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Show BY WHEELBARROW IN CHINA. Two Passengers Go 20 Miles a Day for Ten Cents Each. Probably more freight and more passengers are transported in China by the wheelbarrow than by any other land method. The wheelbarrow used in China differs from that usecf in America in the fact that the wheel is set in the center and thus supports practically the entire load, while the handles are supported in part by a strap or rope over the shoulders of the man who operates it. As a result the coolie in China will transport nearly half a ton on his wheel. Wheelbarrows are much used in the country where the roads are but little developed, and I have heard that passengers sometimes make the entire trip from Shanghai to Peking, a distance of 600 miles, by barrow. A two-passenger barrow will make about 20 miles a day, and the coolie is content with a pay of about 20 cents a day, or an average of about half a cent a mile for each passenger. On the level, well-kept streets of the foreign quarters of such cities as Hongkong, Shanghai and Peking the wheelbarrow coolie will struggle along with a load of six or even eight people. Washington Herald. |