An impromptu street gathering and a hot sale blocking the street in Qujing was not a problem in 1987. Ten years later it would be different as China began importing and producing automobiles at such a rate that streets became clogged with traffic. 

Street sweepers and bicycles have been squeezed out by heavy traffic choking all the thoroughfares.

Dali in Yunnan is laid out typical of old China with a long main street and a city gate at each end. All Chinese cities and towns were laid out in a grid of streets surrounded by protective walls with guarded gates. The gates were opened at dawn and closed at dusk. Dali still has its gates but the walls are gone. The building overhang design offers shelter from rain. In 1979 bicycles were severely rationed. By the late 1980’s production increases made it possible for anyone to buy one if they had the money. A woman in those days wanted her fiancé to have a bicycle, a sewing machine and a washing machine. These items were rare in the marketplace after years of government investments focused on heavy industry.

Dali in Yunnan is laid out typical of old China with a long main street and a city gate at each end. All Chinese cities and towns were laid out in a grid of streets surrounded by protective walls with guarded gates. The gates were opened at dawn and closed at dusk. Dali still has its gates but the walls are gone. The building overhang design offers shelter from rain. In 1979 bicycles were severely rationed. By the late 1980’s production increases made it possible for anyone to buy one if they had the money. A woman in those days wanted her fiancé to have a bicycle, a sewing machine and a washing machine. These items were rare in the marketplace after years of government investments focused on heavy industry.

This is a typical country village railroad crossing where the safety bar is hand operated. Trucks were used as buses and personal autos rare. Pony carts, bicycles and walking were the main modes of transportation. Trash seen on the left was common in public spaces.

People were conveyed to hospitals on flatbed tricycles. In one of the remote villages I visited, by being tied to motorcycles.

Lovely old tree lined neighborhoods were demolished by the square mile to make way for new hi-rise housing and commercial buildings. Cityscapes all over China were transformed with many scandals over compensation.

The sign on this modest Hainan Island building says “Exhibition of artifacts showing the life history of the Miao People.’ The Miao are one of China’s larger minorities. They are located in many parts of China’s southern provinces.

The absence of cars, the drab buildings and the uniformity of apparel is a snapshot of China as it began to open up to the outside world in the late 1970’s. Anyone who has been to Shanghai recently will find it hard to believe this is a downtown street in the heart of the city. Nanjing East Road is at the end of the block straight ahead. The foliage in view is the Peoples’ Park has now been removed to make room for government buildings.

For a small fee the attendant will hang a leather throng over your handlebars with a wooden tally attached. You are given a tally with a matching number and watch over your bike. Even so, people still lock their bicycles. Another similar parking lot can be seen in the left background.

This is a bicycle parking lot. For a small fee the attendant hangs a leather throng over your handlebars with a wooden tally attached. Your claims ticket is a tally with a matching number. In the 1980Õs and Õ90Õs, a woman considered a man to be a good catch if he had three things: a bicycle, a sewing machine and a tape recorder for playing music tapes. In 1979, the best bicycle brand was a Phoenix followed by Five Rams. All bicycles were rationed unless one had hard currency from abroad. The rationing system worked like this: a work unit was permitted to purchase of a certain number of bicycles in a given month. The work unit decided who got the permission slip. China was organized like an army with everyone assigned to a specific unit. Every economic, academic or government organization was a Òunit.Ó A person received assignment to a unit after completing whatever level of schooling required. Often a husband and wife would be geographically separated long distances by their work assignments and could get together only once a year during the long winter holiday. Some swapping of work assignments was possible. Many people would post advertisements seeking swap partners for the purpose of bringing husband and wife into the same city.

With dignity, this tricycle hauler is taking water hyacinth to the country. Pigs grow fat on it. In America this plant is considered a nuisance that clogs waterways. The Raleigh bicycle was imported from England and imitated in Chinese factories. My wifeÕs grandfather owned a factory that manufactured a Chinese Raleigh. In the communist era, factories produced heavier bicycles than the Raleigh and were just one speed. Those are the sturdy bicycles that are seen with big hogs tied over the back wheel being hauled to market. The three-wheeled chain-driven cycle may have been invented in Southeast Asia. The Japanese used bicycle wheels to make rickshaws, which then were introduced to China. The efficiency of the Pedi cab drove out the rickshaw. The vehicle here is called a banche, and in 1979 it was being used as an ambulance, cargo carrier and as a passenger vehicle in the countryside.

In spite of the major streets in China being clogged with heavy traffic, the tricycle street sweeping machines remains in use on many of the calmer side streets. In large buildings such as airports, pedaled machines are used to polish the floors. White shirts are regarded as somewhat formal wear whereas colored shirts are considered to be sporty and informal. In the summer heat when coats are not worn, office workers tend to wear a collared white shirt.

Finding a place to park your bicycle was a problem in 1979 in spite of the fact that the only vehicles were those owned by the government: including the bus in the background and the military jeep to the right. Today, as a result of a large population with improving living wages and affordable automobiles, parking in major cities has reached nightmare proportions.

There are an endless variety of these homebuilt sidecars on city streets but not in the countryside. Farmers have no use for this kind of thing and would consider it coddling. The “little emperor” is enjoying a soda while the parent finishes grocery shopping. Bicycles were still considered a luxury and most of the population walked or caught the bus. The one-child policy was written into the 1978 constitution and the new regulations put into effect in 1980. Subsequently, a single male such as we see here became known as “the little emperor.” The emphasis in China on a male heir to continue the family line resulted in the current imbalance in the male to female ratio. Social problems for men unable to obtain a wife led to the relaxation of the one-child policy in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

In 1979 there was a general lack of refrigeration and almost no air-conditioning. Seeing raw meat exposed in the market was common. Soon China would build many coal-fired electric generators, a large number of new dams and also nuclear power plants.

These bicycles can carry heavy loads. This is a cargo of Chinese peppers similar to our bell peppers heading to market.

After 1979, the sound of hundreds of bicycle bells was heard in the streets. The dreadful Cultural Revolution was over. No more wholesale mobilizations of the population into frenzied rallies. The rampages of the Red Guards had ended. Peace reined and people were relaxed. It was evident everywhere except in some backward places that still had not gotten the word that it was a new day with new policies. In such places the tension was palpable; loud speakers, martial music and restrictions of every kind were perpetuated. There were no private autos yet but bicycles and trucks were becoming more available. In less than twenty years, cars will take over the streets with their noise and pollution. A new China was about to be created.

By the 1930s, the pedicab replaced the hand-pulled rickshaw. As China modernized, the motor taxis have pretty much swept away them away. However, some still remain, sometimes with a battery-powered electric motor.

These frontage avenues were reserved for bicycles and pedestrians before cars and trucks took over. Now these frontage avenues are filled with parked cars. In some cases, they are obliterated by widening the street to an eight or ten lane boulevard.

Not heading for the beach. He’s delivering a truck tube. Within ten years one began to see the most extraordinary loads on bicycles, such as wide sofas, tables and dressers. In 1979 it was commonplace to see a mixed traffic of bicycles, horse carts, massive trucks and the occasional car that was either a taxi or a government officialÕs car.

These exquisite Chinese wool carpets are being taken to a merchant. Many will end up in fashionable carpet stores in America and Europe. They are made with natural dyes using centuries old weaving methods.

When the streets of Beijing were quiet. People are lined up at a bus stop as two women head home with their fish for dinner. Chinese prize freshness and ingredients above all else. These specimens would have been alive in a tank just a short time ago.

Datong in Shanxi province was a grimy coal-mining town in north China with coal dust everywhere. From the third to sixth century CE, it was a famous center for Buddhism and well known as far south as Ceylon. It was unpleasant to be there but the colossal Yungang statuary is there and well worth the effort to see it.

China’s command economy never fulfilled the actual needs of its citizens until the private sector was permitted to operate as a market economy. China’s current swift rise as an economic power stems from this shift. Here, in 1979, we see the overproduction of tractors and the need for more trucks solved at the local level by attaching a trailer to a tractor for use on city streets.

This mountain town of Lijiang in Yunnan Province is one of the most interesting places in all China. Previously remote and reachable only by two days of hard driving over jarring roads, it now has a highway that has made it a popular tourist destination. Home of the Naxi people with their own language and writing system, it is distinctive not only for its culture and scenic beauty, but also for its system of water channels that run down every street, all of them flowing with clear mountain spring water.

The Communist Party policies during its first decades ruled out any overt expressions of romance and Party permission was required for marriage. After 1979 these policies were relaxed. This couple could now sit together on the shore of West Lake, but not too close. That freedom would not come until the 1990’s.