Make Shift Bus Stops and the Leakers

There are so many things that are different about China than the US. One of the more noticeable ones is the driving. Our driver, Nikki, like all the other drivers, continually 'cut it close'. in other words, they get into situations what in the US we would call 'almost a wreck', but it's perfectly normal in Suzhou! If some one gets in the way you honk several times! No one uses signals, and if you are slow, you will be passed with a honk. If Nikki ever needs to change lanes when we are in slow or stand still traffic, he just edges his way into the nearest space, even if it mean practically touch the other car!!! And the car behind him will edge up to only a few inches away from our rear end!


One time, we were driving on a two way street, with just one lane on each side in the city. There was a car going to slow, so we drove on the wrong side going against traffic just to get around him! Other cars honked, but Nikki seemed unmoved!
There is often a separate lane for mo-peds and bikes. When we turn, we have to dodge the bikers! Or rather, they better stay out of our way! Everyone is so close to our car, i feel like if Nikki moved an inch in any direction we would hit someone! Aunt Pam describes the driving by ''driving here has no rules, you just drive and dodge!"
When driving on the highway, there are tollways. This is a perfect opportunity for drivers to take a break and.... go to the bathroom? Well, in China, yes! I have already seen several men just jump out of their truck and take a quicky on the road. They just pull the trousers down and go! Aunt Pam calls these the 'leakers'! Yeah, gross, huh?
Once when passing a toll, I saw a group of people crowded around 500 feet away from the toll on the side of the highway. I wondered if they were all factory workers trying to hitchhike. I asked my Aunt and she said that we lots of people gather in one spot, there's a possibility that a bus would stop! So often times, like on the highway, people will just wait until a bus stops for them, because they can't afford cars, bikes, or taxis.
Stop lights are quite unique as well, and actually very logical. Each color light, instead of just a colored circle, is an arrow indicating when to go and where! Just like a left turn signal, there's a front turn signal, and a right turn signal. There is also a timer for all the lights. The green counts down, letting you know how much longer the light will be green, and the yellow comes next, counting down red as well, and the it counts down from red! I think this is smart because it lets you anticipate and focus on when to go and how to gage how fast you should go to catch the light, or if you need to slow down!

Lane lines mean nothing either, at least not on this road we went on today. Today we were going on a ramp up to a highway with two very narrow lanes. There was a big sleeper bus (a bus that has beds in it for factory workers) and it was too fat to fit in one lane, so it just drove in the middle of BOTH of the lanes! One compact car didn't like this, so he wanted to go around! That little car squeezed his way between with probably no more than a foot to spare! Driving in different countries is really crazy, so that would explain why foreigners aren't allowed to get drivers licences!!!
The last funny incident that I can think of was last night on our way home from the Silk Factory. We had to take a taxi because Nikki was busy taking Aunt Pam somewhere. When we were almost home, the road to our house is four-laned. We were in the right hand lane and needed to go left to get in our neighborhood...so did our taxi driver turn on his blinker and head for the left turn lane? NO, he just turn from the far right lane across three other lanes into our neighborhood! A couple of honks but we made it! I'm just trying to imagine the looks on my parents face if I had ever done something like that with them in the car! As Papa would say, ''the driving here is really somethin'"!
What did you think of those leakers?