Bamboo bikes take a ride

QUANG NAM A bamboo bicycle tour will be launched next month to appeal to cyclists who are also green.
Local news channels reported that Vo Tan Tan, a craftsman in Cam Thanh village in Hoi An, will introduce a bamboo bicycle tour next month.
The first-ever tour in Hoi An will go through the village on prototypes of bicycles with most of the frames made from bamboo, produced by the village craftsmen.
Cam Thanh is the first village in Vietnam to produce bamboo bicycles with traditional processing methods.
The village is known as a crafts village and is a favoured ecotourism destination that has 30 ha of nipa palm forests and handicrafts made of palm and bamboo.
Hoi An will promote cycling as part of a plan to build the first eco-destination in Vietnam.
According to Quang Nam Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports, the province attracted over 3.4 million tourists last year, an increase of more than 20% from 2012.
Hoi An was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1999 as an example of a well-preserved trading post that was a port of call for traders from China in 1600s.
Bicycles made from bamboo are often touted as green, or eco-friendly, but only the frame tubes are actually made from bamboo with the joining “lugs” and stays made from steel or aluminium.

sourced:ttrweekly.com