The sight of carts, bikes and trucks piled to overflowing with precarious cargo loads is relatively common in China, even in modern Shanghai. Capturing footage these gravity-defying feats of packing can be a bit of a challenge as you often don’t see them until they are already passing. Several times I found myself standing open-mouthed on a Shanghai sidewalk while some outrageously towering cart rumbled by.
Among my favorites were the industrious local recyclers who often had a coworker ride atop the day’s haul of plastics and cardboard. Shanghai’s loads often weren’t as stupefying as those we saw in Vietnam, but they still brought me no small amount of amusement. Here are a few of the best I managed to photograph during my two years in the city. Let me know which ones you find the most astounding in the comments!
Hey, I am very surprised to see migrant workers carrying tons of stuff on little bike in the so called luxurious Shanghai. It is an interesting point to demonstrate the widening gap between the super rich and utterly poor people in China. Thanks for sharing more photos!
Thanks Matthew! You’re right, the gap between rich and poor is widening and very visible. I have another collection of luxury cars cruising the streets of Shanghai I’ll share soon. The middle class is growing, though, and I’ve read that the recyclers actually make more per month than the taxi drivers!
Great collection! I saw a guy yesterday with water filled aquariums on his cart I couldn’t believe it and the lights turned against me before I could get a photo. Th truck one is my favourite.
That sounds like a good one! I saw a guy with dozens of crates of baby chicks once but couldn’t get a shot off either.
That one with the chairs is particularly gravity-defying! I saw this all the time in SE Asia too. The valuable ones always blew my mind the most – like people who had flat screen TVs or pottery roped onto their scooters as if it was no big deal. Extra crazy points if they’re also carrying a baby under one arm while driving.
The cart of chairs just kills me because the poor guy had to pull it by hand! I hope he didn’t have far to go. We saw some real head-scratchers in Vietnam, like two guys carrying a giant mirror and another family with a live hog strapped to the back of their bike! I can’t imagine how they got him on there.
Thanks for sharing with us some candid shots in Shanghai. I found it also in Philippines. Carts that are very helpful because they used it as a source of their livelihood.
Yes, it’s amazing what one can do with a cart and a little ingenuity. I’ve read that some of Shanghai’s recyclers earn more money than the taxi drivers!
Holy sh…! These just blow my mind. I can only imagine what a sight it must be to watch them load these carts up!
LOL I know, right? I would have loved to watch the first one with all the white boxes being loaded. I just can’t imagine how they were able to achieve that near-perfect balance! This is definitely another thing I’m going to miss about China.
I vote for bubble wrap just because I would love to roll around in reams and reams of bubble wrap. Clothing optional of course!
I had a nearly uncontrollable urge to stick my arm out the window and pop some as we drove past 🙂
It is quite genius how they can stack all that stuff up! I can barely pack a grocery bag appropriately.
HA! Tell me about it. I should have had one of those guys pack up our suitcases for our move home!
These never cease to amaze me! Great collection
They never ceased to amaze me either, even after two years of watching them pass by!
This is actually pretty impressive. And I thought cycling with our backpacks was hard :-p.
You could have bought A LOT more things in Hoi An! 😉
Haha, this is amazing! You have quite the photo collection going on. I am always baffled by the things I see people carrying in carts or even the back of their motorbike. 😉
Some of the best ones got away before I had time to photograph them! Usually I just stood there gaping 🙂
I was totally amazed by what they were able to carry on their bikes and carts! The one that impressed me the most was the chairs. They must have been super heavy, but he was motoring down the street so fast I couldn’t get a good photo. Glad you could move faster! You don’t have pictures posted of them, but I liked the ones with all the balloons. They were so colorful! Good post.