Ready, Set...RUN!

Let’s talk traffic. Traffic lanes? What are those? Right of way?...Doesn’t exist. Traffic lights? What traffic lights?

Welcome to China.

To be fair, different areas may be completely different from the experiences I have had considering China’s vastness and cultural differences. The issues I will discuss in this piece relate specifically to my experiences in both Shanghai and Qinhuangdao which is also a city.

Having been born in New York and mostly always having lived near the city, I am used to the taxis and busy traffic life of the more metropolitan areas. What I am not used to however is the fact that pedestrians here do not have the right of way. In fact, good luck trying to figure out who does. In the streets of Shanghai it is common to witness near “death by crossing”. Pedestrians don’t matter. Cars and taxis and buses do. When crossing the street, you essentially cross one half of the street and then wait in the middle until the other half clears up, but occasionally it can be more of a 1/3^rd,  1/3^rd, 1/3^rd pattern. I found this to be one of the most frustrating things here in China. Every time I cross the street, I hold my breath and pray that I don’t get hit by a huge bus. When going out with students here in Qinhuangdao, they always hold my hand or link arms with me to help me get across and I tell them “There is only one rule: Don’t kill the teacher…or no English class next week!” Although they laugh and find it funny, it is a very real fear that I have. So what is the proper way to cross, you may ask? Just find another group of locals and cross when they do. That way, if the cars see all of you, they’ll be forced to swerve rather than hit you.

Taken from Google Images

Next traffic situation we should discuss is the idea of traffic lanes. Shanghai was quite an experience. I once had the privilege of taking a taxi from one end of Shanghai to the other early morning around 7 am. There is only one word I can think of in English to describe it: Clusterfuck. Pardon my French but seriously, it was chaos to the Nth degree. I simply could not understand why a street that was supposed to have 2 traffic lanes suddenly had 5 (one of which included the scooter/motorcycle lane). This made absolutely no sense to me. It was worse than NY… by a lot. And what happens when a scooter or motorcycle gets stuck in this kind of traffic? Why drive on the sidewalk of course! See, I told you pedestrians don’t matter. As a pedestrian in Shanghai, even walking on the sidewalk you still have to watch for scooters that decided to drive right behind you. Such a dangerous situation and they swear that they are the ones who are right. They get angry and curse at you in Chinese if you don’t move.

Taken from Google Images

As far as traffic lights are concerned, those are just decorations and extra ornamentation to make the streets look more colorful perhaps. I once exclaimed in my loudest English “That was a  traffic light, did you not notice it was red?” to the taxi driver but of course, he didn’t understand me. The number of times I’ve nearly died in a taxi? Ummm, I’ve stopped counting to be honest but yes, I’ve been in nearly 40 accidents by now and I’ve only been here for one month.

Oh and Taxis here have random shift-change times so sometimes you come out of the grocery store and instead of taking a cab, you get in this rickety, bumpy “box-on-a-bike” called a car. It charges more than a taxi and is the least comfortable ride you will ever experience.

Hospital Time: Medical Exams in China

I realize that so much has happened in the time that I have been here that I completely neglected to write about the "incredible" experience I had my first week here in Qinhuangdao at the local clinic.

Warning: this post is not for the faint of heart, the germophobe, or obsessive-compulsive clean freak!

My first week here I was taken to the local clinic to complete a medical exam. Bear in mind that I had already paid a lot of money out-of-pocket to complete the exact same exams in the US under much cleaner conditions but apparently China doesn't trust the US Medical system so....I had to do it again.

At first sight, I realized Qinhuangdao was definitely not a big city. The clinic was quite small and although I am used to going to public clinics in the States, this was unlike any I had been to. It was very dirty and I immediately got the impression that I would get sick just looking at the place. Nonetheless my friend and I walk in with our coordinator amid many awkward stares and proceed to fill out the necessary paperwork. When we first arrived, we were the only people in line.

All of a sudden, 10 minutes later, a crowd of 50 or more people began to line up behind us only it's China so it was more like they were pushing and shoving and screaming trying to form what I can only guess was a line. Many were pointing at us and laughing and talking and that is when I knew things would get very interesting. First we were escorted to a room where our EKGs would be done. There was a room for the men and a separate room for women (thank goodness). There was supposedly a curtain up to block the person being examined from view but...there were 30 or so men crowded into the one small room and they were all pushing the curtain back so they could watch the person being examined. Meanwhile they're laughing and talking so loudly. This is when my friend and I began to get nervous. We realized that there is no privacy here and we would possibly be subject to public scrutiny 1. for being foreigners and 2. because that is apparently the norm. So my poor White, Male friend had to lie down with his shirt up while a group of older Chinese men watched and pointed. I was even followed by a group of men to my exam room but the nurse covered my chest with her arms to block me from view.

Side Note about the medical beds: They were filthy and absolutely disgusting! There was no nice clean sheet pulled down on the bed after each person't exam. Instead they had raggedy old pieces of newspaper that ripped after the first two people had their exams so by the time I laid down on them, they were mostly disintegrated.

Next came the Ultrasound which was a much calmer experience although the bed was really just as dirty as the EKG one and then came the X-Ray. The X-Ray room was made completely of wood and there were 2 hazardous warning signs. We were not given any protection of any kind so the radiation hit us full on and may possibly have some lasting effect on me later on in life. YAY!!! It felt like something out of a horror movie.

Finally we had the blood test. This was the weirdest and scariest thing I have ever done. Essentially, you stand in one of four lines and wait your turn at the window. There is a person sitting behind what looks like a ticket window. You stick your arm under the window and they stick a needle into your arm. As usual, I have to draw attention to myself everywhere I go so it took a long time to try to find my veins but finally the nurse managed to find it and draw my blood. Luckily, the needles were clean because they came out of a new bag. Afterwards, we were handed little cotton balls to blot the blood until the site of the shot clotted however I found many of these cotton balls all over the floor on my way out. People though it was okay to drop them everywhere but in the garbage where they belonged and half the people leaving were still bleeding minutes later! Needless to say, I felt that the hospital was quite unsanitary and very contaminated. I spent the next 4 days lying in bed sick with a cold and malaise and I can only assume it was due to my trip to the clinic. Luckily I didn't have to go back as my results were all good. After this experience, I vowed to never ever ever go to the hospital here in Qinhuangdao unless I am absolutely dying. I would rather buy a 2 hour trip to Beijing to go to the International Hospital there.