Is just such a shock from being in China. Just got harassed and essentially threatened for being a socialist. They searched my bags and commented on my China flag and my little red books and my copy of Blackshirts and Reds. Fucking police state. The security in China is strict, but they don’t give a fuck about your thoughts, whereas this guy was very aggressive about “consequences” for being a socialist.
When you say a century behind, I’m curious about what was like that.
Traffic is madness and I don’t understand how there’s not constant accidents all the time. It basically seems like a lawless land where everyone just does whatever they want wherever they want. Cars just sort of play chicken and force their way through gaps by just sort of… going and the other guy will either slow down or he won’t. Lots of people fail to stay in their lanes and many times my driver would have to honk to get someone to get back over into their lane instead of driving in the middle of two lanes.
I watched arguments between taxi drivers and regular drivers because some dude would just stop in the middle lane of a three lane road and play on his phone, and everyone just sort of had to go around them.
At the same time, traffic lights are tied into Didi and you can see when the light your driver is at will turn green while they’re on their way to you.
It’s not as bad as like the infamous videos from India and other countries , but it was still unsettling until I got used to it.
The rural areas are still quite bad (compared to the big cities that are amazing), unlike Western Europe where even backwaters are pleasant (the US is halfway between both though).
I didn’t make it to too rural of an area, but I’ve heard similar. I did go to the town my wife grew up in, which is technically a village, and they had better walk ability and more accessible grocery and hospital than my city in the US, but it’s pretty clear that is a recent development from all the cranes and new buildings around. I saw some of the more truly rural areas from the window of the high speed train, and there were definitely some really ancient looking villages that were just a row of houses and farmland.