SHOOT: It's amazing that this AP article reads exactly like someone's personal blog. It's also written in the first person. The news and blogs are now almost indistinguishable [I should say good blogs perhaps].
GUANGZHOU, China – A friend sent me a YouTube link to a video called "Insane Cycling — New York City." I clicked on it, hoping to glean a few tips for my own cycling on the anarchic streets of China.
I came away feeling like someone who expects to see "Mad Max" and is shown "Sesame Street" instead. New York seemed like a wonderful place to ride. Pedestrians used the crosswalks. Buses lumbered along like gentle whales. Taxis used their turn signals. The streets looked so clean. No one honked.
If that's insanity, what can be said of cycling in Guangzhou, the muggy, traffic-clogged city once known as Canton? It's my constant dilemma — hit the road or stick to the treadmill at the gym?
Cycling always wins. Not only is it more fun being outdoors but it's a way of taking China's pulse.
Those throngs are an iconic image for China, but it's becoming outdated. Led by a swelling middle class, people in Guangzhou and other cities are ditching bikes for clean, new subway trains.
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