After I visited Yellow Mountain a few years ago and had the worst day of my China life, I swore to myself I would never endure another tourist trap again. Never again would I stand in line all day and pay hundreds of yuan for the privilege. Never again would I go to a “historical” site, only to be surrounded by droves of flag-wielding guides herding around groups in matching hats. So two years ago my girlfriend and I bought some long-distance bikes in order to access places you’d never think to buy a train ticket to. It was the best investment we ever made.
For our last trip, I brought along a video camera and have put together this short documentary with the footage. So watch as we ride through Shandong’s countryside, meet old farmers, chat with Catholic peasants, and get an up close look at China’s housing bubble:
Sinostand 
Fascinating and illuminating! Thank you so much
[…] Your biking through Shanghai interlude: [Sinostand] […]
I am interested in more comments about life during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. We in the west need to hear from the common people what life was like back then.
Also the condos in China. How is teh management company selected and I would like to know about the leasing of teh land. How long do the people have the use of the land and what happens when the leases expire?
[…] Video: Biking through China’s Countryside, here. Best video of the week via Marginal Revolution. After I visited Yellow Mountain a few years ago […]
I spent 1 year living at the Shijiazhuang airport, 40km out of the city in the Hebei countryside, and 4 years living on the outskirts of Linyi city, in Shandong Province. In both places I often spent my days off cycling around the farmland and villages nearby. This video brought back many memories of those trips. Now I am in Beijing where everyone asks me what my experiences were like in these small places. Now I can just show them your video!
Dear Sinostand,
I reached your blog through James Fallows’ article. I enjoyed the video.
I am bicycling from London to Hong Kong; I’ll be entering China from Mongolia in September, taking an undecided route to Hong Kong. Have you any words of advice for me?
While I am not a bona-fide journalist, I am a published writer and a thoughtful observer. I do love to write. My blog is just a journal for friends and family, but I wish to find or create a forum for more substantive writing on culture and politics. Any thoughts?
I’ll return to your blog now for more reading. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Billy Romp
[…] “Biking Through China’s Countryside” is a short documentary about a bike trip through China’s Shandong province. The video is by Sinostand, the blog of a freelance journalist who is based in China. For our last trip, I brought along a video camera and have put together this short documentary with the footage. So watch as we ride through Shandong’s countryside, meet old farmers, chat with Catholic peasants, and get an up close look at China’s housing bubble. […]
more information and less political commentary would have made this enjoyable. china is neither good nor evil.
I do not write a lot of comments, but after looking at through a bunch of comments on Video: Biking through Chinas
Countryside | Sinostand. I actually do have some questions for you if you tend not to mind.
Is it only me or do some of these comments look like they are coming from
brain dead people? 😛 And, if you are writing on other
online social sites, I would like to follow anything fresh you have to post.
Would you list of all of all your social community sites like your
Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?
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