how to walk around in beijing - 北京の歩き方
I've been in Beijing for more than a year (well, on and off though......) though I haven't figured out some basic stuff ...how to walk around in the city, kind of disgraceful isn't it???
vehicles are driven on the right hand side of the road here in china.
- OK, that's obvious, I got that.
red light means "stop", green light means "go".
- sounds universal, right?
I know the traffic rules however I am often almost hit and cars are always blowing their horns at me. - hey, what's wrong with me???
in the previous year how many traffic accidents did I come across??? as if traffic accidents are one of those daily things, people don't pay much attention to them.
I learned there was no point following signal lights indicating "go" or "stop". I've learned that I should go with the crowd no matter what the signal light says otherwise I never get any chance to cross the road, never.
pedestrians consistently look for a moment when they think they might manage to cross the road, and when they get the chance they move forward and never stop. i said
"they" ... they could be 2 people, or it could mean 100. you know here is China, mind you, there are 1.3 billion chinese!
cars don't care about the center lines. one car is overtakes another car, which overtakes another car, and on and on it goes.
Anyway here is a movie I took, it was after 08:30am. you can see how many of them trying to ignore the traffic light
in fact it took me more than 10 minutes to cross this intersection.
note the hazy air too!
北京に最初に降り立ってから１年以上たつけど、何が判らないって、チュウゴク語はさておき、北京の歩き方がわからない！
車両は右側走行、信号は青は進めで赤は止まれなんだけど。なんだけど、信号が青になったからいざ道路を渡ろうとすると、ものすごい勢いでクラクションをならされる、もう少しで引かれそうになる、、、逆に信号が赤の時の方が大勢の人も渡ってるし、渡りやすかったりするのはなんで？？
自転車、バイク、さすがにロバはいないけど、三輪車、リヤカー付きのチャリンコ、タクシー、大型バス、メルセデス、いろんなものがぐちゃぐちゃになって押し寄せて一瞬のすきでもあろうものなら、我先に先に進もうとするんだけど、その我先にすすむ人の数が半端じゃない。日本人口に比べて軽く１３倍は中国人っているわけだから、すべてが１３倍でも不思議じゃない。
先日はこの交差点を渡るのに、１０分以上かかりました。
空気の淀み具合にもご注目。
I've been in Beijing for more than a year (well, on and off though......) though I haven't figured out some basic stuff ...how to walk around in the city, kind of disgraceful isn't it???
vehicles are driven on the right hand side of the road here in china.
- OK, that's obvious, I got that.
red light means "stop", green light means "go".
- sounds universal, right?
I know the traffic rules however I am often almost hit and cars are always blowing their horns at me. - hey, what's wrong with me???
in the previous year how many traffic accidents did I come across??? as if traffic accidents are one of those daily things, people don't pay much attention to them.
I learned there was no point following signal lights indicating "go" or "stop". I've learned that I should go with the crowd no matter what the signal light says otherwise I never get any chance to cross the road, never.
pedestrians consistently look for a moment when they think they might manage to cross the road, and when they get the chance they move forward and never stop. i said
"they" ... they could be 2 people, or it could mean 100. you know here is China, mind you, there are 1.3 billion chinese!
cars don't care about the center lines. one car is overtakes another car, which overtakes another car, and on and on it goes.
Anyway here is a movie I took, it was after 08:30am. you can see how many of them trying to ignore the traffic light
in fact it took me more than 10 minutes to cross this intersection.
note the hazy air too!
北京に最初に降り立ってから１年以上たつけど、何が判らないって、チュウゴク語はさておき、北京の歩き方がわからない！
車両は右側走行、信号は青は進めで赤は止まれなんだけど。なんだけど、信号が青になったからいざ道路を渡ろうとすると、ものすごい勢いでクラクションをならされる、もう少しで引かれそうになる、、、逆に信号が赤の時の方が大勢の人も渡ってるし、渡りやすかったりするのはなんで？？
自転車、バイク、さすがにロバはいないけど、三輪車、リヤカー付きのチャリンコ、タクシー、大型バス、メルセデス、いろんなものがぐちゃぐちゃになって押し寄せて一瞬のすきでもあろうものなら、我先に先に進もうとするんだけど、その我先にすすむ人の数が半端じゃない。日本人口に比べて軽く１３倍は中国人っているわけだから、すべてが１３倍でも不思議じゃない。
先日はこの交差点を渡るのに、１０分以上かかりました。
空気の淀み具合にもご注目。