Traffic Horror
Recently, I was told about people getting knocked down by cars in China. It reminded me of my own near-fatal experience when I was in Beijing some years ago.
It was a hot and stuffy afternoon. I was at Tiananmen Square with my mum and a group of friends, and we were busy taking pictures and enjoying the beauty of the place with its majestic monumental buildings. When it was time for us to board our tour bus across the road, we walked to the zebra crossing and waited to cross the road. It was a very wide road with about five big lanes.
When we finally found a chance, we happily began walking when out of nowhere, a few cars zoomed by, missing us by inches, obviously ignoring us and the zebra crossing. Shocked, we quickly retreated to where we originally were, and checked the road again. More and more cars zoomed by. The zebra crossing was simply "invisible" to them. A few locals tried to dash across but failed. The cars were simply too fast for them, and they simple refused to stop for any pedestrians. It felt as though we were trying to cross a racing track with hundreds of racing cars zooming towards us. With hearts pounding wildly, my mum and I grabbed each other's hands tightly, and when the road seemed "cross-able", we dashed across. Our friends and some others were close behind us, and we looked like a herd of animals running for dear life from predators! If we were to get struck (touch wood!) by the vehicles, we would look like human bowling-pins, flying in all directions!
That night, a few of us shared a cab to go to a restaurant for dinner. The cabbie drove at break-neck speed, weaving in and out of traffic, honking all the way. We were seated behind the cabbie and clutching our seats tightly, our bodies swaying about as he continued driving in that crazy manner.
Then, to our horror, in order to avoid a traffic jam, the cabbie suddenly turned into a small lane (meant for padestrians) in between two rows of shop houses, and continued with his crazy drive, totally ignoring the poor padestrians who were trying desperately to avoid our cab. We told him to slow down many times but we were ignored. He seemed to be enjoying himself and he was happily honking away.
By the time we reached our restaurant, our ears were numb from all the honkings and we could hardly stand. For a while, it felt as though we had just finished a rollar coaster ride in Disneyland. However, we were very thankful that we arrived in one piece, and we were still very much alive. Later, we learnt that this was how the locals actually drive! We were horrified, but at the same time, really glad that we had speed controls imposed in our own country. I can never imagine myself driving, or worst, walking through such traffic everyday!!!