Skip to main content

Veronique Greenwood

Veronique Greenwood’s work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Pacific Standard, and elsewhere. She lives in China.

Author

Illustration by Jun Cen

Fear Factors

Spring 2017 | Essays

When I moved to China nearly two years ago, one of the first things I bought was a bicycle. I live on a university campus, where everyone rides, and the bike was cheap: $17 for an ancient Five Rams cruiser, with a lively color scheme of teal and rust. I used to cycle to work when I lived in New York, dodging tourists and threading in between delivery trucks. But the moment I pulled out onto a street in China, it became clear that this was going to be a different experience.