Driving in China - a Mike Latza Post

OK. I have driven in New York. It doesn’t make sense. I would rather let a New York taxi driver, versed in the etiquette of cutting drivers off and the language of the middle finger, swerve me around the crowded streets of the Big Apple. I do not have the talent that they practice on a daily basis. As I always say, you don’t see piles of crumpled taxis on New York City street corners, so they must know what they are doing. They are the experts in the States.
However, I have to say, New York Cabbies, you are amateurs compared to the average Xian driver.

Picture this. A tour bus on a two lane roadway. In front of us is an overloaded lorry. The bus driver beeps maniacally, and then pulls to the left into the opposing lane of traffic to pass the big truck. Ahead, about four truck lengths and closing quickly, is an oncoming truck barreling at us from the opposite direction.

Let’s stop here and think about the options. Yes, I know. It seems obvious. But for the sake of clarity, let’s look at all the possibilities.
1. Pull back into your own lane and wait for oncoming traffic to ease before passing.
2. Accelerate with reckless abandon, honking your horn like it is some kind of live action video game.

Hmmm… We choose… OPTION 2!!!
As we pass the lorry, beeping ceaselessly, the truck drivers each pull over enough toward the shoulders to open up an unofficial passing lane down the middle yellow stripe through which we slip unscathed.

This is driving in Xian. Automobiles in China are a relatively new item within the scope of the average urban citizen here. Ten, fifteen years ago, you would find the streets crowded with ox carts, bicycles, rickshaws, pull carts, horse carts, motorcycles, both electric and gas, and a combination bicycle and motorcycle which is popular over here. Oh, yes, and people. Many, many people. Now add automobiles and busses to that equation. You still have the ox carts, bicycles, rickshaws, pull carts, horse carts, and motorcycles on the streets, but now you also have the crazily honking car drivers as well. And by the way, traffic regulatory signs and stop lights appear to be mere suggestions, to be ignored at the motorist’s whim.

In the guidebook, “Culture Shock! China,” Angela Eagan and Rebecca Weiner explain, “In China, every person that drives will be in a minor traffic accident at least twice a year… Most people driving in China have only been licensed within the past ten years. Many drive a car as if it were the same as riding a bicycle.”

This explains so very much. Drivers regularly turn in front of oncoming traffic, closely weaving their cars between other autos, rickshaws, bicyclists and pedestrians. It is a crazy ballet with tons of steel engaged in the dance.

And yet it seems to work. There are not nearly as many accidents on the street as one would expect to see. Cars miss people, cars, and other sundry vehicles by inches. Each person knows their place in the dance, and it is exquisitely choreographed. It is only the foreigners who muck up the works by hesitating, throwing off everyone’s timing.

I have gotten used to this. Mostly I just turn my head when our taxi driver starts beeping and nudging his way between two cars. I am not kidding about this. They will pick a spot between cars, where there is no possible room to fit, and accelerate their way in between. And more often than not, they succeed. I look away.

This would not work in the US. We would be shooting each other or bashing each other’s brains out with baseball bats after angrily exiting our cars at the next red light. I once saw a car on the tollway in Chicago, accelerate, pull onto the shoulder and alongside the car which was in front of him, and “bump” the side of that car with his because that driver had cut him off. Lately America has become the land of road rage. There is no road rage here in China. Or at least not that I have witnessed, and believe me, I have had the opportunity to witness many incidents which would spark motorist anger in the US. I can’t explain it. Probably just as someone from China cannot explain the perceived prevalence of road rage in America.

I think it has to do with the communal nature of the culture over here. Society and the group are privileged over the individual. In America, we think, “Hey, this is my road, this is my car, get outta my way, jerk!” Here in Xian, it seems as if they are thinking, “Hey, we all have someplace to go, so let’s get there as fast as we can, without killing each other. Oh, and I’m counting on you being as good at this as I am.” They beep, they swerve, they cut people off, and then go on their way with little display of anger. Of course, they are probably distracted from thoughts of anger by the next driver who is cutting, swerving, inching in front…

Taking the bus is another unique experience. They are much cheaper than taxis, thus the
attraction. It may be 25 or 30 Yuan for a cab, but only one Yuan for a bus ride. However, you may receive unexpected benefits along with economy.

I think that every car and bus that I have ridden in over here still has the original shocks. Standing on the bus is a good option, especially if your backbone is made of something brittle, like bone. And more often than not, it is the only option.

The busses tend to be crowded here in Xian. It is not unusual to see friends and family sitting in each other’s laps in order to share the hard plastic seats. There is plenty of room for standing in the aisle since the seats are in a single row facing the middle of the bus, with the standard metal ceiling bars and nylon and plastic hand-holds.

The other day a couple of students and I were waiting for a bus to take us back from the city center during the evening rush hour. We looked at the sign to see if our bus number was listed on the sign. It was, along with about seven others. There was a crowd lined up five deep, about a block long, hoping that their bus would stop in front of them. When the bus did pull up, it was already full of commuters. This did not deter people from getting on the bus any way they could.
In China, there is no line. People move en masse to enter, rubbing and pushing their way in. It is expected. It is a part of the culture. Eventually you will get in. This takes a bit of getting used to for us Americans, although some of us make this adjustment easier than others. Maybe even a bit too enthusiastically.

Anyway, we made our way onto the already crowded bus and pulled away from the curb. Then on to the next bus stop. Which was also crowded. Then those commuters pushed on. This continued for the whole ride, with more people entering the bus than exiting. I saw something like this once at a Ringling Brothers / Barnum and Bailey Circus when the clown car drove into the ring.

A bunch of students must have been let out of school, because they were waiting at several of the stops. They knew the drill. Many of the girls linked arms so that they would not be thrown about in the aisle; not that there was much chance for any kind of movement there. The driver got up at one point, shouted at the students, pushed the closest boy, and everyone moved toward the back of the bus. Ah, the universal language of the bus driver.
Remember the swerving and cutting off in traffic? Well, that feeling is amplified on the bus because of the height and weight of the vehicle. Imagine the wildest roller coaster ride at the local amusement park. Now imagine it without the safety rail in front of you to hold you in place. And imagine that you have to stand, holding on to a nylon strap for dear life. That is riding on the bus in Xian.

We eventually got back to the University safely (and exhilarated, I might add!). We always do. The streets may have seemed like a sea of craziness when we first arrived, but now we are dodging and weaving with the best of them. And it is pretty funny to watch us Americans cross the street. We wait, we look both ways. We look both ways again. We look both ways again. And then, when the odds seem ever so slightly in our favor, we dash madly, as the natives around us casually saunter into the oncoming traffic, knowing that all any of us wants is to get to our destination.