Portrait of an LBX

By Andy

I don’t know if you can tell from any of our other posts, but we’re kind of preoccupied with the fact that we have yet to see a naturally growing forest anywhere we have traveled thus far. Instead, nearly every tree we see is planted next to its brethren of the same species in neat rows, with no undergrowth or wildlife to speak of.

On our way out of Kaifeng, we stopped in a gas station to use the bathroom but were told we would have to go across the street to a lumber market to use theirs instead. We made our way through tall stacks of logs, the smell of freshly cut wood a welcome respite from the burning-tire smell common to the outskirts of so many of the smaller Chinese cities.  When Evan and Alexis went to do their business, I was immediately surrounded by LBXes asking the usual series of questions as is prone to happen to whomever is left to watch the bikes.

Finally seeing an opening in the conversation, I asked, “So where do all these trees come from?” I inquired because in addition to the skinny poplar trees we see farmed everywhere, there were large pines in the area where I was standing – not something we’ve seen so far in the “wild.”

“Some come from southern China; others, mostly the pines, are imported from Russia,” the man with the best Mandarin in the group told me.

When Evan returned he asked why they had to import trees from Russia. “We used to get most of our pine from the Northeast (东北) of China, but now China is letting the Northeastern forests return to nature.”

The second part of that statement was a bit laughable based on what we’ve seen in the northeast – planting monoculture plots of poplar trees to be harvested every three years is hardly returning to nature. It was reminiscent of the “China is concerned about the environment now” statement at the coalmine. That is, they now make some bricks and cement out of the waste rock instead of just piling it into a mountain for future generations to deal with – just ignore how much either of those processes affects the environment. But I found the first part rather interesting. (more…)

Before I can possibly hope to explain why we’re undertaking this monstrous bicycle trip around China, I have to explain to you some background on what led up to this moment. Years ago as a bright-eyed college student, extraordinarily naïve about how the world worked and interested in linguistic challenge, I signed up for intensive Chinese classes, which turned into a Chinese major when I found out I could live in Beijing (what could be cooler?) for a whole year. So I came to Peking University and fell in love intellectually with the complexities of the language, the culture, and what you might call “the way things work” which at the time was to me what the Chinese call a 不解之谜 (an unsolvable mystery), or an endeavor that required intense analysis and energy at all times just to stay afloat – effectively the opposite of the boredom and malaise that accompanied my youth spent in American suburbia. After my return to school for senior year and a few months spent home twiddling my thumbs, the only option that made any sense was to fling myself back into the rodeo that is life in Beijing. And so I adventured and learned for years, including a year-and-a-half corporate job in Shanghai. At this point I couldn’t honestly say I’ve got China “licked” or that there’s no more mystery left, but something fundamentally changed within me over the last year. (more…)