This is a typical bicycle service station. Here you can get air for your tires, or get major repairs on a broken down bike. You can even buy a used bicycle; presumably someone else's broken down bike. On our route to downtown, a leisurely half-hour ride, we pass no fewer than 33 of these stands, some bigger, some smaller, all busy. Along the same route, there are 3 gas stations, usually empty.

Bike repair stands are by no means the only roadside services available to cyclists. Merchants often set up for business along the side of the road to take advantage of the volume of potential customers. This woman is preparing and selling fresh pineapple from the back of her tricycle cart. The customary way to serve it is completely peeled, with each pineapple eye carefully removed. The fruit is then stored in water until sold. It doesn't meet US food service standards, but it works OK here.

You might want pick up something to read on your way home from work. Notice my shadow at the bottom center as I make my kamikaze photography approach. Many of these magazines have English words on the covers, like "Fashion" and "Beauty," but the text inside is all Chinese. As one of the college officials describes it, the English is for "decoration." You will not be surprised to hear that many of the covers feature photos of attractive young women.

Here's a market niche unfilled in America: felt shoe liners. When the weather gets colder, you see these for sale everywhere. The woman at the left is cutting the red felt into the sole-shaped pieces that you stuff into you shoes. This adds a little insulation between your foot and the pavement. The woman in the center has a big stack that she will sell around town. These woman are referred to here as "minority people," culturally related to the hill tribes of Thailand and Laos.

And that's not all. Click here to see more bicycles at work
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