Traffic 2.1

 And now onto cars etc.....

Besides the flow of traffic, the exceptional variety of < 3 wheeled vehicles, there are also an unbelievable number of other kinds of cars, trucks and busses.  

First off, I have seen every make of car I know of....Ford, Chrysler, Lincoln, VW, Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Jeep, Range Rover, Fiat, Honda, Toyota, KIA, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Smart, Jaguar, Tesla (LOTS of Teslas).  I've also seen an Aston Martin, Maserati, Porsche, Rolls Royce. (And if I've missed some, they are here, I guarantee.)

But there are a whole bunch of other brands I've never heard of.  Wang Jian drives us around in a "Trumpchi".  Other brands: Wey, Byd, Haval, Cumins, Polestar, GWM, Skoda, Sehol, Zotye and a bunch of names I can't read or know the logo for.  

Then you add in the spectrum of colors of cars you see here and you add a whole other strand of variety.  Colors I would call chartreuse, lilac, salmon, brick red, bronze, ginger, marigold, cerulean, avocado, magenta, tangerine, gingerbread are common.  But for those who don't speak a color language we could say things like yellowy-dark orange, or navy blue with a touch of purple.  Whatever color language you speak, there are A LOT of colors! (See note below)

At first I was astounded at how SO many people would spend the extraordinary amount of money on a car and want it bright pink.  What if you don't like that in 7 months?  And then we learned that they are all colored with wraps.  So you can change every few months if you like!  Here are just a few:

This one is iridescent.  There are many iridescent wraps, but mostly in pinks, purples and oranges.

You can tell we were in a nicer part of the city when you find a Porsche, Lamborghini and an Aston Martin all in a row.  

Many taxis are metallic green.

Most cars we see are newer-- there are a few old ones, but the oldest ones are almost always this color of van.

Cars drive on sidewalks here.  They also park on sidewalks.  Often they weave through very tight spots or park behind other cars. We can't figure out what a person does when they come out and their car is blocked.  Look at this van in 3 different shots.  Just parked there, with another car behind.  A lot of people aren't going anywhere with this parking job.

Trucks can drive and park on sidewalks too. 

And of course there are busses in a gazillion flavors too.  I don't have many photos, they are quite normal for the American eye.  But here is a small bus; this is the type we were transported on between quarantines.

Big trucks

Construction

Everywhere you go, traffic is always moving, always interesting and entertaining to watch.  Just remember the unwritten rule of the street: if you need to cross and there is even a little space, just start walking. They seem to stop.  (I'm still not fully trusting of that principle yet and I cross the street like these are American drivers--much to the annoyance of the girls! They are more than ready to dart in front of moving traffic; maybe in time I'll join that thinking....)  

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A side note on colors:  We met some people the other day who were telling us that there is a dialect of Chinese where their color words are very descriptive and expressed in a single character.  Things like "The yellow that a body is right before dying."  "The gray of the sky just before a thunderstorm"  "The color of purple of a bruise just before it heals."  It's a good thing Tom doesn't know that dialect....he has a hard time with tangerine!  His color language is red, yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, black and white, the end.  It makes it really hard to describe cars to him here in China!