“Chinese paramilitary police practise a performance for the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on May 7, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images)”
From: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/olympic_preparations.html
Sorry if it’s a dupe. I searched around, but didn’t see it posted here yet.
Hehe Cool. :d
Thats awesome, but why the military?
Maybe cause of the…
1) Smog beijing has.
2) World rising fuel costs.
3) Cutbacks.
Still awesome, nonetheless. 
Very nice, I’d like to have one of them.
By the way, these wheels are much easier to ride than a regular unicycle, because of the higher rotation center which makes it more stable.
they’ve got nothing better to do, and who else does that government employ in large numbers that’s free to do this kind of crap?
I think in China you’re either in the army or busy getting killed by the army.
Good thing they are in camoflage clothes.
The monocycles seem awful light for being made of lead.
…an hour later you will want to ride your monocycle again.
The center of rotation thing is true, but those aren’t very easy to ride either. They are heavy and sluggish (takes getting used to), and built for short people and not adjustable. For me to pedal one, my knee wants to hit my arm at the top of the pedal stroke.
Sheesh, some of you guys seem to think the Chinese army gets outfitted with these things! Get real. The ones they actually get issued are camouflage colors as well. 
I think it’s easier to violently suppress Tibetan independence while on monocycles.
This vehicle would win the RTL. Imagine sitting comfortably all the way from Yarmouth to Baddeck.
Thanks for posting that site Seth - very cool photos. I don’t think I’ve seen so many of those monocycles in one place at one time before. I wonder how they decided to use them for the ceremony.
—Nathan
AFAIK military training is compulsory for all chinesse highschool and university students.AND china has a bad case of Oliypic fever & their school sports days tend to feature an opening ceromany along Olympic lines.
so… maybe it was along of lines of
We need some thing to look like olimpic rings that no one has done before… What were those things the students at the circus training school had in their sports day opening ceromany .
Big ring shaped things,we could paint 5 of them differnt colours. That should kep them quiet during thier millitary training this year.
as with most olymic opening ceremonies, i think a bunch of guys smoked a huge amount of crack and then got given a budget
but can you ride them backwards?
I can’t remember for sure, but I think the ones I’ve tried had freewheels. In other words, no.
John,
I remember folks (including you) trying out a monocycle in the hallways of our dorm building at UNICON XII in Tokyo. I seem to remember that it belonged to the Chinese team . . . .
