Most of you probably know that Wendy writes 99% of the blog
but I’m going to try to contribute a few thoughts as well. I’ll sign mine so that when you read
something functional, boring, and bland, you’ll know that it wasn’t Wendy’s
fault. And so it begins…
Let me start with a few observations.
Transportation
There are way more American cars on the roads than I
expected. Our driver from Tsinghua
picked us up in a brand new Buick minivan.
If it was dropping off kids at a soccer field in rural Indiana, nobody
would even take a second glance, except maybe the discerning gearhead who
realizes that Buick no longer makes a minivan for the US market. In addition to Buicks of all shapes and
sizes, I noticed a lot of Cadillacs, Chevys, and Fords. I even spotted a parked 2019 Mustang Shelby
with a gas cap badge that read, “American Musclecar Club of Xi’an.” There are certainly Asian cars on the road as
well – in fact, they clearly dominate the roads, but there is much more of a
mix than I expected. Admittedly we were
in major cities for the first week, but I was also shocked that the vast
majority of vehicles seemed very new. It
doesn't really ‘look’ that different than driving on a highway in Chicago.
The similarities in transportation seem to stop at the
vehicles themselves. The driving habits,
mentality, and demeanor of Chinese drivers could not be more different than
Americans. I guess the only common
factor is that we both drive on the same side of the road, but even that is
negotiable in China if there is a more efficient path going against traffic. I’ve put way too much thought into how to
describe my experiences sitting in the passenger seat of several vehicles with ‘professional’
drivers and I think the best analogy I can think of is watching bees or ants
collaborate/cooperate in a hive. On
first glance, it looks chaotic but then you start to see the order and
cooperation that is needed to make it successful. There are some guidelines (i.e. dedicated
vehicle traffic lanes, traffic lights, signs) to provide some structure, but
then it is a matter of perceiving, interpreting, and responding to all the
stimuli and reacting as quickly as possible.
It is frightening until you get used to it, but then you start to
appreciate the artfulness of it. I’ve
driven in nearly every country I’ve visited (notable exceptions being Singapore
and Papua New Guinea), and I would not be able to manage the streets of
Beijing, or Xi’an for that matter. It
isn’t just the signage, it is the confidence…or maybe a better term is
audacity. Let me give you an
example. Our taxi driver taking us from
downtown Xi’an to the airport was approaching a toll booth about 200 yards away
as we exited the central business district, and he maneuvered to the far right
where there was a dedicated bike lane.
He quickly jumped a small curb and rode the bike lane, which was just
wide enough for our taxi, for about 30 yards and cut in front of several
waiting cars. It might have jumped us 5
or 6 cars, at most. However, his method
of aggressively nosing (re: forcing) his way into waiting traffic was what
truly identified him as a professional.
He never looked to the side or backward yet he inched his way over in
such a bold way that the ‘competing’ driver had almost no way to block our advancement.
At points I’m certain we were less than 1 inch from the other cars. You’d think cars would be riddled with dents
and scratches, but they aren’t. Our
driver knew exactly where the boundaries of his vehicle were and he flirted
with them time after time, trusting not only his instincts, but also those of
competing drivers. But what is most shocking to me about this is that neither
our driver, nor the competing drivers ever showed any emotion at all—they
weren’t aggravated, courteous, curious, or really anything—there was simply no
response. In fact, in the 10+ hours we’ve been passengers in cars, I have yet
to see anything remotely close to road rage.
Of course being the inquisitive person that I am, I had to
try to make a bit more sense of this.
Was it a case of the largest vehicle having the right-of-way? Was it
service vehicles (i.e. professional drivers)? Was it the old, dented vehicles
(which are very few in number)? Was it scooters, bicyclists, pedestrians that
had the right-of-way? In the end I came
to the conclusion that it was not the vehicle or whether the driver was a
professional that dictated the hierarchy but instead it was a combination of
the driver’s experience and confidence.
It isn’t just knowing what you want to do with your vehicle but also
trying to read what other drivers are doing and predict what they will do in
response to your own actions. Some of
our drivers used short beeps to acknowledge our presence as we passed on the
right, for example. Often when we
overtook a very large semi-truck, we would beep.
When traffic slowed or we were at an intersection, it seemed
as though chaos ensued—scooters crossing in front of cars, people weaving in
and out dodging scooters and minivans, and every motor vehicle vying for the next
spot in line. Opposing traffic would
take left hand turns into moving traffic and there was no sequence to it, that
is, it wasn’t as if 1 car takes a left, the next car proceeds straight. You might see 4 audacious vehicles taking a
left and then a single driver jutting straight between the 4th and 5th
lefthander. It wasn’t ordered, but then
I realized what troubled me even more was that it wasn’t predictable—at least
not to me. So much of my admittedly
naïve view of China so far is that order reigns, but in weird and unpredictable
ways. Case in point—waiting in line…
Personal Space
If you’ve been following Wendy’s portion of the blog (re: the
interesting part), you’ll know that we did a lot of waiting at various points
on this trip. Queuing up in China could
be described as competitive sport, and I’m convinced it would make for great TV
viewing! Whenever there is a bottleneck—i.e. a ticket booth, crosswalk, train
entrance, narrow gate, etc.—a mob of people form. As the passageway narrows, all personal
boundaries dissolve. I wish I knew Mandarin because I’d check to see if a word
exists for single-file-line, because I’m certain that in practice the phrase
does not translate. The first time the ‘press’ happens, you jump to the
conclusion that people are being rude, but then you come to realize they are
not being rude, they are simply trying to be efficient. Watching my 3 kids’ faces as this happened
was simultaneously comical and frightening. Elbows-faces-knees-shoulders-hips…body-on-body…touching,
everywhere… and then we begin the shuffle.
In unison we all shuffle our feet, progressing inch-by-inch toward our
goal…we move as one body, trying not to offend, but realizing we are not. Nobody is angry, no one is pushing out of
aggression or annoyance, we are competing, but collaborating…and we are moving.
Then the bottle opens and we continue on as if nothing odd just happened. It takes some getting used to…
What is utterly perplexing to me is that on numerous
occasions while I was at a ticket booth (Great Wall, the airport, Terracotta
Warriors, etc.) or even at hotel check-in, Chinese folks would walk right up to
the counter agent that was serving me and not just ask a quick question, but do
things like present identification and ask for tickets/boarding passes, room
keys, etc. In the US this would be met
with indignation by not just the individual being served, but also the
agent. In China, it seemed quite
normal. I must say, however, that it was
typically a senior citizen that would do it.
They didn’t cut place in line (see description above), but it frequently
happened at the booth or check-in. I was talking to a Chinese friend about
this, and he said there are significant cultural differences between the young
and old in China that manifests in numerous ways including waiting in lines,
driving behavior, and general beliefs.
Privacy and Safety
One of the work-related things I did here in China was take
part in a research workshop for a journal where I’m an editor. I mentored a table of 6 PhD students and
junior faculty members, helping guide them in their efforts to more
successfully publish research papers.
The research conversations were interesting but what really fascinated
me was the discussion of privacy. One
Chinese student linked privacy and safety, which is not something I often hear
discussed in the US. We certainly talk
about privacy and security, but I personally don’t think about privacy and
personal safety. This student
matter-of-factly noted that one’s loss of privacy is a small price to pay for
safety. Of course I had to press him on this statement and he gave a great
example. He brought up the case of the
Chinese student who went missing near the University of Illinois in 2015. He said that simply would not happen in China
because cameras would have caught images of the abduction. He said some in
China were skeptical that the US did not have more information about the abduction
because it was so foreign to them that the streets of a busy city would not be
monitored. His point was simple—if we
(Americans) would be willing to compromise some of our privacy, we would be
safer. But then he surprised me by going
one step further and saying, “but you need to give up all your privacy or it
won’t work” – using a weakest link analogy.
When I asked if that was ok with him, he just kind of shrugged….
Getting around in China
We have several friends who have traveled to China for work
but not many have ventured here for vacation.
We are starting to understand the vast difference between work and
leisure travel (i.e. guides and host vs. figuring it out on our own).
Specifically, while we were in Beijing we had a PhD student guide us around
everywhere, help us buy tickets, order food, ride in taxis with us etc. Many told us this is not terribly difficult in
big cities even without a guide. I’m not
sure we agree. Some signs are in both Chinese and English, but certainly not
all. We didn’t have a single taxi driver
who spoke English and we even had some language barrier issues in ‘western’
hotels. We used translator apps several
times, but those aren’t perfect either. Even in a Xi’an restaurant we had a
waitress that did not speak any English.
The good news is that nearly all menus have pictures.
Out in the rural areas like Yangshuo, very few people spoke
English. Our hotel, Tea Cozy, is known
as one of the few that has staff that speak very good English. But would the language barrier stop me from
traveling in China – not at all! It kind
of makes it more exotic and adventurous. I suppose it could be scary if we had
to drive or were in any trouble (sick, hurt, etc.) but we’ve always found
English speakers to translate for us when we needed it.
Paying for things
In the 20+ years that Wendy and I have been traveling
together, this is the first place we’ve been where credit cards were not
universally accepted. Of course we’ve
had rare instances where a restaurant or cab driver in Italy or Greece, etc.
might not take credit cards, but here, even in ‘western’ restaurants we’ve been
told we could only use cash. You might
think this is a sign of China not being able to keep pace with western society
but I’m convinced it is them leading where others will follow. Almost every service provider, food vendor,
street retailer, etc. will accept online payments using a service called
WeChat. The best way I can describe
WeChat is that it is a combination of Paypal/Venmo, Facebook, Instagram, text
messaging…and probably many other apps.
I am using WeChat for communicating with Chinese friends and hotel
operators, but unfortunately I don’t think WeChat will link with any US banks
so I cannot add funds to my WeChat account.
What this does for Chinese folks is even more closely bond them to their
phones, which has necessitated another interesting product. Wendy took a picture of one of the phone
charging vending machines so you can see the blog for a photo. These are kind of like docking bike rentals
in that you find a machine (bike dock), unlock the battery pack, plug it into
your phone and take it with you until you find another machine to re-dock the
battery pack. I don’t know if you are
like me, but I have significant phone power anxiety when I think I might run
out of juice. Can you imagine if your
transportation home, your food, your access to your building was dictated by
whether or not your phone had a charge?
That’s why these charging systems are everywhere!
No comments:
Post a Comment