Beijing is like Sweden, try to have a trip to Wuhan, will enjoy the best anarchist-traffic.

wuhanese are incredible.

Mr. Danwei,

Many of the new drivers (and the old ones) are incredibly bad drivers - but to actually get your license starting at the bottom and learning is actually REALLY hard.

Inspired by Mr. Ben Ross' 11 hours a day in the barber shop, I decided to learn how to drive in China [I already have a license, but two wont hurt]- starting at the bottom, doing everything in Chinese and seeing how long it will take a lao wai to learn in China, in Chinese. I expect Ill be blogging about it soon enough, ala Mr. Ross.

I think the point is that, while you the bad driver may deserve to die, the child you plough into doesn't.

We've all got our favorite Chinese driving story: mine was on the onramp to the 5th ring a few months ago. A car was stopped at the entrance to it, jutting out onto the junction and causing a lot of commotion. I just assumed the car had broken down in this very unfortunate spot, but as I went past it became apparent that the woman had stopped her car there just so she could make a phone call. Unbelievably selfish!

I drive in China, in cities and rural areas, and find the major problem to be the selfishness/self-centered nature of drivers. However, pedestrians and bicyclists share those negative characteristics as well. Without "gong de xin", a sense of public-mindedness and public-spiritedness, there will be no improvement. "Ren ren you ze!!"

狗骑兔子。。。oh how I use to love those...

Anyway, if I ever live in Beijing I'm not going to drive at all. I will take the bus, subway, taxi, ride bike, but I'm not going to drive.

When in doubt, go for the 4th dimension! Problem solved!

mr ash

I have a feeling it will be a very short blog.

9:20am - turned up at examination centre
9:30 am - drove once around the empty car park.
9:35am - handed over some money
9:36am - given licence

Or do as a friend of mine did and just hand over the money and wait for the licence. cut out the middle man.

When driving, every driver in the world, approximately once every ten minutes has to make the following call:

"If I go first here, we'll all have to wait 10 minutes. If I wait one minute, we'll all be able to go."

Every single time, a Chinese driver will weigh up those options, thinking hard about the problem, and resolve:

"Fuck it. I'll go first."

My fave is the morons zipping up the bike lane to get ahead of the jam caused by ---- people zipping up the bike lane to get ahead.

Surely the 9,000 figure is wrong. I would have thought it was about ten times that.

Mike, that's weird. When my cousin got his licenses he had to go through a 2 month (not exact about the figure but it was definitely a couple of month) training. They trained on a 130 truck, which was difficult to operate for a beginner. They had to do pass a gruesome test involving more than just parallel parking, i.edriving around cones and not hitting maneuver. Well at least when I got my license here in the States I didn't have to do any of that crap.

I guess it's different for different places? I guess most Chinese drivers are just assholes, plain and simple.

Beijing has probably the best driving I have seen anywhere in China, with the possible exceptions of Xiamen and Shanghai. Here in Fuzhou, things are much, much worse. However, I do feel that it is rapidly improving. Over the last year or two I have definitely noticed an increase in people following signs (both drivers and pedestrians), more reasonable driving speeds, and seat belt usage.

The way I've always looked at the driving situation in China is that it is like an entire nation of 16-year olds behind the wheel. Most people have just gotten their licenses, and are still trying to figure it all out. Driving is one of those things that really improves with experience.

Yeah, also remember Beijing is the capitol. Although you may think those with Military plates don't give a * but it gets progressively worst the further south you go. The further you get from the Beijing the crazier people get with Military plates...

Ben, you are a true idealist. Unfortunately, I think Shan's view is closer to reality, both current and future. Improving driving skills is less relevant; developing a social conscience is more relevant. Look at all the bicyclists who pedal outside bike lanes and who criss-cross in front of cars, just daring them to make contact and be faced with financial penalties and potential criminal charges. Those innumerable cyclists aren't novices. Ever watch a busy streetcorner? Even with a traffic cop and another traffic attendant busily blowing whistles, bikes or motorcycles still try to scoot through a red light. It's the mindset that needs to change. Who wants to lay odds?