I am going to focus this post on drivers in Beijing.
They are crazy. I cannot believe how they drive. That said, yesterday was the first time I saw an accident. I went with Nick and his wife to IKEA yesterday so that I could get a desk chair for my room. It is kind of a drive from the school and it was more or less rush hour. An observation I made the first day I was here and I still think seems to be true is that the larger thing always has the right of way here. But by largest thing I don't mean actual size. Whoever acts the biggest has the right of way. Pedestrians have no rights but if you act like a car or better yet a 2 ton military truck, you can walk wherever you want. The important part is holding your hand in a certain way that says stop or I will run you over. My favorite is cars will use this commandeer one of the lanes going the opposite way.
That is another thing I have noticed about drivers; there are no real lanes. They come and go randomly and most of the time are shared between many impatient cars. Even with all of this craziness, like I said, I have only seen one car accident. The drivers are aggressive but they are also aggressively defensive. It is a matter of pride to be a "safe" driver. If you get into a cab and put on your seat belt the driver gets really offended because you do not trust him as a driver. Welp, I am going to finish up my lesson plans for next week. It has been a good first week, long and tiring but I finally felt today like I can teach these students.
On a side note, here are some pictures of my apartment:
I like your apartment! It looks so cute!
ReplyDeleteI can rarely handle city driving here, where we use specific lanes. I would probably die if I tried driving in Beijing.