The Chinese Wheelbarrow (2011)

The "western" version is intended to move materials over extremely short paths (for long distance carriages are traditionally used), the Chinese is to carry materials over long distances (and as mentioned in the article over winding and possibly non-paved roads).

You can loosely compare the "loading" with a modern quarry/mine truck vs. a container truck, besides the different nature of the goods transported the difference is between short and long haul that more than compensates the increased loading time.

Here I believe you are confounding a hollow body with central wheel placement, these are two disparate and potentially mutually compatible features.

anyone who has ever driven a well loaded wheelbarrow knows that they have a considerable danger of tipping, and I think this would be accentuated in the chinese design

If intended for heavy loads they tend to have stands emerging from the outer sides/corners (these are visible in many of the article's images), just the same as the modern ones. Also, because the weight is better balanced in the Chinese central-wheel model you can arguably use a fatter wheel (since you are taking less load and therefore have an easier time controlling the thing) which means increased stability and increased strength and longevity. Also, reduced affinity for 'sinking' in muddy or sandy conditions.

Placing most of the weight near the axle between the wheel and the ground

One observation is that the Chinese design (central placement of larger wheel) makes this possible with a higher center of gravity (and therefore easier to guide, while avoiding undesirable interactions of the load with plants/water/animals/etc.). A concern in wet weather, overgrown paths, etc.

A chinese wheelbarrow will require much more time to load

I believe this is a misconception based upon the view of the modern western wheelbarrow which is designed both as a vessel and a vehicle. Coming from an ancient Chinese peasant's perspective, the wheelbarrow would be an all-weather replacement for pack animals, and therefore the likelihood is that goods (for example agricultural harvests) would first be placed in to an appropriate container and then slung over the wheelbarrow in paired or otherwise balanced loads. The slinging would not require any real time investment, probably less than an animal. It means that you can bring the wheelbarrow down a winding path in mountainous fields, take your rattan or similar basket, load your harvest, and then dump it on the wheelbarrow. You might load 4, 6, 8 or 10 such baskets before moving the wheelbarrow. The above assumptions are based on my own observations observing actual agricultural work in remoter parts of China and Southeast Asia over the last 20 years.

Strangely, this whole discussion reminds me of the outrageously expensive industry of modern baby strollers, but also the modern stand-on electric monowheel style scooters, which could be said to be essentially a powered version of the simplistic form of the Chinese wheelbarrow.

These are effectively unrelated technologies, as only one is suitable for transporting goods between settlements.

First I thought of Democracy which is not used in China and a clear counterexample. Clearly it's not the dry weather there which is the reason :).

But I deleted that comment as it's political and, although a counterexample, one could argue that the algorithm of counting votes is not the central idea of Democracy, and it is philosophical and cultural rather than technological.

I next thought simply of forks and chopsticks. They're both wildly available, but other than Asians, nobody eats with chopsticks in America and Europe, non-Asian restaurants don't even have any. In China I imagine it's the opposite, and restaurants don't even have a fork for you.

We are not talking about a wheelbarrow here (or Democracy!) - but just a $0.50 piece of wood/plastic/metal.

Clearly it is not true that a good idea is adopted instantly in the same form. Utensils are a great idea. The west uses forks, the East uses chopsticks.

This sort of effect is seen with bicycles in urban areas. A single narrow broken kerb can create a new bicycle route where there was none before. This superiority of single track vehicles is sometimes used intentionally as a filter to allow the passage of bicycles and prevent the passage of cars. In my city there are raised medians on some bicycle routes with a pair of narrow cuts (for 2 way bike traffic) to allow the passage of the intended traffic across a road without creating another route usable by cars and trucks.

The article is in a way very misleading.

'Wheelbarrow' in 'The West' is generally a local tool, used to move things like dirt and what not 50 feet to somewhere else.

What the Chinese have there is a '1 wheeled cart' for transportation, which in the west would have '2 wheels' or even '4 wheels'.

And yes, one would be right to question why on earthy they wouldn't add another wheel or two. Maybe resources?

- Oil production decline to the point of significant scarcity

- 20000km supply chains falling out of the profitability zone

- Under-funded municipalities on the edges of civilization not able to maintain their roads. Some parts of the United States are already starting to un-pave their roads: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/7/26/the-un-paving-...

- Large-scale decline in standard of living

...Et cetera.

Given enough neglect and time, everything we have built will crumble. When "developed" places fail, they will start to look more like "developing" places. Dirt roads, bicycles, working animals, reduced conspicuous consumption, and maybe even wheelbarrows as a seriously-considered form of transportation - all of it could return in the long-term.

It's a deadly serious matter whether human civilization can continue in its present form, and if it does not, it's worth considering what it might fall back to. It's happened many times before.