Oh China... Traffic. 4th Edition.

There are many Chinese stereotypes. A very prominent one is that Chinese people can't drive and being in Beijing that has become hard to ignore. When people mention a Chinese stereotype to me, I always say that we're almost a third of the world's population, so we should not only have the world's worst but the world's best at everything as well (Chinese people aren't short either once you visit a Basketball schools...). With so many million cars on the street here in such a small areas, it's quite amazing how there aren't many more car accidents than I see, and that makes me think that Chinese drivers are actually decent drivers. Of course accidents are inevitable, and last week I was caught in the middle of one. And whether or not the drivers are bad or good here, they need a new system to deal with the car accidents.

So when I said I was caught in the middle of an accident, that's exactly what it was. Here are some photos, see if you can figure out what's going on. Two pics here, one looking forward, one looking back.

A car turning left hit a bus that was trying to go through across him. It wasn't a big hit or anything, didn't see any dents at all really but none the less they were there talking it out. When they get in accidents here, they don't move, they stay put right in the middle of traffic and wait for the cops to come. Don't need witnesses or need to recreate the scene but they blocked 4 lanes of traffic. Of course people still need to get by, but there's no such thing as taking turns here so everyone went at exactly the same time. All 4 directions tried to get on with their way, those who needed to go around the accident did so, but soon after, one lane was stuck and was blocking another lane so that it couldn't go around anymore, and that lane blocked another, and so on and on. It's like when you close a cardboard box and push that last corner in so that it stays closed. Looking at these pictures I got so confused that I decided to make a diagram of the accident. And here you go, my lovely art work.

Definitely considering being an architect after drafting this one out. So I'm in the green car, blues are cars, reds are buses, and no one is moving. We were stuck for about a half hour before the cops came and one car backed up into a lamp post and turned around letting every other car eventually get on their way.

Oh and a very interesting note that was brought up a few weeks ago by a friend that I thought was very fascinating. We were talking about China and the habits of the Chinese people and how it is so different in North America. He said that because the people are so repressed here that any freedom they have they will use it. Many of those freedoms include the very loose traffic regulations, the spitting, and the littering. It makes sense and I'm used to the traffic now. Although I can not bring myself to litter, I will look less sourly at the people who do here as I know eventually some government paid worker will pick it up. The spitting... can still be a little much.. most of the spitting I wouldn't call spitting... it comes with the nose blowing as well, not into a tissue, but in a general direction. Plenty of colourful fluids all around, not enough rain. How I miss Vancouver's weather.

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