Run Don’t Walk

Winters here aren’t much different than winters back home, but because so many buildings have poor insulation and/or poor heating systems, the cold feels much worse than it is. You can never fully warm up. I’ve been running four heaters all day, and my fingers are still too cold to type with 100% accuracy. I don’t even like staying out late anymore. As soon as the sun goes down, like a werewolf, I must retreat to my lair before things get ugly.

Since everyone’s in a hurry to get to a place only slightly warmer than the outside, traffic seems to be an even more dangerous game than before. And you thought it couldn’t get any worse. Seriously, though, something should be said about the traffic in China. You people are freakin’ crazy! There. Next point. Actually, you’ve probably heard enough horror stories about the traffic that anything I could add would only be redundant. Would only be redundant. Would only be redundant. And after being here for as long as I have, dashing in front of cars that stop for nothing is second nature. I don’t think twice about it, which will, some day, lead me to get run over the one time I carelessly forget to look both ways.

Here’s the real kicker: the green walking man light that says it’s safe to step out onto the crosswalk ultimately means very little. Turning traffic still has the right of way. There is never, never a time when one direction is completely red-lighted, when it’s absolutely safe to walk across. It makes you wonder why the city even bothers stationing guards at bigger intersections. What does he do, anyway? Sure, he’ll blow his whistle at people who try to walk before the green man does, but many people just ignore him and brave traffic any way they see fit. ‘Cause that’s how we roll here.

7 December 2008 | China | Comments | Home
tags: traffic, weather

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