Tetris in China.
Everyone knows the classic game of Tetris, game pieces of different sizes and shapes come from the top and you attempt to arrange them so they all fit together perfectly. I'm not very good at it, but it's a fun game. You know what is not fun? Tetris in real life.
Imagine you're playing Tetris, except all the pieces are cars, and all the cars are on a highway, and the high way is in urban China, and you're playing the game during rush hour. In normal Tetris, if you have a row that is complete, it is cleared and you get points. As much as I want for cars to instantly get deleted and out of my way when they line up next to each other, it just isn't realistic. In China, everyone has a "I must get there first and anyone who gets in my way shall die by my hand" mentality. As a result, all the cars are as close to each other as possible, and swerving is common.
Traffic jams are something I hate, it's just a complete waste of my time. You sit in a car thinking, "Oh I just spent 4 fucking hours trying to cover 1 mile in Beijing , when I could have spent those 4 hours wasting my life in front of a TV instead, disgusting". Whenever people mention that New York or Chicago Traffic jam's are bad, I just think to myself "Only 2 hours? Rookie numbers, have you ever been to China?". In fact, one traffic jam even lasted 2 weeks.
It's super frustrating whenever I go home to visit China. Oh, I am going to be taking a flight to another province at 9 AM tomorrow? Time to wake up at 3 AM because there might be a traffic jam. Oh, I am going to be visiting a national park tomorrow? Time to wait in line for 2 hours, THEN try to find parking for another hour.
This is all understandable since China has a huge population, and as a result a lot of cars. People quickly realized this and decided that instead of buying a car like a masochist, they could just use taxis. Hence the rise of taxi services. As China has more and more infrastructure, this problem is getting better, but nowhere near solved. However, just because I understand why this happens doesn't mean I have to like it.
Thankfully, small towns like Champaign Urbana rarely have traffic jams. Which is part of the reason I prefer smaller towns over stupid big
What is that picture? Is that real?
ReplyDeleteIf so, that's literally the scariest thing I've ever seen - I can't even handle 2-lane highways. I would not do well in a city.
As an avid tetris player myself (high score of ~860000 on tetris friends marathon and Gold 1 on battle 2p #flex), I was drawn in from your metaphor hook, so nice. I don't think someone with my driving tendencies could bear ever being a traffic jam, luckily I've never been in one. I would probably just drive off the side of the highway in road rage.
ReplyDeleteDude I used to live in Shanghai and this is too real. I remember my mom weaving through traffic and screaming profanities in frustration since literally no one respects traffic laws; it's really a jungle out there. Like you said I'm glad we get to learn to drive here in Champaign where there's both no traffic or crazy people who drive like they're blind.
ReplyDeleteWoah a traffic jam lasting 2 weeks?? How does that even work?
ReplyDeleteTraffic in China is really crazy. I remember a drive from the airport to my grandma's house being 3 times longer than it should have been. It was alright though because I slept the whole way in the car because of the jetlag. I always forget that some of the traffic laws are different in China and people basically disregard the lanes and swerve in and out. It's an experience for sure.