A word about safety in China.
There is none.
Some of you have heard me complaining about people taking their kids on bicycle rides and not wearing helmets or going rock climbing and not wearing helmets. I like to remind people that it's not the free-wheeling '70s anymore. No one is doing lines of blow in the bathroom at some trendy club and having unsafe sex with multiple partners in the back room. We live in the age of insurance companies, medical bills, HIV/AIDS, lung cancer, "Just say 'no'," and helmets.
Well, there's one more thing that no one bothered to tell China about.
No one wears helmets. Anywhere. Ever. Not motorcyclists. Not bicyclists. Not the wives or girlfriends or children or babies balanced on the bike racks on the bicycles. And remember, traffic lights are a mere suggestion around here. Right on red WITHOUT stopping is the norm. Cars get first precedence and can and will turn in front of you. Bicycles seem to think the traffic lights don't apply to them. Bicycles ride the wrong way down the bike lanes (that cars also use as parking zones and frontage roads).
Yesterday, I saw one dude on a scooter with a helmet. One guy. It was the only helmet I've seen.
Seatbelts do not exist. Well, cars have them, but the taxis all have seat covers and the seat belts are jammed into the corners and edges so they might as well not exist. Even when they do, no one wears them. Even though buses will cut off cars and traffic will turn willy-nilly. Whatev.
Then there's the second-hand smoke. It's like being back in the 80s over here. It's not quite at 1950s level, and I don't see kids smoking (I don't SEE it). But people smoke everywhere, all the time. Teachers find a corner to smoke in at school, although technically they shouldn't. So far, no one has said anything. Smoking in taxis and restaurants and bars is SOP.
Some of you have heard me complaining about people taking their kids on bicycle rides and not wearing helmets or going rock climbing and not wearing helmets. I like to remind people that it's not the free-wheeling '70s anymore. No one is doing lines of blow in the bathroom at some trendy club and having unsafe sex with multiple partners in the back room. We live in the age of insurance companies, medical bills, HIV/AIDS, lung cancer, "Just say 'no'," and helmets.
Well, there's one more thing that no one bothered to tell China about.
No one wears helmets. Anywhere. Ever. Not motorcyclists. Not bicyclists. Not the wives or girlfriends or children or babies balanced on the bike racks on the bicycles. And remember, traffic lights are a mere suggestion around here. Right on red WITHOUT stopping is the norm. Cars get first precedence and can and will turn in front of you. Bicycles seem to think the traffic lights don't apply to them. Bicycles ride the wrong way down the bike lanes (that cars also use as parking zones and frontage roads).
Yesterday, I saw one dude on a scooter with a helmet. One guy. It was the only helmet I've seen.
Seatbelts do not exist. Well, cars have them, but the taxis all have seat covers and the seat belts are jammed into the corners and edges so they might as well not exist. Even when they do, no one wears them. Even though buses will cut off cars and traffic will turn willy-nilly. Whatev.
Then there's the second-hand smoke. It's like being back in the 80s over here. It's not quite at 1950s level, and I don't see kids smoking (I don't SEE it). But people smoke everywhere, all the time. Teachers find a corner to smoke in at school, although technically they shouldn't. So far, no one has said anything. Smoking in taxis and restaurants and bars is SOP.
Oh, the school was refitting its dorms -- for all the earthquakes that don't hit Beijing. So there has been a huge construction zone in the middle of campus all summer. The sign is still there saying that it's a hard hat area (even I can recognize the pictures), but I haven't seen one hard hat anywhere. Not a few weeks ago and certainly not now. Maybe it's not really a hard hat zone anymore, but no one took down the sign.
Then again, the Chinese seem all to willing to warn you of danger. There's a great sign on the elevators that show's a person's finger with blood dripping from it... you know, don't stick your finger in the closing door. You see warning signs and mind-the-gap signs on the subway.
Speaking of the subway... there are threshholds everywhere -- including at the entrance to the subway stations. I am constantly tripping over doorways. The one to my subway stop is particularly nasty. A colleague tripped over it during the weekend.
Of course, there is a line of differently textured brick running the length of all the sidewalks so that blind people can walk along the road and not stray into traffic. I'm still not sure how they get across the intersections, though.
Then again, the Chinese seem all to willing to warn you of danger. There's a great sign on the elevators that show's a person's finger with blood dripping from it... you know, don't stick your finger in the closing door. You see warning signs and mind-the-gap signs on the subway.
Speaking of the subway... there are threshholds everywhere -- including at the entrance to the subway stations. I am constantly tripping over doorways. The one to my subway stop is particularly nasty. A colleague tripped over it during the weekend.
Of course, there is a line of differently textured brick running the length of all the sidewalks so that blind people can walk along the road and not stray into traffic. I'm still not sure how they get across the intersections, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment