We our guide her how Beijing had such clean streets. That’s one thing we’ve noticed – everywhere is amazingly clean. Until Friday morning when we went jogging early in the morning, I don’t ever remember seeing one piece of trash on the street or side walk at all. There are people with big brooms in the streets all the time –even sweeping up the leaves. This morning, when we went for a job, we found a completely tree lined street, and the street cleaners were busy sweeping away the small leaves that had fallen over night. We asked our tour guide if this was something just for the Olympics, or if it was always this clean. She said it was always that way. She then laughed and told us that when she took a tour to San Francisco, that she was most amazed at how blue the sky was in America (she had never known how blue it should be growing up in Beijing until she came to the states), but on the same hand, she was surprised at how dirty the streets were. She sincerely asked me why we allowed our streets to be so dirty. I told her it costs too much in the big cities to keep it that clean, but that it was better in the smaller cities. She confirmed that people can get their drivers license when the are 18 here after paying a medium size fee and test.
We asked her about the crazy drivers and the crazy bicyclists. We knew that cars and bicycles were everywhere, but we didn’t realize how crazy it was between the two of them. It seems like anything goes. Bicyclists cross the road in front of cars, and somehow cars seem to avoid them. Pedestrians don’t seem to have the right of way here – it feels like there should be crashes and s all the time. She laughed and said that peestrians and bicyclists have the right of way if confronted with a car – but I think it is one big game of chicken. Whoever is the bravest has the right of way. Our guide said there is a saying that in Beijing a traffic light is just a suggestion.
No comments:
Post a Comment