Friday 26 October- You would expect that in a communist country like China that everything would be controlled and disciplined.  But while at a political level I am sure it is, in many other areas it is not.

Take cars on the roads.  Like in America cars constantly weave in and out of traffic lanes and pass each on both sides in a never ending high speed dance.

Where the anarchy comes in, is at junctions or when people are turning, cars just go everywhere, each car driver playing chicken with others crossing their path.

Throw into the mix, scooters, cyclists and various other modes of transport many of which look like they have come out of the arc and what you have is a frightening dance of cars and other vehicles none of which want to give way.  , Drivers are constantly sounding their horns and shouting at each other to get out of the way because they are coming through.  As a pedestrian every time you cross the road you take your life into your hands.

Cars at least obey traffic lights but scooters and cyclists don’t.  So you can be stood at a crossing, the lights at red for oncoming traffic, the green man showing that you can cross but pedestrians still don’t have the right of way.  You still have to dodge the scooters and cyclists who come straight through the red lights totally ignoring them.

Even more frightening some scooters and cyclists travel up the cycle lanes in the wrong direction and no one seems to care, get annoyed or be worried.

As a pedestrian you are not even safe on the pavement.  Scooters, cyclists and other ancient modes of transport all use the pavements to get around.  So you can be walking along and suddenly a scooter will shoot past you, often sounding their horn to tell you to get out of the way because they are coming through.  At night it goes even more frightening because very few scooter drivers and no cyclists put their lights on, even when it is very dark.