer and few pedal cycles. I’d love to find my old photos from that period, but I think they are in storage somewhere in the UK probably at my parents house. So next time I go back to the UK I will try to dig them out. As Canthy is often asking to see old photos of me from my first trip to Beijing in 1988.
(Blog posted by Ray on April 26, 2013. You can see the original article by following this link to rayallychina.com)
