Chinese Drivers

After spending more than 20 hours in a car riding in and around Shanghai and the adjoining countryside I can honestly say that Chinese drivers are a breed of their own.

The roads in and around Shanghai and probably most of the rest of the east coast of China are new, wide, smooth and well planned.  All of the highways have at least two lanes in each direction and usually three or four.  The pavement is all asphalt and there are guardrails on both sides all the time- not just along dangerous sections as in the USA.  Signange is plentiful and in both Chinese and English.

So the Chinese people have a great infrastructure on which to drive safely at high speeds.  The issue is that they don't.  I like to call them "wanderers."  For some reason they have a very difficult time staying in their lane.  If the road is open a good amount of the time many drivers will just straddle two lanes or weave back and forth between two or three lanes- continuously.  The do not stay in their own lane.  This applies even when there are other cars adjacent to them on the highway- they will creep over into the other lane forcing the driver in the other lane to avoid them by moving over or slowing down.

If they are driving a truck at 50 kph in a 120 kph zone, they will probably stay in the middle lane of 3 and go slow.  If they are driving a car at 50 kph a 120 kph zone they will stay in the left hand lane no matter how many people are behind them blowing the horn and flashing their hi-beams.

Most don't use turn signals.

In the slower speed areas many people will just pull out without looking what is coming and expect the oncoming traffic to swerve to miss them.

I am truly amazed I have not seem many accidents.  I think these people are worse drivers than Hondurans.

Adventures in China

Have you ever been to a hospital in China?  I developed a sinus infection my second day here so my host took me to a hospital in Lianshui county to see a doctor.  It seems that everyone likes to hang out in a hospital.  There were people everywhere.

The place had a strong smell of urine.  My host paid the doctor bill of 30 yuan (about $5) and i was seen immediately by the "doctor" who looked to be about 22.  He asked many questions and my host let him know that I would not agree to an IV (what looked to be the normal course of action for all patients for any illness) so he wrote me a prescription for  Cefaclor.  I filled the prescription at the hospital pharmacy for about $3.

Then I made the mistake of going to the bathroom.  This bathroom was worse than any nasty truck stop bathroom I have been in.  I almost passed out from the smell.

Then I tried to get some ibuprofen our acetaminophen for my sinus infection induced splitting headache.  No one I spoke to had ever heard of either and they suggested that I not take anything for my headache but were gracious to attempt to find the drugs for me.  I figured that I could tough it out instead of trying to find it.  When in Rome!

Jet Lag

I find myself in China again for a sourcing trip.  I haven't been here since early 2011 and I had forgotten how much the change in time zone screws with you.  I woke up at 3:30 AM yesterday to catch my flight out of Charlotte.  I arrived here in Shanghai 22 hours later at 1:30 PM local time with maybe one hour of sleep on the 14 hour flight from Chicago. 

I waited over an hour for my contact to pick me up at the airport and then an hour drive to the hotel -Sheraton Pudong - Shanghai.  Two hours to settle in the room- I didn't sleep.  Then dinner and walking to the street along the river where there were literally hundreds of thousands of people looking out over the river at the lights.  The streets were so crowded with people it was difficult to walk and cars had trouble passing.

I went to sleep last night at about 10:00 PM or 10:00 AM EDT so that was about 29 hours without sleep.

I woke up this morning at 4:00 AM and couldn't sleep.  I am assuming it is because my body thinks it is 4:00 PM.  So I am running on about 7 hours of sleep in the last 35.

Anyway today is going to be fun as in tiring.