Wait i forgot an actual question i had.

Are all chinese people walking in a straight line and just keep hitting each other all day?

Or do half walk like dicks while the other half are just constantly avoiding contact? How do they function?

I never knew people only walked in straight lines.I find that if I walk behind a dude or dudette on the sidewalk, and need to overtake, then this becomes difficult as people NEVER walk in a straight line. They can walk straight, and then as you are about to step past them, stray slightly off course. 

I have noticed that groups will walk abreast across a path, sometimes with arms linked, making it difficult for individuals walking the opposite way.

Try standing still out of the way and watch how many still bump into you. 

Hahaha.... actually I always thought they walked like cattle... 

Bumping into each other with dull lifeless eyes.

I got to try this game... sounds like fun! I have become so good at weaving around Chinese people... like driving... I always assume some idiot will try to cut me off out of nowhere. So I am always ready.

I feel like a ninja when I am in a crowd of Chinese people... or on bad days, I use my weight and height to my advantage and it is juggernaut time. 

I played a funny game last week while in Nanchang train station with my family.  I was driving the stroller and waiting in line to check in tickets.  i made sure there was no space in front of the stroller.  I watched to see how many people will try to bulldoze their way in front, then I run over them with the stroller and scold them.  extra points for women and children!

Why can Chinese ghosts only walk in a straight line? Because they couldn't when they were alive!

Oblivious...I'm telling you, the ultimate word to describe mainland Chinese is oblivious.

Yeah, and when I drive my bike on the right side, hugging the right side of the lane, I feel I'm a disturbance to the traffic. People who try to pass me on the right, people going the wrong way, etc. I'm sure it's because I'm a stupid foreigner who doesn't understand  China.

walk to your right has been surpassed with the china way- 'chaos cuz thinking is too hard'  everyday I watch people coming towards each other (walking,bikes,cars), that is sooo fun to watch.. last second they usually manage to avoid each other, but I would wager that a Lot of the cripples you see in cities here got smashed-up as children in some bike/e-bike wreck. I personally knew one 20-something missing her right foot. She told me it was due to an e-bike accident when she was a small child.

Big Picture:  Isn't there some Law/Rule of Nature that a population 'gets' the system it desires?  or something like that....

Hahahaha, good game to practice it in a kindergarten classroom.

Yeah. I usually walk straight and shove people out of my way, I used to move out of theirs in my first few years then I got pissed and decided to play the hard way. Usually the two third of the people I shove blame it on me (with the xenophobic insults and everything) while I am following a straight path and they turn around or do a curve to walk straight into me (almost feel deliberate), one third keep walking as if nothing happened.

One day in the escalator I was standing on the right side, as any civilized person would do as to let a path on the left for people who are in a hurry, the guy in front of me suddenly decided to walk down for some reason (he must have forgotten something, he could have took the other escalator from up there but no, anyway) and instead of using the path on the left he headed straight to me as if I wasn't here, bumped in me and almost fell, what a moron hahaha

the most selfish people in one of the most populated countries, its a question i will never have an answer for, the real problem is many of them also drive like they walk.

I love this game! I only play occasionally because I don't want to get addicted. I still move for girls ladies children etc but the men provide ample opportunities for collisions. Don't play this game in a Shanghai metro station at 8:30 am - you will never reach your destination. 

Mike's results for his game really need a control before conclusions can be drawn.

The experiment needs to be repeated under exactly the same conditions in different countries and the results compared.

Anyway, I call this the goldfish effect.  I was watching goldfish in a pond one day and it struck me that their movements were very similar to that of people on a Chinese street. Random movements, random changes of direction, but no actual contact.... unless you throw a bit of food into the pond.... then the scrum begins.

Perhaps pedestrians on western streets could be compared to a fish such as the mackerel. They are school fish and move as one.

Different fish, different environments, and different behaviour to suit the environment.

I don't really mind being a goldfish these days. Being a mackerel was getting a bit boring .

They do EVERYTHING as if they are the only person in the world. They are ridiculously selfish and inconsiderate. 

I usually stand my ground and not budge. I get my way all the time. Maybe me being Chinese coupled with neck and arm tattoos help?

At home both people will half move to avoid collisions or both end up dancing back and forth because they are deeking in the same direction. This doesn't work in China. At first I felt it was aggressive because anyone that does that at home is a real prick. When I do a half bend expecting people to also bend they still hit me. I'm taller than most Chinese, it can't be that they can't see me and they love starring at me. 

 I posted about this long ago to ask what if I don't flex and I now put my shoulder into them, you walk into me then you bounce. My girl friend always got angry and said 'why' and I just say they walk into me, what can I do.

 I've also said before and you can google this that low testosterone causes spacial impairment, but it might be an inherited trait brought on by 5000 years of walking long distances in extreme heat. I walked about 25 kms one night in the heat and found that I was walking like the locals, same slow lifeless speed. I usually find it difficult to walk with a Chinese person unless I drag my feet.

On a side note maybe you can get an idea about this by playing John Conway's "Game of Life", just google it and you can find, it is a computer-operated simulation of a colony of organisms who breed and reproduce subject to population constraints (so when there are only a few nearby organisms they breed and reproduce, but when there are too many they die out due to overconsumption of resources). Maybe you'd have to change the rules when trying to model Zombieland aka Paradise on Earth but you get the point.

Here's an even funnier game: Make a pile of superficially-convincing fake money, fill it in a briefcase, and pretend to lose it on a busy street. Let a friend videotape the resulting carnage, but make yourself scarce before any local police realize they are brabbing for fake cash (counterfitting carries the death penalty). Don't forget to post it on youku, and link to it here!

Most of the times I try avoiding collision. Sometimes, when really tired, I don't. Being 6.2 and 100kg helps a bit.....

My only choice is Q: 'Am I invisible today?', 'cause I'm only 175cm and 70 kg.

I'm planning to learn, how to say that Q in Chinese.

I am usually headed straight for where I am going and want to get there quickly.  While I think in general, a lot of Chinese people like the atmosphere of a busy street with lots of vendors.  For some, that is their entertainment.  Especially for all those people who are from another place and just came to this city to work, live in a dorm and send most of their money home. 

In order to walk the streets without frustration, I learned two things:

1. I do not own the path in front of me.  Others have just as much right to it as I have.  Maybe more because I am a foreigner.

And,

2. The chances of crashing into others is greatly reduced if I do not look at them.

mike should try the same game while making sure not to look at those people in his path and see if his results are any better.

Beats me.  I don't think it's normal behaviour.  In a land where people can think it'd be construed as aggressive.  But here it's not that, it's just stupid.

After 53 months here I can't say I understand much about Chinese thinking at all.

I hate the way they have to cause as much mayhem as possible and still have shovelled their food down their throats and be out of the restaurant in less than half an hour.

Went to HK today. Crowded as usual, but as it was a same day back and forth trip i was walking with purpose. Its amazibg that i can walk as fast as i want there. Even when others are walking while playing with their phone, they are still quick and courteous. Night and day.