Kasghar Chicken Express 1992 , originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness] . I spent a few months in China in 1990 and again in 1992 and one of the moments of clarity I remember most was riding about on a black Chinese standard bike and entering a roundabout in central Beijing. I had ridden all about the country on the bike but nothing could have prepared me for that roundabout. First of all it was the size of a small African nation, with six roads using it as a hub. Secondly, I entered a fantastic school of cycling fish. Literally hundreds of cyclists. I could see no rhyme or reason for their movement. It was a fluent, poetic swirling mass of cyclism. There were no hand signals and nary an over the shoulder glance when one of the hundreds exited the roundabout. It was timed to perfection. No collisions, no talking, no sound at all. The occasional eye contact perhaps. And there was I. Caught in an operatic maelstrom. I had no idea how to get out of the mass to exit down my street....
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