Photo by Mark Green / The Urban Country

In China it’s not uncommon for bicycles to carry an inordinate amount of cargo. When I visited Beijing in 2007 I saw bicycles carrying loads of vegetables that would make a dump truck driver envious.

This picture was snapped the other day by The Urban Country’s China correspondent Mark Green in Shanghai, China.

Mark says this particular cargo load was stacked more than 10 feet deep:

“It’s pretty common to see ridiculously high stacked bikes here, but this one caught my attention because of the way the driver seat is cut out, reducing visibility to about 70 degrees. Extra body armour I suppose.”

That’s what I love about the Chinese. They can make practical use out of almost anything, and very little goes to waste. They always manage to find a way to re-use almost everything.

While most people in China yearn for the western luxuries that we enjoy here in North America, many of us in North America yearn for the pragmatic lifestyles of many of the Chinese.