So near, yet so feared: reinventing the wheels

Among the many joys of the mainland are the various contraptions people use to ferry around passengers.

It's a strange paradox that as more private cars flood onto the market, more enterprising individuals come up with modifications to motorbikes, lawn mower engines, outboard motors and bicycles - to provide cheap and semi-safe alternatives to taxis.

When I first arrived in China, in 1988, the pedicab (bicycle rickshaw) was the contraption du jour. These were a more humane version of the rickshaw (from the Japanese : "human-powered vehicle") - you know, the two-seater vehicles laden with pink, corpulent gweilos that coolies used to pull, panting, up to the Peak.

One of my first lessons in Putonghua, and certainly my first lesson in haggling, that year came when my friend C and I got a pedicab to the Forbidden City. C felt the poor, sweating man was trying to cheat us, and expertly talked the price down by 10 fen (1/10 of a yuan) as onlookers applauded wildly.

At that time, I was still a bleeding-heart liberal and at first refused to get into the cab: "Oh no, he's so thin! How can we let him drive us?"

C quite rightly pointed out that transporting people was the driver's job and if we didn't let him drive us he would starve.