Driving - Zhuhai, China

I just realized that I have spent 6 weeks here and have not yet mentioned driving here. It is definitely a topic worth noting.

The rules of the road here are a little different from Canada, so much so that my company does not allow any of us to rent cars here. The first thing I looked for was stop signs. I once heard that stop signs say STOP in english everywhere in the world except for Quebec. I wanted to validate this in China. I looked and still to date I have not seen a single red octagon in China. It turns out a stop sign here is an upside down triangle. Which is also rare to see. Needless to say, people don't stop for much.

Motorcycles, these do not seem to abide by any laws. I see them on sidewalks, on the street, and even going the wrong way on streets. On the way to work, we go on a street that has 6 lanes (3 each way). The right lane seems to be reserved for 2 things: passing, and motorcycles going the wrong way. Normally I would think that these do not mix, but apparently it works here.

There also seems to be no maximum capacity on motorcycles or bicycles. It is not uncommon to see bicycles, going the wrong way on a street, carrying four propane tanks. That just doesn't seem safe to me. It is also not uncommon to see a family of four on a single moped. Ussually it is the dad driving, with the kid standing in the foot area. The wife sits side-sattle on the back and carries a baby in one arm and holds on with the other arm. Helmets are ussually omited in these cases. The one thing that actually made me stop and laugh was a man with a dog on a scooter. The man drove the scooter and the dog stood on his hind legs in the front and had his front paws on the handlebars.

Taxis here are incredible. They charge 10 yuan (2 dollars) to get most places in the city. If the place is far, it can cost as much as 20 yuan (4 dollars). The catch is that they all drive mark 2 VW jettas and don't have seatbelts. The doors are also locked and can only be opened by a lever that is beside the driver. Even the window handels are missing. This seems like a safety hazard to me, but if the Chinese govenment says it's safe then I have full confidence in the system.

I think my favorite story was from Daniel, our project manager. He took a taxi from the airport and the taxi driver was going over 100 km/h. This is fine, except he was speeding slightly. So when there was a speed trap, instead of slowing down, he would pop up onto the sidewalk and continue his pace. Daniel could not wait to get out of that car.

We have a driver that we call at all hours of the night. He is a good driver, and I almost felt sorry for him when I called him for 3:30am this morning, except then I found out that he makes more than I do. Chinese people never make as much as we do, so I can't really feel sorry for him.