Just Crossing the Street is an EVENT

Seriously, I wish I had filmed some of our attempts to cross the streets here.

Imagine crossing the street in New York City without a red light. That's very often what it's like, because nobody yields to pedestrians, and everybody wants to drive as aggressively as possible. Since the police in China are somewhat less than helpful with regard to traffic enforcement, you have to be defensively aggressive in crossing the streets yourself.

In fact, crossing the street in Shanghai is a lot like driving: you have to protect yourself, you have to be as alert/aware as you can be, and you can't take any other driver's behaviors for granted. For example, just because the light is red, doesn't mean someone won't attempt to pull up and block the intersection while you're crossing, just to get ahead for the next left turn.

Here's my favorite quote about crossing the street:

Even on a one-way street, you have to look both ways!

Driving in Shanghai

According to our guide yesterday, there are three things you need to drive in Shanghai:

Good reactions, good brakes and good luck

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Driving in Shanghai is an interesting experience. People seemingly do whatever they want - sometimes they even ignore lights - and are extremely aggressive. The cab drivers in particular can also be very ... interesting.

Today, ours appeared to be zoning out at the wheel, almost completely stopped at every exit, swerved between lanes, slowed down in open roads and sped up in traffic, and appeared to be falling asleep at the wheel. All in all, it was a memorable drive.

We got out of the cab as soon as we got off the highway.