Biking through China's Countryside

Documentary of a bike trip through the countryside of Shandong, China, where we interview elderly farmers, peasant Catholics and ride through China's housing bubble.

• Category

  Travel & Events

[rickpidero]

This is really nice. Did you ever feel unsafe/ threatened in areas?

[Sinostand]

Nah, I've biked through many of China's coastal provinces and have never felt threatened in the least. Feel unsafe riding on the shoulder of the highway at times though.

[Edward Dodson]

China is destined for economic collapse. Why? A dysfunctional sytem of land tenure and taxation. A solution had been identified by Sun Yat-sen, but his supporters were so corrupt and so entrenched as a landed aristocracy that his idea (as proposed by the American Henry George) to collect the ground rent of land to use for public goods was fought against. Had Sun been successful land would not be mis-developed or sprawling development take so much agricultural land.

[mattlee000]

what makes you qualified to judge a country after a mere shallow look?

[huang qing]

you just take a look, and then say "bubble will burst ", go read industrialization in history books, the economy in basic is a level of productivity and consumption, which is based on population, and you can still see the big lot of low level non industry population, so where is your bubble? Things are not going by your imagination, nation rise and decline has their own rule.

[JusticeCN]

hey this is really great! I live mostly in the countryside and love to go out like this, though i need to learn more of the language

[xingfenzhen]

Interest rate a percentage, 1% just 1% on any currency. Though you had 100 dollars vs. 1000 dollars would you more return, but then you have to put more money in the bank. Please review math.

As banks, I get 0.03% interest on my savings account from Chase, 0.05% from my credit union, .68% for CDs at the same credit union. Compare for 2.5% for savings account and ~5% on CDs at ICBC. (CDs rate is must by deregulated since last I went back CD rate was capped at 3.5%, now isn't at 5% and changing.

[Nancy Hey]

I'm glad at least they tell people not to abort the girls, I hope people listen!

[Ghillieassassin]

Thank you for sharing :) How long have you been in china ?

[ferrarifan8]

intersting video. but oh man, talk about the most boring narrator ever

[keenkennyny]

Would currency matter for interest rates? If the USD is worth more than the yaun, 1% interest will give you a lot more buying power for your USD and a lot less for the yuan. Idk, am I oversimplifying it?

Interest rates on your savings account depends on your bank anyway. Usually the bigger the bank, the less you get.

[xingfenzhen]

Chinese interest rate is 2.5% for savings account, the highest possible by regulation. Chinese Inlfation rate is 3.4% for first quarter of 2012, but it was 5.4% for 2011.

I don’t know about all the US banks, but my bank, Chase, was giving 0.5% interest on my money market about, 0.03% interest on my savings account. In addition, to I must use my debt card 3 times a month, otherwise I’ll get hit with $5 fee. US inflation is 2.3% first quarter of 2012.