Getting around cities in China

Getting around cities in China

11.       Don’t drive.

China has excellent public transport.

In cities you don’t bother looking at the timetable. If you know your route and you are in the right place a bus will be along shortly. On popular routes this will be more a matter of seconds rather than minutes. On odder routes there can be waiting time. I know of two services in Guangzhou that only operate three services an hour but that is very unusual. Although there are night services on quite a few routes the daytime schedule finishes around 10.00 at night and restarts about 6.00. Some cities, including Guangzhou, operate a system with truly dedicated bus lanes through the middle of the city so if you are heading that way this is usually quicker than the metro.

After a slow start, many cities are now building big metro systems in true Chinese style i.e. at one hell of a lick. Guangzhou hosted the Asian Games in 2010 and, to coincide with that event, 5 new lines were opened a week before the opening ceremony. The city government announced metro travel would be free until after the the Games -with no notice but the announcement took effect the following day. The result – chaos. All and sundry, especially the elderly, decided to ride all the lines from end to end. Two days later the free travel was abolished. In China governments can do these things – suddenly grant free travel and then take it away again with no notice in either case. It is a good example of expect the unexpected – it all adds to the fun of living in China. However, there has been a major long-term impact – the system had reached critical mass and some people have started using the Metro instead of the buses so the system is very busy during rush hour. The trains are frequent (but not as frequent as Madrid) and big – there are few seats, the system is designed for standing. However, the vast majority of people still travel by bus – there are vastly more routes than any metro system is capable of emulating. Although Chinese manners leave something to be desired in western eyes it is certainly not politeness on public transport. Everybody gives up their seat for pregnant women, mother and child and the elderly. Rather to my embarrassment I get offered a seat sometimes. After a knackering day stood up in the classroom I have been known to accept on occasion. The West could learn a lesson about such manners. However, it is rather annoying to see some horrible noisy brat standing or jumping around in a seat whilst granny diligently stands so the delight can disturb his neighbours on the bench seat.

2.                   Taxis.

These are cheap in China.The price varies from city to city but flagdrop in Guangzhou is 10 RMB ( $ 1.50, £1) and that gets you the first 2.3 kilometres. Another 10 RMB will get you more than the next three kilometres and that is the standard rate thereafter. In Guangzhou I rarely use them, because I walk and know the bus and metro routes I need, except to get me home late at night. Because the Middle Class has grown a lot faster than the number of taxi licences, at rush hour it can take a while to get one – a taxi not a Middle Class. This is a big change from ten or fifteen years ago. If it is raining, forget it.

The taxi drivers are, of course, the worst drivers in the city. You can be the only person half way across a pedestrian crossing when the approaching taxi driver decides that there is room between you and the pavement (sorry sidewalk to the yanks) so he will accelerate and go barrelling through – even without a passenger. It never occurs to them to lift off for a fraction of a second and go behind you. The idea of stopping because it is the pedestrian's right of way is completely ludicrous. I do take a certain delight in bashing their wing mirrors but I haven't yet got to the stage of walking round with a club hammer in my hand. Naturally taxi drivers don't think it is necessary to pull into the side of the road to pick up or drop off passengers – if they get within two metres of the curb you have had an attentive driver.

If you are travelling around it is often viable to hire a taxi for the day to go and see some sites a few dozens of kilometres away. A taxi can be as little as 500RMB for the day although if you get a hotel to arrange it you are more likely to pay double that but if there are three or four of you and you want to visit several sites in one day it can make sense. Wear the seat belts and look out of the side windows – not at the road. If you look at the road you are more likely to die of a heart attack than in an accident.

3.            Rules of the road.

This has improved. Drivers will stop at red lights, obviously after a couple of seconds delay – five if it is a taxi. There is also the USA rule of allowing vehicles to turn right on red. (In China they drive on the wrong side of the road and, foolishly, tend to walk on the same side.) So you have to have your wits about you. The biggest change though is the behaviour of the pedestrians. When I first came to China and wanted to cross a busy road I would find a little old lady attempting to do the same and get on the “safe” side of her. She would edge out into the traffic with me to her left, say, she would cross one lane and pause, cross another lane and pause and, after crossing the third lane on a six lane highway, I would then swap sides of her to her right and we would proceed lane by lane.  Now everybody waits at traffic light controlled crossings. They even wait when no cars are coming – I don't.

The biggest problem as a pedestrian is the fact that the rules of the road only apply to vehicles with four or more wheels. Motor bikes were banned in the middle of the city more than ten years ago. It was much better to get rid of fuel efficient two wheel vehicles that don't take up much room to make way for the gas-guzzling battle-tanks that are extremely popular here so that they can clog up the roads. (Remember that it is part of the Chinese culture to demonstrate that you are wealthy.) In some of the outer districts motor bikes still operate as cheap taxis. What happened in the middle of the city when motorbikes were banned was that the number of disabled people rose significantly! So you will see a lot of three wheeled orange open vehicles with one seat for the driver at the front and two seats for the passengers behind in this cheap unofficial taxi. A pair of crutches are normally carried to enhance the appearance.

In the city the real problem is cyclists. They will ride on any side of the road (or the pavement/sidewalk) in any direction at any time. There are now more electric bikes and three wheelers than ordinary push bikes so these are all silent but can and do do 20 kph and more. Sounding your horn is illegal in Guangzhou (although a lot of car drivers do it) but the electric bikes just ride anywhere (although more often on the pavement/sidewalk than in the road) with their weedy horns tooting. Of course everybody ignores them, quite rightly. But they can get you at pedestrian crossings, any and all exits and entrances and, most frequently for me, when you step off a bus that is 70 cms from the kerb you can be sure that there will be a bike coming through that gap – you just don't know from which direction.

Driving standards have improved but there a couple of things that are just plain stupid. In the days when I used to drive 40,000 miles a year I would probably use my horn two or three times a year. Many drivers here use them two or three times a minute. I would use the horn if I thought that somebody was not noticing me. Here they use the horn to mean “Get out of my way you asshole”. The real assholes are the ones sitting in a traffic jam blowing their horns.  These people are a minority but make a lot of noise. They are in their air-conditioned car with the windows wound up so it doesn't sound too loud to them. The car they are honking at is in a similar position so the horn is usually ignored. The process of horn blowing is then repeated. The people who get their ears bashed are the pedestrians, but they don't matter because they are not in a car.

If a driver flashes his headlights when you indicate to change lanes it does not mean that they have seen you and acknowledge your right to change lanes it means “Get out of my way I am coming through.” Perhaps the oddest thing is that, despite all the bad manners and aggression, you never see road rage. If somebody pushes in front of you, so be it. The downside is that if there is an accident in the middle of the highway the vehicles involved don't pull over. They stay where they are until the insurance companies arrive. Naturally this leads to traffic jams.  Occasionally even the police might take an interest. 

4.            Walking.

All major cities are basically quite small in the centre so you can get to many places with a walk of half an hour or forty minutes. By the time you have got to the bus stop or the platform on the metro, waited, got your transport and walked at the other end you normally take that sort of time anyway. I live in the middle of Guangzhou so many of my journeys are by foot. Obviously this is good exercise. Guangzhou does have some air pollution from the gas-guzzling battle-tanks but the city took action to reduce pollution and moved industry out of the city more than ten years ago so the city is not normally as bad as many of the other cities in China. In summer it is very hot and, particularly, humid but walking is a viable option most of the time. Pavements are often quite wide although they can disappear to nothing on occasion. There are a few difficulties. Wide pavements mean that these become car parks (sorry yanks, parking lots) and this can leave no room to walk – except in the road. The cops here are extremely lazy and do nothing.

A few years ago Guangzhou went to considerable trouble to create bike lanes – there are over 2,000 kilometres of them in the city. Unfortunately they did this on many occasions by taking a chunk of the pavement. The bike lane continues at a bus stop, where there is always a shelter, so there is often nowhere left to walk – in theory. This does not really matter because, in many cases, they relaid part of the pavement to clearly show that it is a bike lane. Unfortunately many of the pavements in Guangzhou are made from bricks and the authorities made the bike lanes out of tarmac. Which is harder on your feet when you are walking? Yep, you have guessed it, the tarmac is much smoother so most people prefer to walk in the bike lane.

Chinese people walk very slowly and there are a lot of them so chopimg your way through the horde can be a little tricky and does delay me somewhat.

The one thing that you have to get used to is people minding their own business. They don't look to see what anybody else is doing, they just do their own thing. And they expect you to do the same. I understand the logic but it can still be irritating. You are walking down the pavement in a straight line with not too many people around when some arsehole comes out of a shop, looking at his phone obviously, and walks straight in front of you causing you to chop your stride and change direction. He is minding his own business – what I am doing is my business.