En Route (My Bicycle Diary) for Ohmynews.com

In a country dubbed the "Bicycle Kingdom," the "ding-ding" of bike bells is everyday part of life in China. Folks ride to school, to work, to meet family, to date, or even pick up their dates. A typical campus romance here includes a girl seated on the backseat of a boy's bicycle, cuddling up to him with her long hair moving in the breeze.

To be fair, to most Chinese the bicycle means little more than a method of commuting, neither a sport nor a way of touring the countryside, much less a way to get a date. So I was blessed enough to started savoring bicycle touring back when I was a primary school student.

Each weekend I spent half a day pedaling aimlessly, simply for diversion. Each time I made the trip epic in my mind by venturing further and further away; first to the end of the block, to the other side of the town, and then to an unexplored riverside hamlet.

A stroll down memory lane always reveals vivid scenes flashing in front of my eyes, like scenes of sliding pictures tinted by balmy sunlight on a lovely Saturday afternoon. What a world!

My life now -- as a fervent cycling hobbyist who whenever time permits can't resist the beauty of the road -- is fraught with fragments. These "cycling moments" and the ecstasy they brought, when pieced together, comprise the following video titled "En Route," a clip I dedicated to my cycling from my sophomore year to junior year in college.

Though short in duration, this animation-like video I hope will well describe the enchantment of cycling which I sum up as "the best in en route." Each time you ride you're to flirt with the best view, the best story, the best experience, the best memory.

However I heard another saying from "Etude," a cycling-themed film made in Taiwan: "You're to encounter both the best and the worst during your cycling." Valid points!

With spectacular views passing by, you're in a real interaction with the reality of nature. The more you appreciate its beauty, the more you figure out its fragility.

On one occasion you may cut through a wetland, yet the next time you visit it it's nothing but a construction site. By riding, you actually feel the pain of the earth. I myself have had several gloomy encounters of this kind. One traces back to my last cycling trip along Hangzhou Bay in Eastern China.

This strip of the land is home to a row of engineering feats in Chinese -- or even human -- history; China's first nuclear plant, the longest trans-oceanic bridge on the planet and so on. My overall impression is one of a retreating coastline and aggressive human developments. Shoals were enclosed by dams, keeping seawater out, but it later becomes a dried up swamp and eventually ends up as industrial land for factories.

I'll surely second the notion that "you're encouraged to ride because the best is on your road," which is exactly what my video for OhmyNews is trying to illustrate. The message lost in the video, but underlined here in the article, is that "you're encouraged to ride because it benefits not only you but the whole environment."

I hope you enjoy it.

this article also appears in Ohmynews.com

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• cycling
• travel
• bike
• bicycle
• china
• zhejiang
• animation

[paolod969]

Very delicate and romantic, great music on the road.Congratulations,Paolo