Road Worrier

I thought being a pedestrian in Beijing was a challenge until I hit the road with our university. Being a passenger in a motorized vehicle on two lane rural highways makes crossing the street seem like a stroll by the sea. So buckle up and brace yourself!

I have never met a foreigner here who wasn't terrified of driving on Chinese highways. Many Christians whom I know pray fervently whenever they get into an automobile. The rest of us must scramble to find whatever spiritual solace we can muster in the face of imminent death. To Western eyes, the Chinese way of driving is a chaotic free-for-all that leaves us with white knuckles and frayed nerves.

Gail and I had a lot of time to contemplate death on the Chinese highway during a recent trip over the May 1st holiday to Taishan Mountain in Shandong province.

We happened to be driving all night from Beijing to Shandong that day so I soon learned that the challenges of day driving in China are a bit different than those you encounter at night. In the day, the first problem is that the highway is full of vehicles traveling at very different speeds -- there are horse carts, donkeys, trucks, bicycles, and powerful fast-moving cars all trying to co-exist on the same narrow road. It is a sign of status, of course, to have a car with a powerful engine, and those who are fortunate enough to possess such a vehicle (like our spiffy new Dodge van) insist on speeding. As a result, nearly everybody is on the wrong side of the road nearly all the time, playing an intense game of chicken, trying to get around all the slow buses and trucks without having a head-on collision. The trick is to swerve back onto your side of the road a fraction of a second before you collide with one of the many cars playing the same game in the opposite direction. Thus the white knuckles and palpitations of the heart.

Lanes mean nothing, blind curves are the best way to test your personal courage, and when in doubt, go faster -- these seem to be the fundamental principals of Chinese driving. Few of the roads have shoulders and at any moment you might suddenly come upon an open hole or unexpected construction zone. At night the same conditions apply, but there are new challenges as well. Many vehicles have headlights but no taillights, and quite an astonishing number have no lights at all. Many times our Dodge van nearly rear-ended dark shapes in the road, and at the last minute swerved to avoid a lumbering old truck, or a two-cycle tractor laden down with a huge load of hay.

With so many thrills, it is necessary from time to time to relieve your bladder. This, alas, is not a pleasant prospect on a Chinese highway. The gas stations we encountered looked quite modern from the outside, but the restrooms around back were generally open pits with boards across the openings. Public bathrooms in Beijing are actually quite clean and decent, so this was a shock. We soon learned it was best to drink as little water as possible during the long drive. Occasionally the call of nature is irresistible, but on Chinese roads, you don't want this call to be frequent.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from making a car trip in China; as frightening as the driving conditions appear to foreigners, there are remarkably few accidents here -- a higher percentage than the West, I am told, but not the carnage you would expect under the circumstances.

So have a good stiff drink, if you're not driving, that is, or take a very engrossing book if you're the sort who can read in a moving vehicle, and head for the open road with faith that it is not your time. Better yet, take up long-distance bicycling.

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