Not getting hit by a bus here is a fairly serious undertaking. If a bus doesn't get you, a car, a taxi, a bicycle, a wheelbarrow, or a scooter with a family of five riding it might. When I walk anywhere, I honestly have to stay focused enough to not get into a wreck. The sidewalks are just as dangerous as the streets. Cars and scooters park randomly on the sidewalk and back up or drive forward without warning (and likely without looking to see if anything is in the way).
In fact there might as well not even be sidewalks. Or lanes. Or traffic lights. In China, those things are all just rough guidelines. You can basically drive wherever you want, whenever you want, with no regard for the flow of traffic. Pull into oncoming traffic? Sure. Why not? All you need here is a horn. It's a free-for-all.
People drive around blasting their horns indiscriminately at everything on the road, at all hours of the day. I've interpreted honking to mean anything from, "Here I am! Just letting you know I'm back here!" to "Get out of the way before I run you over."
I thought about wandering about town with my iPod in, but after a bit of consideration, I figure it's a very bad idea. I wouldn't want to get to distracted and run over.
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