The next stop on The Scientist-as-Rock-Star Tour of China takes us to Fuzhou, another huge place wed managed to have never heard of -- Im sure much to the disillusionment of the more than 7 MILLION people who live here. Fuzhou (formerly Minhow) is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province. It lies on the Min River (end of geography lesson), which feels REALLY good. Guangzhou was a bit on the humid side -- Fuzhou gets a refreshing river-air feel, like Portland or Pittsburgh in the spring. Driving to the venue, we get our first -- and far from our last -- lesson in how traffic on Chinas rapidly expanding system of roadways works: The first thing you need to know and always remember is the most important and oft-used piece of equipment on the vehicle is the HORN. Second: The accelerator and the brake are both operated through the horn, and if you dont have a brake thats OK because youve got your accelerator and horn, which tells the rest of the driving public everything you think they need to know about you. Which is, in short: COMING THROUGH!!! The most amazing thing about this, in Fuzhou and anywhere we were on the road in China, is: NOBODY gets honked off (So to speak.) about this. If you drive like this in Seattle, you will have your head bashed in with a golf club (A driver. Sorry, couldnt resist that, either.) in standard-issue road rage 15 times. Before you leave your driveway. In China, its not even blinked at. Probably because whoever is being honked at is too busy honking COMING THROUGH!!! at someone else to notice or care. Maybe this is another lost-in-translation moment. As has been documented by many, Chinas automotive growth has been HUGELY H-U-G-E in recent years -- Chinas automotive populace increases by 38,000 cars every day (!!!), having attained a current figure of 85 million now, compared to just 1 million about 35 years ago, Ive heard. Maybe theyre just in a different place on the driving etiquette learning curve (Somebody stop me!) and are trying to learn all they can. Which, of course, includes a visit to youtube to get the latest on anything, and maybe they came across this (and other similar) vid(s): youtube/watch?v=Is2aoI4g6Ag
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 14:33:11 +0000
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