introduction to Chinese drivers
OK, I had been trying to write everyday but now I realize that is foolish. First of all, I don't like writing that much and second, my days are sometime (often?) boring so why should I subject others to my misery. Here is my last crappy post for a while.
4/5/2005 Tuesday - Spent my first night in the executive suite. Not bad at all plus I had a day off waiting for others to finish their work. After sleeping in I decided to take a walk to the store and get some water and sundries. When I turned on the sink in the bathroom, I got brown water from the tap and a lot of air as well. I figured it was caused by the road construction so I ran the water for a while before taking a shower. I just realized this is probably quite boring so I'll cut to the chase. They are digging up the street and the sidewalk up and down the entire street. My walk to the store became an adventure. I had to cut behind some buildings and then when I made it back to the main road I had to walk across the entryways and jump some gaps in the walk. At the end of the road, everything was torn up and I had to walk across the construction. TIC. On the way back we drove through a traffic circle. I'm not sure who decided they needed a traffic circle there but it was a mistake. Traffic circles are based on yielding and following traffic laws, two things extremely rare in China. In fact the other night in the same circle, our taxi driver made a U-turn by going the wrong way in the circle. I do like the traffic lights in TEDA. They have a sort of progress bar that diminishes as the light is about to change. Good design. The funny thing is that at night, all the lights flash yellow in all directions. Think about that for a minute.
4/6/2005 Wednesday - I realized today why I make fun of the Chinese drivers. I'm jealous. I wish I could run red lights, cross over the lane lines, cross into oncoming traffic, turn whenever and wherever I want. These people make an art of it. Americans all think Chinese are bad drivers but I see very few accidents. Apparently a fair number of people die on the highway between Tianjin and Beijing but they've got to control the population somehow, right? Joking, joking. I saw the ultimate move a few days ago and it was repeated today. When leaving a parking lot, the taxi driver drove on the sidewalk and down the pedestrian ramp to the street. Again, I'm jealous. Oh I almost forgot about the proper hand position when driving. In the States we have the classic "10 and 2". In China, it's all different. One hand on the steering wheel, one hand on the horn, one hand switching between the tea bottle and the gear shift. Yeah, I know that's three hands. No wonder they have problems!
4/5/2005 Tuesday - Spent my first night in the executive suite. Not bad at all plus I had a day off waiting for others to finish their work. After sleeping in I decided to take a walk to the store and get some water and sundries. When I turned on the sink in the bathroom, I got brown water from the tap and a lot of air as well. I figured it was caused by the road construction so I ran the water for a while before taking a shower. I just realized this is probably quite boring so I'll cut to the chase. They are digging up the street and the sidewalk up and down the entire street. My walk to the store became an adventure. I had to cut behind some buildings and then when I made it back to the main road I had to walk across the entryways and jump some gaps in the walk. At the end of the road, everything was torn up and I had to walk across the construction. TIC. On the way back we drove through a traffic circle. I'm not sure who decided they needed a traffic circle there but it was a mistake. Traffic circles are based on yielding and following traffic laws, two things extremely rare in China. In fact the other night in the same circle, our taxi driver made a U-turn by going the wrong way in the circle. I do like the traffic lights in TEDA. They have a sort of progress bar that diminishes as the light is about to change. Good design. The funny thing is that at night, all the lights flash yellow in all directions. Think about that for a minute.
4/6/2005 Wednesday - I realized today why I make fun of the Chinese drivers. I'm jealous. I wish I could run red lights, cross over the lane lines, cross into oncoming traffic, turn whenever and wherever I want. These people make an art of it. Americans all think Chinese are bad drivers but I see very few accidents. Apparently a fair number of people die on the highway between Tianjin and Beijing but they've got to control the population somehow, right? Joking, joking. I saw the ultimate move a few days ago and it was repeated today. When leaving a parking lot, the taxi driver drove on the sidewalk and down the pedestrian ramp to the street. Again, I'm jealous. Oh I almost forgot about the proper hand position when driving. In the States we have the classic "10 and 2". In China, it's all different. One hand on the steering wheel, one hand on the horn, one hand switching between the tea bottle and the gear shift. Yeah, I know that's three hands. No wonder they have problems!
posted by Big Mike at 1:45 AM
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