photo shows the back of a man in a chair at the left side of the street.  The chair has three wheels that look like bicyle wheels about 2.5 feet in diameter - one wheel on each side of the chair and a third in the front.  His left hand is resting on the chair and we can't see his right hand.
Diary from China -- Monday night, August 8, 2005

Oh -- something I forgot. I had told you that on my way from the airport in Shanghai my very first day in China, I saw a blind man walking alone along the street, and later we saw some Deaf people while embarking on the train from Shanghai.

Well, yesterday afternoon I saw someone in a wheelchair in Feng Feng. He was going on the left (wrong) side of the road, in the street close to the curb. I didn’t realize it was a wheelchair at first -- it looked like a kind of bicycle / scooter (can’t remember if it was 3 wheels or 4) but instead of pedaling with his legs, he moved a lever around horizontally with his arm, while his legs rested on a board in front of him. I ran back to ask if I could take his picture, he said no, of course, but I couldn’t resist taking a picture of his back.

All three times, these people were out traveling independently. It’s very gratifying to see that in China, people with disabilities are apparently accepted, and it isn’t considered unusual for them to be independent, at least in traveling.

Return to Diary from China
Return to home page