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Traffic in China - Part II


owenkrout

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Rules and regulations

 

In the reality of application, there are no real traffic “laws” in China. What they are in practical application are traffic “suggestions”.

 

In America, it is accepted that cars should drive on the street and people should walk on the sidewalk. In China, however I quickly learned to be alert because you can be run down by a car while you are on the sidewalk. When you arrive in China, one of the things that you notice is the nice wide “sidewalks” for pedestrians and bicyclists. What good planning, you think. The fact is that cars use that also. Because of the sudden increase in traffic, there has not been adequate provision for parking. The solution is to park on the sidewalk. Also, it is a loss of face to not be delivered right to the door of where you are going and better yet if people have to scatter out of the way. Another factor is that if traffic is jammed on the street and the sidewalk offers an alternate route around it, then it would be a shame to have that go to waste. If you are walking down the sidewalk in China and here a horn behind you, start looking for an escape route immediately. Not only do they drive on the sidewalk, but they will hit you if you don’t get out of the way. They are so used to people being alert and scattering that they don’t allow for the dumb American gawking at the sights and oblivious to his impending doom approaching from behind. Of course the sidewalks are often nice tile or even stone slab which the heavy vehicles rapidly damage.

 

Of course, this works both ways. It is common for the curbside lane of any city street to be only marginally useable by cars and buses because of people walking, riding bicycles or just standing.

 

In America, when the traffic light is red, that means stop and wait for the green before proceeding. In China it merely means that you might want to consider stopping. Unless, of course, you are making a right hand turn. Right turns on red are allowed here and with out a stop.

 

In America, there is a concept of who has the right-or-way in any given circumstance. In China it is a matter of who can play chicken better. In fact probably the most frightening part of a taxi ride in China is the way the drivers angle their way into traffic without looking or stopping. The method of changing lanes or merging into traffic is to simply start to make the merge without looking back. If someone blares their horn at you, then you jerk back into your own lane and try again in a few seconds. Making a left hand turn into a busy flow of traffic always hair-raising. The driver simply waits to where there is enough of a break that the lanes he has to cross have time to break rather than hit him, then he pulls out and tries to wedge himself into the flow of traffic. If there is not a break immediately, he will just start to slowly work his way out into the lanes of traffic forcing oncoming traffic to make the choice, swerve, stop or hit him. It is not uncommon to be driving in the wrong direction with oncoming traffic dodging around you while he is trying to merge into the lane where he belongs. Even once you are into the flow of traffic the fun doesn’t stop. The idea that those white lines designate lanes of traffic doesn’t seem to have occurred to anybody here. The driver will be constantly zigzagging, always looking for some slight advantage and always on the horn.

 

In America, you are required to make way for any police or other emergency vehicle if they are using warning lights and siren. I have learned here by first hand experience that it is alright to overtake and pass the police vehicle that has the warning lights and siren running as long as you sound the horn and flash your lights as you pass them.

 

In America, when it is dark or even raining hard, you must have your headlights on. In China headlights are strictly optional. Even on the darkest of nights, drivers often use them for nothing more than flashing the pedestrians or bicyclists that they are about to run down.

 

Crossing the Street

 

In America, pedestrians have the right of way and are required to cross at the intersections. If marked, they must use the crosswalk. Assume that in China and you won’t last 30 minutes. Drivers proceed right through the intersection, horn blaring, assuming that people are going to scatter out of their way. If you don’t, it will take them so off guard that they will probably hit you. The trick to crossing at an intersection has nothing to do with the traffic lights or the pedestrian light. It is to wait for a large enough crowd of people gathers. Once a certain critical mass of people is achieved, the crowd will surge forward and cross in mass. Together they make a large enough mass that even the taxis will have to stop. Well, usually anyway.

 

In America, you jaywalk with a sense of guilt and an awareness that an unexpected pedestrian in the middle of the block might get run down. In China, people don’t bother with going to the intersection if it will take them out of their way. Even on the six lanes of busy traffic near our home, there are people constantly crossing with few of them bothering with the crosswalks. I think it is just coincidental when they do use the crosswalk. Even I have gotten pretty good at crossing six lanes of heavy traffic without stopping.

 

One of the things that you will have to break your loved one of once they do get to America is this total disregard of any traffic regulations. Chinese drivers are simultaneously the worst I have ever seen and the best. They are the worst in just the points that I and others have mentioned. They must be the best drivers in the world though because otherwise they would all be dead. They manage to weave in and out of heavy traffic, never looking back and missing each other by inches.

 

Accidents do happen

 

No matter how good the drivers, accidents do happen. Sometimes truly horrendous accidents. Sometimes when two of them try to squeeze through the narrow space between the oncoming traffic and the bus that is already passing a donkey cart, there is just not enough space for everyone. Nobody wears seatbelts and emergency help is rare and rudimentary. The results are often posted on the community bulletin boards. When less serious fender benders occur, the result is usually both drivers out in the middle of the street screaming at each other. This, of course, attracts a crowd. The spectators loudly discuss what they think happened and sometimes people take sides. This escalates the whole situation and soon there are 50 people standing all around the two cars staring and blocking traffic. Now at this point it would be a loss of face for either party to back down. No matter how ridiculous the demands, they are now demanding payment from each other.

 

Long before things got this far in the US, the police would have arrived, sorted things out and cleared the traffic jam. In Northeast China at least, I have never seen the police appear until things escalated into a fight. Then they appear from nowhere, beat the snot out of everyone they think is involved, grab them by the hair and toss them in a van, which speeds off to the police station. I saw one of these fights develop in a rather remote town after a bus making a U-turn hit a taxi. Passengers as well as drivers involved. The police left both vehicles blocking the street when the hauled off the people involved. I don’t know what the remaining bus passengers did about their ride being cut short.

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Owen:

 

Thanks for the second installment! As a veteran of five years living over here, I can say without reservation that everything you mentioned I have seen, including the fist-fights. But then, coming from Miami I must also say that those are tame compared to the gun play we see down there sometimes.

 

I don't know if they have those three-wheel motorcycle taxis up in Shenyang or not. Down here in Guangdong, they are ubiquitous. Now if you really want to experience the traffic up close and personal, climb aboard one of these things, especially at rush hour :o :o :o I usually don't get into one unless it is an absolute necessity. The times that I have done so were exercises in stark terror. I hail from Florida, have been to Disney World many times and have done Space Mountain more times than I can count. It doesn't even compare to one of these motorcycle adventures. The sidewalk business is bad enough but these daredevils have been known to actually drive through open air shops just to get around a traffic jam. Evel Knieval could learn a few things from some of these guys :o

 

Once, while visiting the famous Consulate in GZ, the taxi we were riding in made a u-turn right in the middle of a busy street downtown and was immediately hit broadside by a bus. Luckily, we escaped uninjured but the ensuing brawl between the drivers attracted quite a crowd. When the police finally arrived they, as you mentioned, hauled both of them away. We hailed another taxi and made our way out to Shamian Island without further mishap.

 

I could go on and on but you have said it better than I can. :o :D :D

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In the reality of application, there are no real traffic “laws” in China.  What they are in practical application are traffic “suggestions”. 

 

This is partially very true.

 

Pedestrians are SUGGESTED not forced to go across the street taking the zebracrossing when the traffic lights are green. But drivers must obey the rules.

 

I'm always trying to take the zebracrossing :D but when there're no cars insight, I'd sometimes forget the suggestion :P

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When I was riding on the back of Weihong's Motor Scooter, I would close my eyes and when I opened them, I would say to her, "Did we hit them?" I wasn't kidding! She sure could teach those Hells Angels a thing or two about navigating with a bike! :P  :blink:  :lol:  :wub:

James,

 

My fiancee won't give me a ride on her Motor Scooter. She said I am too heavy (not fat) and she couldn't control it. :o People are not required to wear helmets. :D

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Pedestrians are SUGGESTED not forced to go across the street taking the zebracrossing when the traffic lights are green. But drivers must obey the rules.

 

I'm always trying to take the zebracrossing :D but when there're no cars insight, I'd sometimes forget the suggestion :P

Hi Q&Q,

 

You called crosswalks as zebracrossing. Cute. :rolleyes:

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Guest bbridges51

Driving in China really is in a different universe. SuJuan and I had an interesting seven hour bus ride from Nanjing to Huanshan where i learned that those funny dotted lines we call "lanes" are only suggestions for drivers, that passing on blind curves is common, and that driving with you lights on at night is optional. Every move is part of playing chicken.

 

And yes, pedestrians cross whenever they feel like it. While critical mass is nice, that never stopped individuals from walking right in front of traffic. That there weren't MORE accidents is a mystery to me. We only observed one during my three week stay, but were drivers in America to display the same habits, i know there would have been scores of wrecks.

 

In the end, most drivers seem to have a sense of space, that if one daring move doesn't pay off, they'll just back off and try again.

 

it takes some getting used to, but when in rome........

 

Brian

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Ok here is my driving in china story. One afternoon the taxi my fiance and I were in, hit an old lady who was riding a bike. After getting up, her and the taxi driver exchanged some words (my fiance would not repeat them in english for me)... then she dragged her bike off..and we rode away.. nothing more, nothing less....

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Nanning is Mandarin not Cantonese. Cantonese is spoken in Guangzhou. :P  :D

 

Mandarin is the national language in China. People in Nanning speak the Guangxi language which is similar to Cantonese. They call it "Bao Wa" or "white language". Ask your gal in Nanning and she will tell you about it. My gal has only been to Guangzhou once (for her interview), she learn this language from Nanning. Cantonese is spoken in the province of Guangdong.

 

A few weeks ago, I had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Boston with my fiancee's sister and her grandma. Her grandma can speak Vietnamese. She spent 12 years in Vietnam. :)

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excellent post owen!

 

i have said that crossing the street is a lost art in america. i have used the "lemming effect" of waiting for a crowd and oozing into the water to see if there are sharks. the other approach, especially mid-block, is the "lane-by-lane leap." naturally, you are hoping that "lanes" are being used at the time.

 

as an avid biker and motorist, i have driven and ridden in many cities and many countries - yah, even rome. but i have no desire to try to tackle the mean streets of china. i am impressed that the chinese don't take a macho-agressive posture when driving. if someone gets there first, they didn't cut you off - they just got there first.

 

i did see the police step in and settle a big argument on a street corner once. it's funny 'cause here it's all insurance this and lawyers that. but basically the beat cop said "you do this, and you do that." and there was no further discussion. neither of the drivers was happy, but the situation was done.

 

i also get a kick out of seeing 3, 4, or even 5 people on a 125cc motorcycle. i see that as the reason the SUV will never really catch on over there.

 

i'll stick to taxis and busses. i get a better look at the scenery that way.

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