Meet Zuo Yun

If you had to say what the best part of the Western America Adventure ride is, it would unquestionably be the people I’ve met as part of this great activity.   I thought I would add a bit on each person along with the rest of the blog postings I’ve been doing.

All of the folks on this trip are what we would call high rollers.  When I spoke with Zuo standing outside the Victorian Hotel in Medicine Bow, Wyoming this afternoon (wow, it sounds cool to be able to say that), I asked him what he did in China.

It turns out that this very competent rider and very polite man owns a motorcycle clothing manufacturing company (Benkia, to be exact).   It’s good stuff.  I checked out the gear he was wearing today and I am impressed.   Steve and Ryan, I know you’re reading this…and my advice is we need to talk to Zuo about his product line.

Zuo is a very good rider, he’s a former motorcycle racer, and he’s  fun to be around.   Zuo has traveled quite a bit in China on a motorcycle, including Guangzhou (a city I’ve spent some time in).

In China, the first name is the family name, and the second name is the given name.  So Mr. Zuo’s family name is Zuo (it’s what we’d call his last name), and his given name is Yun.  The custom is to address people by their family name (as I understand it), and Zuo kind of sounds like “tso.”  It feels strange and informal to call people by their last name, but evidently it is okay in China.

Most of the Chinese I work with have English names, too, probably to make it easier for guys like me.   Zuo does not have an English name (or I don’t know it yet), and he seems to be fine with me calling him Zuo.

I was joking around a bit earlier with Hugo (the Zongshen rep on this trip) about me taking a Chinese name to make things easier for my Chinese friends.  The one I want is Gwong Joe.   Like the city.  Get it…Guangzhou?

We’re in Casper, Wyoming  tonight, and we sure had a glorious day today.   That’s coming up in the next blog.