Usually, I feel pretty safe on a sidewalk, self-inflicted tripping misery aside. Due to our extended exploring over the past few weeks, walking on sidewalks in China has brought our vacation to unexpected levels of danger and excitement! Ok, maybe danger more than anything else.
Sarah and I have done quite a bit of exploring over the past week in both Beijing and Xi’an. While we were fortunate enough to be driven to a few of our destinations in Beijing, we did almost all of our exploring in Xi’an on foot and had to learn pretty quickly how to stay alive.
Although people generally walk on the right in the US (or on the left in countries where you drive on the left), people in China walk wherever there is room. Left, right, middle, in traffic, right into your face, on your foot, into your baggage…there really is no method to the madness of a sidewalk on a city street. A simple walk up a few blocks usually involves more dodging and weaving than you would do in your entire life in the US, unless you happen to enjoy paintballing, airsoft, or shopping on Black Friday.
Most sidewalks are also filled to the brim with street vendors. Have you ever been on a street corner and really, really wanted to buy a stuffed animal or a Gucci bag? Well, if you were in China, you could satisfy that urge on any busy city street. There are also almost always a huge variety of food vendors, though we’re not brave enough to try street foods despite the urging of helpful locals. The last thing we want is to get sick!
But perhaps the most important lesson we learned is that sidewalks are for much more than just walking people and street vendors…have you ever been so frustrated with traffic that you decided the sidewalk could solve all your problems? In China, motorists make that choice every day. Rickshaw drivers, cabs, vans, motorcyclists, and anything else with wheels and a motor (except buses, thank god) could pop up on the sidewalk at any time to use it as a backup road when traffic is just too damned annoying.
Which is pretty much all the time…
Even where there are barriers, most savvy local drivers know where and how to get around the barriers to get up onto the sidewalk. It’s a wonder we’re not dead yet! 😉 If sidewalks don’t kill us, crossing the street might. Street crossing signals are completely optional…and many busy intersections don’t have them, so you have to dart in front of and between cars to cross the road, and you usually have to stop and stand for a little bit in the road, too.
Although we always wait for locals to start crossing the road, we’ve nearly been hit by buses three times…
But despite all that, we’ve done some pretty great stuff so far. Saw the terracotta warriors when we were in Xian, ate Biang Biang noodles (an entire post dedicated to food is coming at the end of the trip), biked on Xian’s city walls, and were beaten at Uno by a savvy eight year old girl multiple times.
It was great to get out of Beijing for a few days – the pollution has been a little tiring, and it’s been great to see more parts of China, try more food, and see different stuff!
Stuff like ghost cities.
