The Ultimate Game of Chicken

Haha. Ok, so have you ever played chicken.. I mean the real thing, in cars, where you drive as fast as you can toward one another and turn at the last possible second? Well, I played that at least 3 times yesterday. Only, I wasn't driving. I was in a taxi.

I love the traffic in China. It's terrifying and nerve-wrecking and amazing. There are traffic laws, but they do not really get enforced. Red lights only mean stop when there are people on the other street, and then only sometimes still. Yellow lights most definitely mean speed up. And the lines for lanes.. those don't really exist. You swerve and slam on brakes and almost get run over by buses everywhere you go. I love it. It isn't uncommon for taxi drivers to go up on the bicycle part of the sidewalk when there is a red light to get ahead of everyone. However, one day, even my public bus went up on the sidewalk.. that was a bit interesting. It is also not uncommon for the taxi drivers to see a small break in traffic on the other side of the road, in oncoming traffic and take off. You get up to 65 mi/hr (which doesn't seem all that fast, but we're in the city) and try to make it around as many people as possible, all while looking for a place to jump back in and dodge oncoming vehicles. If you get motion-sick, you probably shouldn't come to China. There is one rule: if it's bigger than you, you let it go where it wants.