Walking on the Street
Today's topic is "Walking on the Street" which in Shanghai means "running for your life while being accosted by thousands of pedestrians, bicycles, mopeds, cars, taxis, busses, and trucks."
Let's say you are hungry and decide to go down to the corner convenience store to grab a bite. In the United States, I typically accomplished this by hopping in my car, driving it to the store, going to the frozen pizza rack, paying for it at the cashier, getting back in my car, driving it home, and nuking the pizza. Total time: 15 minutes maybe. Total number of people I came in contact with: one.
Here's how it works in Shanghai: Walk out of my building and into a throng of people rivalling the New Year's crowds at Times Square in New York, get bumped into by nearly all of them, swim my way through this crowd until I get to an intersection, all the while making sure to avoid being spit upon, then look in all six directions (left, right, behind, in front, up, and down) before crossing the street, continue to look in all six directions while crossing the street, take note of vehicles frequently perpendicular to the intended flow of traffic on said street, occasionally stick my hand out to signal to cars that they should not hit me, and finally get across the street and into another throng of people. Swim through the throng and into the convenience store. Note that there is a convenience store every 2 minutes walking in any direction. Go to frozen pizza rack, pay for it at the cashier (shelling about a third of what I would in the States), walk back through the throng and the street, and back home, and nuke it. Total time: 15 minutes maybe. Total number of people I came in contact with: 1562.
Probably the hardest thing to overcome from my standpoint was not to get offended when someone bumps into you on the street. See, in the States, when someone bumps into you it's a "sorry-able offense" meaning that the other person should say sorry if he's got any class at all. Here, it just happens so darn often that you'd be saying sorry constantly so people just presumably forego this pleasantry in the name of efficiency. At first I thought it was because people here were impolite, but I no longer think that way.
The other thing is the spitting. The Chinese Government has actually decreed that people in Beijing should make an effort to stop spitting publically in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. They should extend that to the entire country, because people spit like they breathe. And with the sheer numbers of people, you can imagine how hard it is to avoid stepping through pools of loogies as you walk down the street...
Seriously, though, if you're in the right mindset, the throngs can be quite uplifting. I mean, think of all the opportunities to meet new people... the problem just comes when all you seek is a little quiet solitude... because there are no such places in the city.