Driving in China

Drivers in China need skills beyond the basic driving one: Buddha-like patience, eyes in the side of the head, and reflexes like a cat, a super hero cat-just to name a few.
The traffic comes from everywhere and all at once. There are so many starts and stops, it seems impossible to reach one's destination. Traffic is passing on all sides, and some fool-driver is passing a vehicle which is already passing another vehicle. People are stepping into cross walks, and jumping out of alley ways. Old women, with bamboo carriers holding dangling baskets of chickens, veggies, sand, eggs or some such things, barrel into cross walks with nary a traffic checking glance.
If the driver is a cabbie, mini bus or moto driver, he or she needs to keep alert for potential fare pick-ups. These drivers will whip a u-turn with no concern for laws, traffic, animals, or limb. And that is after they pick up a fare. Or they will stop in front of the bus stop and harrass folks-honking, heckling, and staring at people until someone gives in or the driver gives up. Why even a shake of the head no is enough to earn an extra 5 or 10 seconds of bedeviling. I found the safest spot to be, when a cabbie spots a fare, is indoors. And whenever I found myself in a cab, or other vehicle driving through Chinese towns or countryside the safest option was to close my eyes.
Of course I could have grown eyes in the side of my head, honed my super hero, cat-like reflexes and taken up driving. But I would either still be waiting to make a left handed turn, or waiting for the tow-truck and probably the ambulance.

Living in China there are a few things one must get use. Things such as the bathrooms, especially the outdoor ones (of which there are many), which have no stool, little paper, but plenty of aroma. Then there is the chicken's feet. YOu can get them on sticks, in a bag or at a BBQ. They are everywhere (even in the Wal-Mart in Xiamen). Suprisingly they don't taste like chicken.
There is the ever present stares, borne from extreme curiosity and excitement at seeing a "loa why" (This is what it sounds like to me) or a foreigner so close and in the flesh.
Then there are the bus drivers, well any driver for that matter, they think they are F1 drivers and every other vehicle must be past. Sometimes it is on the left and sometimes it is on the right. Sometimes they stay in their own lane and crowd everyone over to the right. Sometimes they go into the on coming traffic's lane and crowd them over to the right. The rule seems to follow the NBA, who ever gets to an open space first can occupy it even if the space is in the middle of oncoming traffic. Sometimes they speed up and cut every one else off. Other times they get really close to the car or truck they are passing and as they pass the vehicle they honk long and loud and move even closer to the vehicle they are passing, until it falls back or pulls over. The suprising thing about all this there is no Road Rage. Other than the passed vehicle comes charging back pulling the same passing stunt, but no one pulls out a gun or follows the offending driver for miles yelling and shouting and generally being a nuisance. Of course they could be because they are nuisances. They are all menaces to the road. As for walkers, bike riders and any smaller vehicles are looked at as obstacles or extras in some weird Chinese video game. Hit enough or scare off enough and you get an another life. The bus drivers often drive like they are behind the wheel of a Mazzeratti, not a 4 and 1/2 ton public bus with shitty suspension, so-so tires and at least one 1/2 scared passenger when ever I am on it.
Riding in the front of vehicles takes some getting use to. How much time it takes I am not sure. I am still scared shitless everytime they jam into the front. (literally since I am so huge and the fronts are so small). It is usually not the person driving that is the scary one, though that is not a clear cut rule. It is the other drivers, swerving into your land, darting out in front of you from side streets, walkers suddenly appearing from somewhere, motor bikes weaving in and out cars and trucks usually with great aplomb, but also dangerously close to hitting some car, bus, walker, street stand, or building. And yet despite many close calls, every driver seems to retain an aire of suavity sort of like Carey Grant in "To Catch a Thief". For me I often find my self turning to the right and looking at the people walking or I even close my eyes if it gets too crazy, which it often does. I think the worse thing is when I am on a pedi-cab and it suddenly swerves into oncoming traffic or makes a u-turn. I try to avoid them if I can. It is not always possible as the people I am with want to ride in them. There are more things to get use to and I will write on them later.