Chinese Traffic â especially for me as a German â is an unimaginable mess. Germans love their rules so much, they even try to reprimand strangers, if they think they did something wrong. But once you get used to the Chinese way, you will quickly find out there are some rules too. If you abide by these you should be able to keep yourself out of harmâs way. Here I present to you the …
*~Guide to Survive in Chinese Traffic~*
#1 Keep calm
You need to be relaxed! Donât panic and donât get angry or frustrated. Put your mind at ease, balance your yin and yang and go with the flow. Actually it might help if you did some Taijiquan practice before you set out.
#2 Only you count
Be selfish! Donât wait until someone will let you go first, because they wonât. Just set yourself a goal you want to reach and walk straight to it. Only evade or stop when your life might be in danger.
#3 Wheels before legs
As a pedestrian you are of the lowest rank. Even a zebra crossing or a green traffic light wonât mean that youâre safe. People on motorbikes will drive on the pavement and honk you out of the way. Sometimes there is no pavement, so just walk on the road.
#4 Look out 360°
Be prepared that there will be people, bicycles, motorbikes, cars and buses coming from every direction at all times. And also forget about the rule that left turning vehicles have to wait for the ones going straight.
#5 Honk
If you drive a vehicle that is able to do so, honk! Honking is very appropriate at all times: to make people move out of the way, to let everyone know you are coming, to greet people, or just for no reason at all.
Public Transport:
These are some special rules for using public transport.
#1 Buy a travel card
If you are in a city that provides a public transport card, buy it! It will save you so much time and Chinese people wonât try to squeeze in next to you while you are rummaging through your bag in search of the bus fare. If there is none, make sure to have the right amount of money (usually 2 Yuan) ready.
#2 Donât wait in line
Never try to wait in line, because there is no line. As soon as the door opens try to get in, even if there are still people coming out. (I must admit Germans in bigger cities are also very bad at this)
#3 The exit
If the vehicle is crowded get ready to exit at least one stop before you want to get off, because no one will really make room for you. When getting off the bus look out for bicycles or motorbikes or they might drive right into you.
#4 Squeeze in
The bus or metro look full to you? You can always give it a try. Just imagine you are very thin, hold your stomach in and maybe it fits.
#5 Have Faith
Always trust the bus driver. The experience can be close to Harry Potterâs ride on the Nightbus. Also, remember the first rule. đ
In this kind of environment it is natural that you will be pushed and get some elbows here and there but remember not to get aggressive. The people donât mean to be bad, itâs just what they are used to do. If you grew up in a country with so many people youâd have to be a little selfish and fight for your spot. In the beginning I had to get used to it, but now Iâve found it quite fun to be a little reckless.
Do you think youâre ready for this adventure? Then come to China and jump into the fray. Do an internship and apply now!
Hi itâs Miriam again- just arrived from an awesome Trip to Yangshuo-Guilin at the weekend. So many things happened and we visited so many great places- there is too much stuff to write it down in one single blog. So here it is: Guilin Part one!
We started Friday night. The bus took us directly to one of the most beautiful places on earth. Guilin is a city in North Guangxi and one of the best known tourist destinations in China.
After arriving in the early morning and eating a famous Guilin Rice Noodles breakfast we started a great boat trip on the Li River, passing the Mountains printed on every 20 RMB bank note.
How many things you can do and see in one day? A lot: Having Lunch right next to the famous Moon Mountain,
Visiting the one of the many caves in Guilin, the Silver Cave,
Walking around in the streets, enjoy the relaxed feeling of all the locals, sitting in front of their houses, playing cards and selling handmade jewellery,
And then finally going to Yangshuo! After walking around and buying some warmer clothes, because nobody in Zhuhai knows cold weather anymore we went out for Dinner to enjoy the famous Beer fish.
Rest of the night: baijiu, beer, wet duvets, icecream, 5D movies and ganbei.
That was an awesome Saturday!
Crowded streets, closed supermarkets, long queues everywhere: National Holidays in China. One way to get out of it is to travel to one of the awesome countries around China.
Last week I went to Vietnam with 30 other people and a Chinese not English-speaking travel guide. Now I never want to hear something like âOrganized Traveling is boringâ anymore.
The trip started at Saturday night, in a sleeping bus, which drove us directly to DongXing. After walking behind the tour guide for about one hour, without any idea of why walking behind the not English-speaking tour guide, we crossed the border by foot.
Till then the Chinese travelling started: we jumped into a bus and sat there for hours, taking pictures out of the window until we arrived in HaLong, a wonderful coastal city. Everything seemed to be relaxing so far: sitting at the beach, drinking beer on the streets and enjoy the atmosphere in Vietnam.
But then the next morning came: bus, bus, bus, bus, picture break, bus, bus, bus, buy some Vietnamese outfits (just the foreigners of our lovely group) and then an awesome boat trip in LongWan.
After some more hours sitting in the bus, and a really great night in Hanoi we spend one more day in the bus to get back to HaLong, to make a boat trip which reminds everybody a little bit too much at the bus (which seemed to be understandable- all the Chinese people were sitting inside, looking out of the window instead of enjoying the air at the awesome sundeck).
A few hours in the bus later we jumped out of the bus and ran after all the Chinese people and our travel guide because the Vietnamese-Chinese border was closing.
That was an exciting trip and the best possibility to learn something about the Chinese Culture without being in China.
