In an extract from his new book, Breakneck, Dan Wang hops on his bike to explore how China’s problems throw America’s into stark relief. How is it, he asks while biking through Guizhou, that China’s poorest provinces have better infrastructure than America’s richest states.
An aerial view of construction on the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in Zhenfeng, Guizhou, January 17, 2025. Upon its completion, the structure will stand 625 meters above the canyon floor. Credit: Lei Sheng/VCG via Getty Images
My most vivid encounter with the engineering state occurred, in classic Chinese fashion, on a bicycle.
In the summer of 2021, I traveled with two friends deep into China’s southwest. Over five days, we cycled nearly four hundred miles through Guizhou province and arrived in the city of Chongqing. Rather than riding a Flying Pigeon — the comfortable but single-geared bike from the Maoist era, available only in black — I was flying through on a Giant racing bike, which was fabul
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