driver license

I think I'm going to get my Chinese driver's license. I was thinking that they wouldn't give a driver's license to someone that can't read the local language, but my school's owner said they would, and most street signs have English under the Chinese. Granted the translations don't always make sense, but for the most part you can get the gist of it.

Last week one of the Chinese girls at school got her license (she's 22) and it was a big deal. They asked if I had mine and when I told them most everyone in the US gets theirs at 16 they were shocked.

Driving is a relatively new concept in China compared to the States. In small cities like Songyuan the drivers are absolutely crazy; I wouldn't want to drive in Songyuan. They don't follow traffic laws and they drive whevere they want, the wrong side of the road, the shoulder, the sidewalk, through a red light, etc. They just don't care. To their credit I haven't seen an accident yet but still, it's nuts. And crossing the street makes me feel like the frog in Frogger since there is no appropriate time to walk, you just have to go lane by lane.

Beijing and Tianjin are much bigger cities and traffic laws are obeyed much more closely. Not to say that it's quite like driving in the US yet, but more in that direction.

Most of the cars I've been in are stick too, so that's good. The way they drive them though makes me crazy. They never downshift when they're slowing down, so the cars do that shaky thing and then take forever to speed up. The backseat driver in me wants to teach them how to driver properly!