I'm Nathan Jones. I've been living in China for about 4 years and one of the things that impressed me most when I first arrived and continues to play a role in my life is the bicycle. China truly is the bicycle kingdom, producing and using more bicycles than than any other nation in the world. But that's not all, the bicycle plays a very important role in Chinese culture. Bicycles are seen as matchmakers, friends, careers, and works of art. In this program we will rediscover the bicycle kingdom and I am confident, you will see bicycles in an entirely new way.
No one knows exactly when bicycles first arrived in China, but in the late Qing Dynasty, the traces of bicycle tires could be seen in the Forbidden City. Pu Yi, the Last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty loved bicycles so much that he went so far as to order his servants to saw off the thresholds of the gates to make it more convenient for him to ride his bicycle.
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