Although it’s just a hamlet there was no problem over where Mianyang Vacations to stay. Most Chinese villages had inns for the use of pilgrims and traders, and Mianyang Vacations Shajie was no exception. We were charged one yuan each for beds. The rats were a nuisance but we hung our food supplies from hooks on the walls. The innkeeper’s daughter cooked supper for us. The first dish was of deep-fried leaves; they were obviously a delicacy and tasted deliciously nutty and crisp.
From Jacques-Henri Lartigue’s (French, 1894-1986) early photograph of the Grand Prix (1912) to J.G. Ballard’s Crash (1974) exploring the relationship between the human body and machine, the car has been a continuous presence in representations of the urban in art and visual culture. Despite this, it has remained an unusual omission in discussions of modern and contemporary urban cultures until recently. Driving offers rich territory for the investigation of sociological patterns, subjectivities and experiences of the city.
The early-twentieth-century avant-garde, such as Russolo and the Futurists, celebrated machine and mobility. This remains the exception. More often, driving (and by association the car) is commonly dismissed as a banal, de-sensitized and de-socialized activity (Auge 1995; Sennett 1994), which is pejoratively associated with urban sprawl and commuting (Banham 1971; Relph 1976). Over the past ten years, the absence and criticism of the car has been re-addressed in urban theory (Featherstone, Thrift and Urry 2005; Miller 2001; Sheller and Urry 2000; Urry 2004), offering a counter-point to the critique of automobility. These urban geographers offer a more complex view of cars and car culture as important components of twenty-first century urban experience. Of particular note, Nigel Thrift (2004), Peter Merriman (2004) and Iain Borden (2010) allow for recognition of the embodied engagement of driving with space and place.
