Big wheels keep on turning

A successful Chinese entrepreneur discovered that loving life simply meant riding his bicycle, he tells Xu Jingxi in Guangzhou.

There are three problems that a cyclist always wants to avoid: getting lost, breaking a chain and riding through a sudden rain. In 2007, a 30-year-old Zhang Xiangdong ran into all the three on the same day when he was cycling in France. After struggling to fix the bicycle chain, Zhang rode on in the rain, threading through a "cobweb" of country roads to find a lodging before dark.

The Chinese cyclist couldn't help feeling a twinge of panic. He had no idea where to go, with his Road Atlas damp from the rain. Navigation apps on mobile phones were not yet in common use.