I visited 8 Chinese factories in 8 days... MIND-BLOWING!

This was one of the coolest trips I've ever made, visiting 8 different Chinese factories!

My more detailed factory visit videos:

The gear I used in this video:

***Question response book giveaway rules***
When you guys asks questions in the comments of my videos, I'll try to answer them. If there are questions that I think would make a good video response, I'll choose them to do a longer segment. If I choose your question for a video response, you'll win a copy of my book The Ultimate DIY Ebike Guide (the paperback or the ebook), or my book DIY Lithium Batteries.

Outro Music: BenSounds

[EbikeSchool]

A few answers to the frequently asked questions I'm seeing:
1) How much did the government pay you? Answer: Nothing, I was paid $0 to make this video. I just took a private trip to China and brought my cameras.
2) Was this a government-sponsored trip? Answer: No, I chose the factories I wanted to visit and a Florida-based bicycle trade group helped me with connections. I'm just a private guy with a few cameras.
3) What if the factories hid the stuff they didn't want you to see? Answer: They probably did.
4) Why aren't you eating meat? Answer: Health and environmental reasons. Why does what I eat bother you so much?
5) Why didn't you go to a labor camp? Answer: Because my channel is about bikes so that's what I went to see. When I visit the US for videos, I don't go film the child labor abuses or lack of affordable health care.
6) Why do you support the CCP? Answer: I don't. I ride bikes.
I hope this helped answer any burning questions!

[jlcwinter]

I watched your video with great nostalgia. I am a retired software engineer and 15 years ago I was sent to Beijing to train a group of young engineers to join my development group. I didn't want to go, but after some gentle persuasion I went. For a month I taught and worked with the sweetest group of young people that you could imagine. They were so attentive to my every need never even fell asleep in my long technical lectures. :-) We had very open talks about everything under the sun at noon while we walked in the industrial park. We remain friends to this day. Thanks for the memories.

[joshpratt]

I can't believe how good their train system is, that trip would've taken easy twice as long in the US if you're lucky with no flight delays or cancellations. Imagine if we had that. The more I see people vlogging China the more I distrust our media. I really want to visit now to see for myself.

[ruanscappini]

As an American, it was a pleasure to watch your journey through this beautiful country. China is without a doubt going to be one of the leading countries in the future, if not the top one. Much love to China!

[shyamdevadas]

Over 15 years ago, I completed my MBA. Much of it was spent studying the emerging Chinese economic miracle. It left me so curious that I quit my management job with a top U.S. corporation and moved there. I spent about 2 years in China on a business visa. During that time, I traveled to all of the major factory cities on the east coast, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. I was expecting to find a series of dirty, badly-run operations that put out junk. What I found instead was closer to what was shown in this video. The reason for most of the bad impression about Chinese goods is mostly due to the American entrepreneurs who tend to only import the junk that they can make the most money on. Example: I went to several Chinese furniture stores in average shopping centers and malls, in multiple cities. These stores catered to the Chinese middle class. What I saw was stunning, ultra-high quality furniture that was sturdier, more elegant, and made of better materials than anything I'd seen in the U.S.. It was also NOT cheap. With respect to the local purchasing power parity (PPP), it was on par with the premium stuff you buy in the West. The point is that a Westerner would NEVER know this, unless they actually went to China and really saw this stuff up-close and in multiple places. I'm all for bringing manufacturing back to America, but be aware that 1) we have no monopoly on brains and hard work and 2) the Chinese work damn hard! The average 21st century Chinese worker has the work ethic of an early-20th century American. In other words, they believe a job is not a right, but a privilege. Yeah, there have been worker protests in places like Foxconn, but in the majority of Chinese blue collar workers (some of whom I knew socially) were damned proud of their work, their companies, and their country. China ain't perfect, but its also not North Korea. They can manufacturer some pretty great stuff. It's no surprise that BYD has surpassed Tesla in the EV market. While the U.S. raises tariffs to keep the products out, BYD is going to be building factories in other parts of the Americas.

[ChunHungWan]

I’m not an e-bike owner, more so an e-scooter and EV car owner. Nevertheless, this video is very informative and I love seeing how manufacturing is carried out in China which is an eye-opener

[kevinhlabs]

I never thought I could get a culture shock from a video, but here it is. What an amazing journey for me. To be able to watch you go through China and show me what it's like rather than the BS given to me by Western media and the government was just wonderful. The people seem so polite and peaceful and welcoming and kind. I've traveled a lot but never to China but now I have to put them on my list. I'm sure it has its less than inviting parts like any country does but this certainly did change my view.

[iainmacinnes]

I worked for a spell in China back in the 1980’s. After watching this, it’s like watching a totally different country. I was in the north east of China, where steam trains were still running. There were huge numbers of bikes in Beijing, but they certainly weren’t e bikes. They used abacus in the shops. Incredible what can be achieved when your government is not obsessed with warmongering

[Dina]

I’m a 72-year old grandma and have absolutely no interest in e-bikes. However, I was curious about your visit to China and your overall experience while you were there. Western media has fed us so many negative aspects of China and from what I saw in this video, nothing could be further from the truth. China is a very modern and innovative country. It is way ahead with the use of its high speed trains or bullet trains, the factories, the treatment of its employees, the cleanliness, etc. . . Those factories sure did not look like sweat-shops to me. In any event, I was very impressed with the content of this video and your overall experience in China.

[thomaskirby]

I have to admit, I’m not really in the market for an e-bike, but I found this video very interesting. The people of China seemed to be very friendly and accommodating. Although it appeared that you had a busy schedule, it looked like you really enjoyed yourself. Looking forward to seeing more videos.

[stephenmiller]

Great video! I'm a 90 year old road biker and your video has enlightened me so much about China in general!. Many thanks!

[richardelushik]

A truly outstanding video featuring what appears as China's premiere E-bike manufacturers. As a retired Sr. Product Designer with nearly 50 years experience, I can appreciate the quality of product shown in your video. Thank You for letting us ride along with you...Rick.

[justinf]

Our western media really did a great job to make China like a uninnovative boring scary parallel world, especially the shock after visiting there by ourselves is quite amusing for everyone. Nice video, bro.

[David_Liu]

I lived in Shanghai for almost 6 years and was super excited to see it again. And of course while staying there I couldn't imagine my life without an electric scooter, as a matter of fact, Yadi one. Very affordable to buy, almost free to run and maintain and relatively safe to ride as there is almost always a designated bike lane anywhere you go. Thanks for an awesome tour, keep up bringing more affordable electric products to the west

[LMFAS]

China has beautiful people and i love the electric cities, trains and packed lunches, no stealing, clean air, quiet cities because of electric vehicles, ,everything is amazing, makes me want to visit China and wish we had all those things .

[daxie]

Great video. I have always admired the Chinese People since i was a child. They are industrious, persevering and humble. Dunno bawt haters with bitterness about China. 😊

[rockstove]

I’ve own and drive European & American cars all my life until yesterday I was driven in a Chinese made EV. I immediately fell in love with it. The design is so futuristic. The interior is so perfect and spacious. The engine so quiet. The price so reasonable. My next car it going to be a Chinese EV

[s._]

We just came back on a trip to China with our kids. It is definitely much easier to travel now by ourselves than 16 years ago. Booked all the hotels and HSR trips myself and paid everything using Alipay or WeChat and sometimes cash. They embrace electrification in all their vehicles. It really does make the cities like Beijing and Shanghai have better, cleaner air and a lot more quiet! The subway trains are also very clean, well connected and cheap!

[stephaneberrebi]

I've recently been on a 2 weeks trip to China, mainly the province of Shanxi, and Shangai too. The trip was mostly cultural (thousand years old temples, historic cities and sites) but I also visited a huge production facility for traditional Chinese spirits, sold in all of Asia and worldwide (bringing in good currency). The degree of automatisation and robotisation was amazing, with robot driven huge warehouses. And the capacity of the company is targeted to double in the coming year or so. Doubling capacity seems a smooth process : a lot of space available, land and grains for the raw materials, lots of suppliers around for the equipments and easily customised standardised blueprints for chains and warehousing (like the train stations that are modern, spacious and very similar from one place to another). Not to mention the rate at which the country visibly adopts and scales digital techs and also AI, in big cities, in stores, on new cars, phones and televisions . Impressive.

[WalkOverHotCoal]

When I noticed the video is 50 minutes long, I was going to skip it. But the content is so varied and interesting, I watched the entire video ! Nice job. Thank you.

it is interesting to note that Chinese factories are not like the backyard junk shops after the communists took control of the country. Not only did it learn from foreign countries, but improved on what they learned.

It seems the world is split into two, one driven by traditional Internal Combustion Engines, and an electrified one like what is shown in the video, and in China. The US is determined to hang on to the traditional way, as demonstrated by Joe Biden who is desperate to retain jobs for the auto workers, all for political expediency.

Judging by the electrified vehicles in China, it is obvious that China is not waiting around for the US, or Europe, to see the benefits of EV. The west can go their own way, and who knows if they might finally become "born again EV" users.