Second opinion
Q. Does red mean go in China? Green means stop? I had heard that it
was so but never got the facts confirmed.
-- Jill TR, Rochester, MN
A. Excellent question, Jill. Unfortunately, it only begets two other age-old questions of Chinese driving: does anything mean "stop" in China, and, related, on which side of the street do Chinese drive?
Nothing -- not red lights, not potential collisions with oncoming dumptrucks, bicycle rickshaws or American runners -- makes Chinese drivers stop. This was confirmed to me this past Saturday night.
On the bus ride from Zhuzhou City to Changsha, there was a sudden thump, and the bus skidded to a stop. A look to the front revealed that the thump was caused by the front of the bus crashing into a wrought-iron gate, which was being extended across the road to signal the approach of an oncoming train. A look to the right revealed total darkness, except for one round yellow light in the distance, which belonged to the approaching train.
The bus straddled the tracks, unable to back up because of the wrought iron gate behind it, unable to go forward because of the wrought iron gate in front ot it. At this point, the man next to me, dressed head-to-toe in black, gave me the first, and only dose, of English he had: "Do not be worried." What, me worry? Not a chance, not when I'm watching a train barrelling toward the bus I'm on, the one that's stuck on the train tracks.
Undeterred, our intrepid driver somehow managed to barrel his way through the wrought-iron gates, sneaking out of the train's way with roughly three minutes to spare. My friend Trinity turned back to me, laughed and said, "Daniel, do you realize we almost died?" Ha, ha, ha, yes, wasn't that a laugh!
So, let the record stand: for wrought-iron gates and oncoming trains, Chinese drivers will not stop. Red lights offer not even the slightest hesitation, although, technically, red does mean stop, just like at home.
And, technically, Chinese should drive on the right side of the road, just like at home. However, the issue becomes foggy when you consider that, at least 75 percent of the time, Chinese drivers are on the wrong side of the road, in the game of perpetual leapfrog played by every Chinese vehicle. It's not uncommon, at all, for two cars to pass each other, each one on the wrong side of the road. This is especially pervasive on the two-lane roads all over the countryside, such as the one linking my university, which is truly in the hinterlands, to Zhuzhou City to the south and to Changsha City to the north. This is the road I run each day and, every time a dumptruck approaches, blowing its war siren of a horn, and a taxi scrapes by, also blowing its horn, and a stray dog races out at me, the voice of the man in black whispers: "Do not be worried."
Somehow, things work out, and the ancient rules of the road, a mystery to me, are followed by all, and all live to see another death-defying, hearing-impaired day.
