Today was my first full day in China. I'm in a city called Tianjin... well, technically I'm in an "economic development area" about 20km outside of the city, but everyone still calls it Tianjin. It's a very manufacturing-oriented city, with quite a few large factories. The Motorola factory (conveniently next door to ours) employs 16,000 people.
There are people all over the place, and most are either quiet or very nice. A lot of people can be seen just walking around very slowly through the streets. Others are riding bicycles or tricycles in the streets. There is a decent number of cars, but because of the tight rules for obtaining a drivers license - and the expense of owning a car - many people either take taxis or hire drivers. Tonight I walked by a few restaurants near my hotel, and there were dozens of cars in the parking lots with an equal number of men just hanging around in the parking lot, waiting for their 'bosses' to finish dinner and be driven back home.
That brings me to the driving. Take everything you know about the rules of the road, and throw 'em out the window. That's driving in China. The normal 'laws' are merely suggestions around here. Most drivers don't drive very fast, but a traffic cop from the US would have a heart attack. Everyone usually follows the right-side-of-the-road rule, but other than that it's everyone for themselves. Pedestrians, too. There's no right-of-way on the roads... more like get-out-of-the-way.
Tomorrow I head to Beijing for a weekend-long touristy tromp through areas like Tiennemen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. Wish me luck finding my way!
Posted by Austin at June 22, 2007 09:04 AM