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Quick Update From China 1

Quick Update From China
James’ fixed gear bike in China – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country Wow. It has been an inexcusable amount of time since I last wrote an article on here. For the past two and a half months I have been living overseas in the southern most part of China (Hainan Island). I ...

The Chinese’ Ridiculous Aversion To Seatbelts 2

The Chinese’ Ridiculous Aversion To Seatbelts
China’s “seatbelt t-shirt” – Photo courtesy of hljnews / carnewschina Despite China’s national seatbelt legislation coming into effect in 2004, seatbelts are still not widely used in China almost 10 years later. In fact, virtually nobody in China wears a seatbelt while travelling in the rear seat of an automobile. This, despite the fact that ...

19-Car Pileup Caught on Camera 3

19-Car Pileup Caught on Camera
19-car pileup in China – photo snapshot from YouTube video  A 19-car-pileup that happened on February 7th was caught on camera in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. Scroll to 1:00 to see the cars begin sliding in to each other. Several drivers from the pileup get out of their car and risk their lives to apparently try ...

China Traffic Light Art Installation Confuses Tourists, Journalists 1

China Traffic Light Art Installation Confuses Tourists, Journalists
Photo of Chongqing’s traffic signal art installation courtesy of Shanghaiist In Chongqing China, the world’s “most confusing traffic lights” have been baffling tourists and journalists alike. The UK’s Daily Mail reported in May 2012: Motorists in China have been left bemused by this traffic signalling system, where officials installed over 20 sets of lights on ...

Photos: China’s History of Bicycles 4

Photos: China's History of Bicycles
Beijing’s Changan Street in 1986 – Photo courtesy of Beijing Shots  During the 1960’s and 1970’s, the bicycle was the most popular product in China. Bicycles were often given as wedding gifts, and in 1986, US President George HW Bush received two bicycles as a gift from Beijing. The country was known as “bicycle kingdom” ...

Shanghai License Plate Costs Same As Brand New Fully-Loaded Sedan 2

Shanghai License Plate Costs Same As Brand New Fully-Loaded Sedan
Shanghai traffic congestion – Photo courtesy of Bert van Dijk In Canada, as in the United States, registering a license plate for a new car takes mere minutes, and assuming you have a valid driver’s license and insurance, anyone can do it for a nominal fee of about $100. In China, registering a license plate ...

Shanghai Cyclist Hit By Driver Caught On Video 4

Shanghai Cyclist Hit By Driver Caught On Video
Screenshot from a YouTube video of a Chinese cyclist being hit by a turning car A driver’s dash cam caught on video a cyclist in Shanghai getting hit by a driver who had suddenly turned from the centre lane. Despite the unfortunate and misleading title of the video given by Shanghaiist writer James Griffiths, the ...

Beijing Woman Dies Because Ambulance Stuck in Traffic 1

Beijing Woman Dies Because Ambulance Stuck in Traffic
Beijing Traffic – Photo by Safia Osman Unlike in North America, when the siren from an ambulance is wailing, drivers in China do not move over to let the ambulance past. Ambulances literally sit in traffic with everybody else – with their sirens on and lights flashing. I had witnessed this countless times while living ...

China Building New Eco City 14

China Building New Eco City
Photo courtesy of Business Insider Imagine a city of 80,000 people where the nearest park is only a two minute walk from every home in the city. A city where public transit is only a few steps away, bicycling is convenient and comfortable, and where urban sprawl is against the law. Where cars are allowed, ...

Cause of Road Congestion: Too Many Cars 15

Cause of Road Congestion: Too Many Cars
Infographic from a large US auto insurance company I never cease to be amused by otherwise intelligent people coming up with lists of the causes of traffic congestion, but whom always seem to miss the most obvious cause of traffic congestion: too many bloody cars. In Beijing, by the end of 2010 there were almost ...