We are now in Sozhou, China, the "City of Canals". This is a small city of only 6 million. There is a new industrial area here and the shopping mall includes WalMart and BestBuy.
Scooter is king here and no one follows any rules. It is free for all, riding the wrong way, or going through red lights, lane splitting. No one wears helmets and many have 3 passengers on them, also saw one with 3 passengers and a baby on the front handlebar.
There are very few actual motorcycles. I would say for every thousand scooters you may find a small 125cc Chinese motorcycle. Even the police only ride 250cc bikes. Scooters are mostly electric and perhaps less than 2% with actual gasoline engines.
Scooters have their own lanes, segregated from regular traffic and also their own signal lights.
The first few are of small family operated restaurants and they have to wash the dishes on the sidewalk; one plastic container with soap, and one with plain water to rinse. They also cook outside on portable gas ranges. One has to wonder how much business they get.
We are in a different city every day this week and will end up back in Shanghai on the weekend for an extended day before returning home on Sunday.
Traffic is very heavy. Shanghai has a population of approx 23 million and here is a photo of typical traffic jam. The roads are very good and efficient.
Gas costs 6.74 Yuan per litre. (a Yuan/RMB is approx .163c in CDN funds)
I hope Nella gets fixed soon and also that you get better too. So many scooters here and I was just thinking how nice it would have been to be riding around on 2 wheels too.
On our return we will be in the air for many hours. With jet lag and time difference (15 hours ahead of Vancouver) I have also taken Monday off, so if it is nice and I am feeling good, I will go for a ride. Can't wait.
Bob
You got love it......"small city of only six million", amazing really there is only 4.3million in total over here! I loved China when I went a real eye opener for a boy from NZed!
ReplyDeleteBefore I retired, our company had an office in Shanghai. Anyone visiting had to eat deep-fried scorpions or other disgusting stuff as a rite of passage - suspect that not many Chinese would eat them.
ReplyDeleteStill have the remains of a bottle of the national spirit - Maotai. Smells and tastes like gasoline. You must try some Bob, quite an experience!
Happy travelling,
Geoff
The high percentage of electric scooters really stuck out to me. Especially when I've never even seen one before outside of the experimental category.
ReplyDeleteAlso, no food pictures. Bob must be starving by now...
Richard
Man, it'd be fun and terrifying to drive around in a city like that on a scooter. It's hard to believe that it's the mode of transportation for so many people, not just a novelty or something fun, but a real, important piece of life.
ReplyDelete