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Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category: 51
Published On: Mar 07, 2006 03:02 PM
Total entries in this category: 51
Published On: Mar 07, 2006 03:02 PM
Transportation Innovation
When we left Kunming in 2001, the peasant laborers
here were using two kinds of vehicles. There were donkey carts, and there were
sanlunches. But now a hybrid has appeared.
A donkey cart is a simple wagon, built with heavy
timbers and supported on two old truck wheels. It is almost as big as a small
car, and it vastly outweighs the poor donkey burdened with pulling it. Whenever
I hear one "he-haw" I can't help but think that they are complaining about
having to move such and oversized load.
A sanlunche is a kind of a tricycle, but for most Americans, calling something a tricycle brings to mind a pre-schooler in suburbia. A sanlunche here is the functional equivalent of a pickup truck, capable of carrying (if the driver is strong enough) thousands of pounds of coal, or scrap iron, or anything else, in a cargo bed the size of a kitchen table.
Two years ago, that was the state of the art. But what I see now are sanlunches with a driver on the seat, steering, and a donkey on the side, pulling. This has got to be the best of both worlds. The sanlunche driver does nothing but control the vehicle, and the donkey pulls something much lighter, and much more mechanically efficient. Maybe I'm dreaming, but I can almost see a spring in the donkey's step, and a smile on the driver's face.
A sanlunche is a kind of a tricycle, but for most Americans, calling something a tricycle brings to mind a pre-schooler in suburbia. A sanlunche here is the functional equivalent of a pickup truck, capable of carrying (if the driver is strong enough) thousands of pounds of coal, or scrap iron, or anything else, in a cargo bed the size of a kitchen table.
Two years ago, that was the state of the art. But what I see now are sanlunches with a driver on the seat, steering, and a donkey on the side, pulling. This has got to be the best of both worlds. The sanlunche driver does nothing but control the vehicle, and the donkey pulls something much lighter, and much more mechanically efficient. Maybe I'm dreaming, but I can almost see a spring in the donkey's step, and a smile on the driver's face.
Posted: Thu - October 23, 2003 at 02:57 AM