When I was describing the three-wheeled vehicles of Yuxi recently, I forgot about this beauty:

Half the vehicles on the roads of Yuxi have two or three wheels. The vast majority of the two-wheeled variety are scooters and small motorcycles. Bicycles may have reigned supreme on Chinese streets forty years ago, but they are a tiny minority today in Yuxi.

Most of the scooters are electric. They whir by so quietly that they often take me by surprise.

By law, motorcycles can have an engine displacement of no more than 150cc. That’s tiny. The first photo below is of a mototaxi. They hang out at almost every intersection in town and will take you wherever you want to go in town for ¥5 (about $0.80). Note the two helmets: one for the driver, one for his passenger.

The most interesting and unusual vehicles here are the three-wheeled mini-trucks. These have a motorcycle front end and engine married to a flatbed. Some of them are electric. The carry everything from furniture to flowers. Some have coal-fired cookstoves on their backs and function as food carts.

There are still some of their pedal-powered forebears on the roads. They’re built to last. Note the three downtubes on this first one.