manninchina

I was going to write about a fun experience waiting in line at Subway the other day, but decided not to because I felt like I was just complaining about a problem that everyone is aware of and seems will never go away…the problem of lines in China.

I changed my mind at about 6:30am this morning as my family & I entered the Beijing airport heading for Shanghai. Massive amount of people. Police everywhere. Video cameras filming at every corner. It seems there are doing some mock runs in the domestic terminal & preparing for the move to the new Beijing Capital Airport. That’s great, glad to see they are doing these things now. But, there is the problem of lines. So, I sit here waiting to board the plane to tell of you about it.

Wherever you go, whether you’re walking or driving, most people in this country have a problem waiting in lines. My guess it’s really due to the sheer number of people in this country and many of them have the mentality of, “I need to worry about myself and do what I need to do to get ahead.” … I could be wrong there, but I think it’s fairly accurate.

There’s nothing wrong with that when it comes to improving the quality of your life…go for it, push ahead, get yours. But, when you’re behind me, next to me or on top of me in a line as it so happens, do not push ahead. Wait in line. Try to be patient. I know it sucks, but get over it.

This is a huge problem in this country. The main reason for the massive traffic congestion is the problem of lines. Agreed, there are millions (almost 3 million) of cars on the roads of Beijing. But, if people would just wait in their line, move only when it’s clear & keep moving, traffic would be much better. If people would wait at the street lights until it’s their turn to cross, traffic would be much better.

In the airport, do not push your way through the lines. That just pisses everyone off. On the airplane, do not push your way through everyone to be the first one off the plane. Relax. If you want to stand up as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac, go for it. But, you’ll likely fall on your ass one of these times.

It really is a hard thing to deal with here. I try very hard not to get pissed off. Sometimes I do, throw and elbow here, drop a shoulder there. Got to have the ipod on to try to tone it all out, that keeps me sane.

Time to board, hope you enjoyed the complaining

We finally got some real snow in Beijing yesterday and I was happy to see it! Not much, maybe an inch … but it stuck. Usually, we get some flurries, but nothing sticks. Didn’t notice any snow ball fights going on, I don’t think that’s popular here…yet.
Here’s a picture, curtiousy of NYtimes.com … I haven’t snapped any, but this is a great pic.

Picture above from NYtimes.com pics of day, 17 January, 2008

It’s simple in Beijing - tell people they can’t drive.

So, the Olympics traffic test happens this weekend. Unfortunately, I won’t be here to see how it goes. However, witnessing last year’s reduction for the China-Africa Summit leads me to believe this will be a success.

Police to limit traffic into capital

Supposedly, Beijing is removing 1 million cars from the roads between 7 August - 20 August (this year - 2008 will be more drastic). I’m not surprised by this and completely believe they can and will do this (did something similar last October for the China-Africa Summit). However, I didn’t notice any reduction in cars between the 7th - 10th.

Beijing has over 3 million cars on the road today…they add over 1,000 new cars to the roads each day. Why not stop adding? I know it’s not that easy…but for a government who can tell 1 million people they can’t drive for 2 weeks, why can’t they tell potential car buys they can’t buy for 1 year? Yes, this has other impacts (car sales, fuel sales, etc…), but there will be just that much more of a demand post Olympics - just start preparing for that.

Much of the city traffic, in my view, is caused by people walking and on bicycles. The “people watchers with flags” really don’t do much in the way of stopping people from walking or riding through the intersections when they aren’t supposed to.

Tomorrow (08/08/07) marks the 1 year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It also marks my attempt to get back to regular blogging again and put some more interesting content up to get my following back! We’ll see how that goes…

Lot’s of talk as to whether China is ready for the 08′ Olympics or not. I can’t speak to the status of any project in particular, but I can tell you the following…

• Construction projects - seem to be moving faster & faster. It’s unbelievable to see how quick they are moving on the CCTV complex and China World #3 … both huge, huge projects. But, will all the cranes be out of sight by year’s end? … doubtful.
• Traffic - sucks…will continue to suck until; 1) They get better driving schools in China; 2)Stop selling new cars; 3)Current drivers get better road manners (patience, for starters).
• Food - I haven’t noticed a problem, but maybe that’s because I’m used to it after being here for almost a year.
• English - taxi drivers aren’t even close to being able to take foreigners around without relying heavily on written directions from the passengers (in Chinese) or maps (in Chinese)
• Air quality - keep forcing it to rain, maybe it will wash it all a way (for a few days). I think this and food are the two biggest concerns for Olympic athletes coming to Beijing.

NY Times has a good article published today too -

“China under fire…”

My recent experience (yesterday) with the traffic situation, which is mentioned in the article, really opened my eyes to how bad these issues may be. My commute sucks as it is (1 hour in the morning, usually 1.5 hours in the evening). Last night … 3 hours. Why? Due to the rain. It has been raining here a lot lately, which is very unusual for Beijing. Usually, the rain is “forced” (they seed the clouds with sulfur rockets). Why is this done? People believe mainly to clean up the air when there are important visitors in town. I’m taking a guess that this is why it’s been raining so much the last week.

Well, a lot of rain causes problems…flooding. Was this not expected? Last night, 2 days before the 1 year mark, this flooding wreaked havoc on the city (and caused my shoes to be caked in mud). I hope tomorrow (8/8) proves to be a clear and traffic free day!