The Mao Wagon

After another long day of traveling, we finally reached the Old Town of Lijiang, a small village of cobblestoned streets, canals, and ancient towers, encompassed by a modern city the size of Seattle. China is nothing if not dichotomous. After winding our way through a maze of narrow streets, we finally found Spring who directed us to our happy little hostel. Percy and I gratefully flopped onto two of China's amazingly hard beds and immediately fell asleep. I awoke six hours later to a god awful sound and Percy's mutter of "what the hell is that?" Peaking one eye from her Korean Airlines complementary face mask, Percy looked out the window and laughed, "it's some kind of Mao Wagon!" she exclaimed. These three wheeled one cylinder diesel engine wagons, totally unheard of in other parts of the world, were developed indigenously by rural farmers and are now so popular that they consume one fourth of the diesel fuel in China. They are almost as ubiquitous as yaks and equally suprising when you first see one!