As the capital of the country, Beijing has recorded population of 15 million. The estimated overall population, including the unrecorded residents, is from 15 million to 30 million. The streets are surely not designed to carry these many people!
It is very fun to go around the city with different ways and experience different sub-cultures. Since we have just bought our car, let me start with Driving.
Driving in Beijing is very fun for the following reasons:
Sneakers
Often while you are driving on the road, a car will suddenly show up on your side and poke its nose in front of your car. You have to step on the break suddenly to avoid bumping into it. Robert calls them sneakers. They keep us awake and help us made the decision to have an automatic car. Patience bucket needs to be full, as well as the gas tank, before you get on the road. :-)
Mixed Roads
Except for the major high ways (4 major circle city high ways and a few inter-city high ways), most of the streets are allowed with all kinds of vehicles -- bus, horse wagons, motor cycles. It really depends on where you are in the city. One morning we saw on the opposite direction a woman riding a 3-wheel motor cart carrying some vegetables and following her is a long line of Volkswagen's and Benz's. :-) This was the one lane street and those cars could not pass her. They waited peacefully behind her and sliding their luxury cars along patiently. We were laughing all the way passing them, clapping for the fairness of the right to the road.
Beeping and Honking
While we took the driver license test, one rule caught our eyes. That is when you passing someone walking, you should beep your horn. I guess that is to warn them that you are there. So I had to practice the horn on my new car to get the feel of it. I definitely don't want to scare people by a loud long beep. I remember when we had a conference call meeting through phones, our dev lead had to call in from his cell phone because he was stuck in the traffic for 2 hours that morning. Our Redmond colleagues were amazed by the beeps and horns in the background. You could tell there were some upset drivers there on the street. In my ears these beeping and honking have composed an interesting road melody -- I call it "harmony in the chaos".
Cameras, points and fine
In many intersections, cameras are installed to catch violators. Still there are smart drivers who could tell that if the camera is on or not. If one is caught violating the rules, he/she could be fined 200RMB and take 3 points. If his or her points reach 12, he/she needs to attend a class before getting on the road again.
Robert got stopped the second day we had the car. He changed lane over a solid white line. The police signaled him to park on the side of the street. Then he realized that our car hadn't got the license plate yet and Robert looked very puzzled and he doesn't know enough English to explain to Robert what went wrong. So he signaled him to drive along. I heard him saying something like "well, you are probably new to the road and are a foreigner, I will let you go this time. Next time don't pass the solid line!" I am glad it wasn't me driving.
Bus stops
Bus stops normally are set right after the intersections. And buses come in groups -- sometimes 4 or 5 in sequence. So the buses going in and out the stops slow down the traffic flow a lot. So keep at the left lane while you can. Just be careful that the left most lane might turn into a left turn only lane before you noticed. :-)
Dead locks
Everyone would like to get ahead. Cars trying to pass after the light turns to red and cars trying to turn left before the light turns to green, and cars trying to go straight after the light turns to green... They all meet in the middle of the street. Well, sometime it causes a deadlock and no one could move. Don't worry. Police will be here within half an hour. And you will have a well accepted and sympathized excuse to be late.
Parking
Parking lots are precious. Many times we had to circle around for a lot. We don't see many parking buildings as they are popular in the States. Inside the city, most of the parkings are above ground. To get in the tiny spot with crowded cars around you, you need to have skills. I often had to back and forth many times to get the car in. I felt like Austin Powers when he had to take the car out of the building after he has lost his mojo.
Newer buildings in the outskirts start to have underground parking. Big grocery stores, such as Walmart and Carrefour, have dedicated parking lots free to their customers.
The parking fee ranges from 0.5RMB/hour to 2RMB/hour. Only one time we had to pay 10RMB for 2 hours because we had to park in front of a restaurant without eating there. They sold the parking lot to us for 2 hours.
More roads and even more cars
The city is expanding. More and more roads are being built. Yet it still cannot catch up the speed of the increasing of the cars. Government has been working on the solutions for years. Even most people spend 2-3 hours on the road to an from work, everybody is confident that at least this will be resolved for the Olympics. The easiest way is to give everyone a 15-day long holiday so they could watch the game and don't have to drive to work. :-)
Next post on "Navigating in Beijing", I will talk about taxis as we have experiences with them for almost 9 months.
After we parked the car, the 3 of us and David walked along a narrow alley till we finally saw this small building. There is a table set on the patio right outside the front door. And there a few people sitting at the table, chatting and obviously eating. We walked inside the door, and right in our face is a counter. On the left in front of the counter, we found our friend Stella sitting on the couch. She told us that the place is full and that is the place she has reserved for us. Eating on the sofa, that is the home style.
Luckily, before long we were able to be transferred to the "UpperRoom". The kitchen is actually upstairs. And there were only limited 5 to 6 tables. People there are... how would I describe it? They are like a family. The restaurant owner uses a laptop to project song lyrics. And then there is a guy who is invited by the owner to sing that night. Everyone in the room is welcome to sing along.
