By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: We walk on the right?
Sorry ahead of time I know this is a little mean but it's also funny.
Not to china bash but does anyone else get a kick of seeing Chinese people walk like they drive? I was traveling around shanghai a bit since I was bored and in the subway I was like wtf? Why do they walk like that? As if they never learned how to walk. Then they walk right at you and stand in front of you because they don't know what to do, or they just walk like penguins really awkwardly. Idk, it's kinda funny. And they walk in all directions...like traffic. Maybe I overthink it. But since I was bored, I thought it was funny as hell.
It is a little mean indeed, but you have a point somehow. To me it seems the Chinese, whether driving, riding, walking or crawling (yeah it stems from an early age and is never corrected), always find the other responsible for avoiding collision. No matter how you block the other's way, if you were there first you're in the right and the other's got to change his course.
The Chinese often argue that there are too many people in China, but they all behave as if they are the only one around. I even think they consciously teach themselves how to ignore the existence of the other when partaking in traffic. Kind of self-learned blindness. No social interaction at all when mobile.
So when it's raining, they wait till the very last moment to fold up that umbrella and hold up a whole bus. Getting off, they'll hold their pace as soon as they hit the street wondering where to go now and block the other 47 passengers that want to get of too. Same thing when leaving a building. Or entering it.
Phones are also a welcome excuse to be too distracted to watch your step and your fellow countrymen. 'You see me, so you don't have to bump into me.'
Taxis... picking up a passenger and blocking two lanes. Buses... two lanes on average but three will be fine. Gotta admit the people waiting for that bus usually block the first lane.
People picking up their child from school. Parking next to the cars that are parked next to the cars that are parked next to the curb. Even on the bike I sometimes end up on the wrong side of the street.
And you think hell is funny? Welcome to China.
in the shanghai subway are even walkarrows on the ground, people just too stupid to read, no problem.
try it ofr several years, everyday, and talk about "funny experience"
Yeah. It's funny as hell. Actually China is not particularly crowded considering its landmass (even if you subtract some of the useless mountains and desserts) but the behavior of people means the streets are crowded. Because people move inefficiently they simply spend more time on the go, because of the culture, people often go out the entire family. Back home when I broke an arm I went to get it xrayed and wrapped by myself. In China if I sneeze then I am forced along with the whole family to go to the hospital, where I can stand and wait because everyone else have also brought their entire families.
This is a funny topic. I thought I was the only that thought Chinese walk all over the place.
This is a funny topic. I thought I was the only that thought Chinese walk all over the place.
after a long time here,,, I have come to the conclusion that 90%+ of the Chinese people don't really 'walk' as we know it,,, what I say is that they 'drift'... or maybe u prefer 'wander'. cannot seem to maintain a straight line and most are as slow as molasses on a cold day~
*along with no concept of 'walk on your right'.
We all - I am sure - ask ourselves 'just what is it that makes them behave like this?'
Is it the food they eat ? The water ? What is it ...???
I just can't for the life of me understand their ways... It is beyond my comprehension. It is mystifying.