China, Land of the Free
I've now been in Beijing for 2 days and I'm starting to feel my way around. At first I took a taxi to the work site, but yesterday I walked back to my hotel and today I walked to the worksite. I know the route now, and I've figured out how to cross the street.
Crossing the street is a big challenge for a Westerner in China. A red light at an intersection is an indication to a driver that this is a good place to make a right turn. They barrel right through the intersection without stopping and usually without slowing; Pedestrians and bicycles are free to get out of the way if they care to. However, if you get into a big group of people and walk when they do, it's possible to get across the street without being hit, at least that's how it's worked for me so far. Today I want to walk to a department store that I think I can see down Fuxingmen Baije. (That's the nearest cross street. I do not know what Baije means, or Fuxingmen for that matter. "Lu" is road, so it isn't that.)
China is chaotic, cheerful, considerate and remarkably free of rules for a totalitarian state. Everything goes on the road, that's for sure. I told some people at the center that Americans don't drive cars through groups of pedestrians, because the police would write them tickets. They thought that was hilarious. There are no police around, they said. That fits my observations. I have not seen a single person with an official looking uniform or a gun. The hotel doorman has a uniform, but no gun. Every building has a security guard whose job it is to 1) Stare at me 2) Watch other people work. None of them have guns, so it's a lot less dangerous than the U.S., if you discount the likelihood of being mowed down by someone making a right turn.
People here are amazingly kind and helpful. On my first day at the center there was a huge thunderstorm that lasted for hours. I really didn't know my way back to the hotel and I didn't know how to get a taxi, but I thought I would go out and try to flag one. One of the other people who work at the center talked to me on the way down in the elevator and found out I planned to flag a taxi, though I did not have an umbrella. She said "I'll help you!" She put me under the security guard's beach umbrella and spent 10 minutes trying to flag me a taxi. When she finally fought off another patron and got me the taxi, she was very pleased with herself and not at all put out by how difficult it had been. That seems to be the universal attitude.
Crossing the street is a big challenge for a Westerner in China. A red light at an intersection is an indication to a driver that this is a good place to make a right turn. They barrel right through the intersection without stopping and usually without slowing; Pedestrians and bicycles are free to get out of the way if they care to. However, if you get into a big group of people and walk when they do, it's possible to get across the street without being hit, at least that's how it's worked for me so far. Today I want to walk to a department store that I think I can see down Fuxingmen Baije. (That's the nearest cross street. I do not know what Baije means, or Fuxingmen for that matter. "Lu" is road, so it isn't that.)
China is chaotic, cheerful, considerate and remarkably free of rules for a totalitarian state. Everything goes on the road, that's for sure. I told some people at the center that Americans don't drive cars through groups of pedestrians, because the police would write them tickets. They thought that was hilarious. There are no police around, they said. That fits my observations. I have not seen a single person with an official looking uniform or a gun. The hotel doorman has a uniform, but no gun. Every building has a security guard whose job it is to 1) Stare at me 2) Watch other people work. None of them have guns, so it's a lot less dangerous than the U.S., if you discount the likelihood of being mowed down by someone making a right turn.
People here are amazingly kind and helpful. On my first day at the center there was a huge thunderstorm that lasted for hours. I really didn't know my way back to the hotel and I didn't know how to get a taxi, but I thought I would go out and try to flag one. One of the other people who work at the center talked to me on the way down in the elevator and found out I planned to flag a taxi, though I did not have an umbrella. She said "I'll help you!" She put me under the security guard's beach umbrella and spent 10 minutes trying to flag me a taxi. When she finally fought off another patron and got me the taxi, she was very pleased with herself and not at all put out by how difficult it had been. That seems to be the universal attitude.