New life cycle

Dawn breaks and Ying Huiqi beats off the dust that has collected on the vehicle overnight, tests the bell on the copper handlebar, folds up the awning and gets ready to receive his first customer of the day. Clad in a white T-shirt and black bloomers, with a pair of traditional fabric shoes and a towel hung at the waist ready for wiping his perspiration, Ying is in his element. "Watch your step," he says cheerfully. "Sit back. Now off we go."

He sets out for innermost Beijing, into its hutongs, or quintessential alleyways. The Beijinger has been riding his trishaw for 11 years in the Shichahai area, northwest of the Imperial Palace.

Spring and summer are busy tourist seasons, so Ying pedals more than 10 customers every day. The sun has burned his skin, with his neck as tanned and rough as an old peasant toiling the fields year round. He is 58, but Ying professes to have "inexhaustible strength". Ying believes he offers a reflection of Beijing culture and civilian life in these modern times.