Beijing

[StephenC]

Had to go to China this week for a spot of business. I only had low-tech kit with me so I am afraid that the pics and video I brought back are way from good quality. However, both Beijing and Shanghai are fascinating from a scooting point of view, so I have uploaded a vid to youtube that shows some of the most interesting stuff.

The traffic is basically mad. Pedestrian crossings are marked out but widely ignored. Traffic can turn right on red, and so crossing is literally a game of chicken. I found the best way was to avoid making eye contact with drivers and just carrying on walking. The embassy told us that the paperwork for an accident is horrendous and the police deal harshly with anyone hitting a foreigner so that was the best way of doing it

There are no "real bikes" to be seen at all. I guess I saw maybe 3 in the 4 days I was there. And nor were there any maxi scoots, either. Mostly there were mopeds, and most of these were electric as well. It's a bit disconcerting when an electric ped zooms up behind you quietly. Well, at least until the rider hits the horn, anyway. Ah yes, horns.

Everyone uses the horn, all of the time. I mean ALL of the time. When someone changes lane they may or may not indicate, but drivers in the other lane always hit the horn. The way to change lanes is like this:
1. identify the lane you want.
2. start drifting across
3. if a horn sounds, look and see if another vehicle is in the space you want.
4. whether there is or not, keep on coming across.
5. indicate after the maneuvre.
Simple, eh?

A huge number of scooters are converted. The vid shows some, such as the common boxed-in taxis, a pick-up conversion, seat substituted. Load carrying can be quite comical too: there was one guy with a large butane cannister strapped either side of the scooter. I stopped laughing when he nearly got wiped by a car following the standard lane-changing technique described above, as I would have been in the blast radius

Helmet use seems to be optional, mostly due to cost, but I am told they can get cheap ones in some places now. Oh, and no one wears any other protective gear either.

See vid: [BBvideo 425,350][/BBvideo]

[JohnR93]

I don't think I'd like to be following the car with the flickering back lights for long...
It'd probably induce a fit in people with Photosensitive Epilepsy (PSE).

[StephenC]

I don't think I'd like to be following the car with the flickering back lights for long...
It'd probably induce a fit in people with Photosensitive Epilepsy (PSE).

That's a trick of the camera. The Audi has LED lights and the camera picked them up as flashing, but they were just normal.

[Funkycowie]

Not to take a way from your post but china is terrible for accidents due to the all the new road infrastructure going on and a general lack of awareness/selfishness... although the wife says its just them being 'Dumbass Chinese'.

[BBvideo 425,350][/BBvideo]

[Deeping]

Strange how no one rushes to help the injured, be it there fault or not

[Funkycowie]

Yeah... thats the other thing in China... I could show you a youtube video that would make you sick to your stomach of the mentality over there. Oh screw it here it is...

Beware - viewer discretion is advised!!

[BBvideo 425,350][/BBvideo]



Below information taken from YouTube video

Watch how a poor Chinese child gets run over and then run over again by two separate vehicles and people do nothing to help her. Unbelievable behavior.

Footage is taken from a surveillance camera presented on local TV shows Yue Yue was walking in a hardware market in Foshan, Guangdong province, on Thursday, about 100 meters away from her home, when she was run over by a van at 5:26 pm.

The girl was then run over by a light-duty truck. The riders of four electric bicycles, a tricycle and three passers-by all chose to ignore her and no one at a shop close to the scene came to her aid.

Seven minutes after she was first hit by the van, a 57-year-old rag collector noticed the girl and moved her to the curb. The woman then tried talking to the shopkeeper but received no response. When she ran from shop to shop for the identity of the girl, the rag collector was told by a number of shopkeepers to mind her own business.


She then walked into the street and a few seconds later, the girl's mother appears and rushes away with the girl.

The girl received emergency surgery in Foshan before being transferred to the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Command of the People's Liberation Army in Guangzhou on the same day.

The incident is the latest example of passers-by acting indifferently to victims injured in crimes. In this case, some blamed the parents for letting the girl walk on the street alone. More criticized the phenomenon of people passing by without helping, caused at least in part by previous extortion attempts from the injured and their families who have sometimes tried to blame the person helping.


-------------- 16 / 10 / 2011 News Update --------------

Chinese authorities have supposedly have caught the first driver (the second is no worse in my opinion). "If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan ($3,125). But if she is injured, it may cost me hundreds of thousands yuan," said the driver over the phone to the media, before he gave himself up to the police.

The girl has been pronounced "brain dead" by doctors and remains on life support in intensive care.

"She couldn't breathe on her own," said Wen Qiang, deputy director of the ICU department.

The most optimistic estimate is that the girl will remain in a vegetative state on life support.



-------------- 17 / 10 / 2011 News Update --------------

Police have detained both drivers.


-------------- 17 / 10 / 2011 News Update --------------

Unconfirmed reports that the toddler died on 16 / 10 / 2011:
"...doctors said the girl died yesterday from severe brain injuries she had suffered in the accident."

http://www.shanghaidaily.org/article/?i ... e=National

[halfabusa]

omg i watched some pretty disturbing scenes in my life but this somehow comes at the top. i actually couldn't watch it past 30 seconds. Possibly cause i'm a father of a 3 year old now as i consider myself quite resilient towards disturbing videos (faces of death dvds and all)

Can't find words to describe my feelings about that video so i'll just leave it here...

[gn2]

A pal of mine went to China in the 70s.
He had to get an internal flight on a small 100 seater.
The plane was on the runway powering up for takeoff when he asked the stewardess when she was going to give the safety briefing.
Her response: "Safety briefing? No need, we crash, you die"

[Mr Angry]

I had a friend who went on a work trip to China and while he was in a factory one of the workers was killed in an accident, his wife worked in another part of the factory but wasn't allowed to go to her husband until her shift finished.

[irev]

While noting this is a `heartless Chinese Bastards ' thread, let's not forget this kind of shit goes on everywhere these days.

Just last year in the New Forest a cyclist died of a heart attack while out riding. then laid at the side of the road for nearly 24 hours before someone eventually called the ambulance. And theres' no confusing a lycra-clad bicyclist with injured fauna, especially when the bike was next to him.

But that's not the worst bit, as I learned from the policeman who attended the scene...
[Reader Discretion advised]
...appparently, the only reason the person called the emergency services did so was because stuff had oozed onto the road, got onto her car, and she was worried it would cause damage to the paintwork. And THAT was what she'd called 999 about!

And don't get me started on the number of elderly people found dead in their homes weeks or months after they actually succumbed.

These days the Samaritan would be arrested for interfering with a crime scene and assumed a suspect.