Taiping car is a popular wooden unicycle in Shandong Province.

In the northern plain, unicycle is very popular, and different places have different shapes. In Shandong province, there is a relatively unified style called Taiping car.

This kind of unicycle was formed in Hebei Province at least in the Yuan Dynasty. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Hongwu immigrated to Shandong from Zaoqiang County, Hebei Province within two years, and this kind of transportation also spread to Shandong. Although different villages are hundreds of miles apart, their styles and structures are exactly the same, which is due to the same ancestral origin.

/kloc-Before the 1950s, Taiping vehicles were made of pure wood, with large wheels, anti-friction bars on both sides of the wheels, low load-bearing bars and low center of gravity, which were easy to operate, so they were popular. They are widely used in rural areas of Shandong Province, and can be used to transport goods and people. When transporting goods, wicker baskets are usually used to separate the two sides, so as to balance the simultaneous loading of bulky goods, fertilizers, silt and other bulk goods. Since 1950s, there have been great improvements and changes. Its frame basically retains its original style, mainly the wheels are changed into rubber spoke bearings, thus greatly reducing its own energy consumption, saving the physical strength of pushers, greatly improving the transportation efficiency and becoming the most important means of transportation. By the 1970s, almost every farmer in Shandong Plain had a flat car, which was also an important means of transportation besides agriculture. Shandong people push Taiping cars for hundreds of miles a day, and the transportation radius can reach thousands of kilometers.

After the 1980s, animal-drawn vehicles became popular, but Taiping vehicles were no longer an important means of transportation, and their number decreased rapidly. Since the 1990s, agricultural three-wheeled vehicles have become the main means of transportation, and the daily short-distance transportation of small goods has been changed to iron-framed small-wheeled flat cars. Taiping vehicles are gradually disappearing in Shandong province, and it is difficult to find exhibitions. Taiping vehicles have become history.