Driving in China !
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Driving in China ! |
| Driving in China |
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Driving in China is quite something
(understatement). Over the last 8000 km in China, we have seen it all.
Traffic jams, traffic accidents, driving on the left, driving on the right,
road works in the middle of large motorways, small mountain tracks, big
leaning trucks, donkey carts, overloaded trailers pulled by camels.
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| Roads |
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Most of our mileage has been done on so-called
national roads. These are single or double lane roads that can stretch over
very long distances (we followed national road 312 for nearly 2000 km).
These will go through cities and countryside without any change or warning.
They are the equivalent of European secondary roads (or French "Departementales").
The condition of the road can be anything from excellent (110 km/h possible)
to dreadful (maximum 20 km/h). In Eastern China, we have also had a couple
of "expressways". These newly built motorways are better than
Western motorways because they are empty (except or a few motorway
maintenance people walking in the middle of any lane without any previous
warning). Here are a couple of pictures of what slows us down :
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| What kind of roads have we been on ? |
  
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| Driving behaviour |
| The rule is : anything goes. We have flashed police cars, then overtaken them whilst blasting our horn and crossing a double yellow line before laughing our socks off thinking at what we had just done. We have overtaken on the left and on the right (following General Schwarzkopf words about fighting Iraqis, we could possibly also have overtaken vehicles from under and above). |
  
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One of our biggest worries remains to have a
car accident and we have had to adapt to local driving conditions. Not to
get mad at crazy and dangerous behaviour has been quite a challenge. We have
had to forget all driving habits that we had and start anew. Moving vehicles
are pretty much OK, although the difference in speed can be quite dangerous
(Huynaudieres at Le Mans !). The biggest danger comes from vehicles that
come onto the main road. These can be people (children in particular),
bicycles, motorcycles, animal driven carts, you name it. Let's get straight
to the point. The best description we have found for their behaviour is that
of chicken : just go straight, don't look and hope for the best (this last
one probably qualifies as a good example of anthropomorphism !). Or also
epimetheus instead of prometheus ! Think after instead of thinking before or
in this case look to see if anything is coming your way AFTER you're in the
middle of the road instead of before. This kind of behaviour has meant both
Kathleen and I have been seconds away of wiping out motorbike riders. Two
seconds later and whack ! Things have been a lot better since we have left
the populated provinces of the South and the East of China. Most roads in
the Western Provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang have luckily been very quiet.
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| Mark and Michelle's description of driving in China (www.markandmichelle.com) |
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Mark and Michelle drove their car from
Vladivostock to Istanbul (via the Caspian Sea instead of via India). Without
permission, here is their interpretation of "The Rules of The Road in
China" in 3 points :
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"1)
Please
identify all vehicles/obstacles in the road at any one given time:
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Pedestrians
(walking, sitting in the road or otherwise)
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Bicycles, tricycles and other human powered transportation
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Overloaded animal drawn carts (horse, donkey, cow, camel, etc)
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Tractors, big and small with overloaded trailers __
Motorcycles, motor scooters, tricycles and other under powered vehicles __
Road workers (working or sitting)
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Overloaded trucks or speeding empty trucks __
Buses stopped to pick up passengers
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Broken down vehicles and/or accidents
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Goods waiting to be picked up __
Oncoming traffic of any of the above
If you have checked all of the above you are in China."
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"2)
Question: If there is a donkey cart on the shoulder and Bicycle A is going
to pass it at the same time as Motorcycle B and Pedestrian C is crossing the
street with 13 of her friends while oncoming vehicle D is passing overloaded
tractor E but there are 5 car lengths between you and oncoming vehicle D, do
you pass? A.
No, it is unsafe B.
Yes, but swerve to avoid the pedestrians and motorcycle C.
Yes, but try to guess whether oncoming vehicle D will swerve before
you do D.
Yes, honking your horn the whole time and hoping for the best E.
Any of the above, preferably in reverse order"
"3)
Following up on Question 2, if an overloaded oncoming bus is passing an
overloaded oncoming truck in your lane and there are bicycles, pedestrians,
donkey carts and motorcycles in front of you and the overloaded truck, do
you: A.
Stand your ground regardless B.
Swerve onto your shoulder and into the pedestrians, etc so that the
bus does not cut off the truck which then runs into the pedestrians, etc on
its side C.
Honk your horn and flash your lights without slowing down D.
Flip off the driver but slam on your brakes If
you selected A or C you have been in China too long, if you selected D you
have a conscience and are an alien on the Chinese road system. If you
selected B you would probably have more impact on the population in China
than the one-child policy."
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| But we are safe and well ! |
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| Guangzhou-Xi'an | Back to Trip page | Driving (part 2) |
