Surviving transit

Riding in a car in China is a bit like being helplessly trapped in a rocket playing a game of “chicken” with oncoming traffic on a narrow winding road with bicycles, children, and old people on either side and with the occasional herd of sheep thrown in just for fun. There’s also the bonus that I almost always get the front seat, since I’m considered an honored guest, so I get to be up close and personal with the visions of my life flashing before my eyes. The roads are potholed and bumpy, so often cars traveling in oncoming directions will swerve partially into each other’s path to avoid the same obstacle or to pass another car, and there’s a constant sound of horns warning those slower and more vulnerable to stay the hell out of the way. Add to that the joy of flying in a beat up old car with a whining engine, a seat that isn’t firmly bolted into place so that you can feel your whole body shift with every swerve, and a seatbelt that’s really just for show. For real – I’m shocked by the number of cars with non-functioning seatbelts. And if it does work, and you decide to be conscientious and latch it into place, you often get a hurt “What? You don’t trust me?” look from the driver. Though on occasion when we pass a police officer, the driver will reach over and drape the shoulder harness over himself in a mock attempt to look like he’s wearing it. As if it takes so much extra effort to complete the action. However, by some miracle I cannot recall ever seeing an auto accident here.

From the rural roads to the highway it gets no better. Three lanes of traffic all going in the same direction may, for the most part, solve the problem of oncoming vehicles, but then a new problem arises in that the lane markers are really just “suggestions”. Much like stop lights and crosswalks. Purely optional. In heavy traffic, three lanes can be considered four or five as drivers half merge in and out and between looking for an opportunity to get ahead of everyone around them. Turn signals are meaningless since so many cars are using their hazards and hence have flashing lights that aren’t so useful for warning against sudden lane changes. Or they turned their turn signal on five miles back and forgot about it. Or they just can’t be bothered. And why was there traffic to start with? Because a buswas stopped on the side of the road for a leg stretch, and everyone driving past had to rubberneck to see what was going on. Meanwhile it seems that I was the only one who even blinked at the truly shocking sight of the ride. We pulled up alongside a truck traveling at a slightly slower speed, and I glanced over to look. Sheep. Cool, some guy heading to market with his sheep. Then I realized that the operative word here is “head”. No, not a truck full of sheep. A truck full of sheep heads. Decapitated crania of ovines. Just the heads. More than two hundred of them all piled in on top of each other with no tarp or cover and open to all manner of insects and the hot midday sun. I do not want to know where they were going or what purpose they will serve. But that is a sight that will take a long time to purge from my memory.