These roads are dangerous...

Just a couple weeks after my first driving experience in China (during our move; it was very uneventful and a fairly straightforward stretch of driving to and from the old and new apartments), on that same stretch of road, we had quite an eventful morning.

And what a way to start the morning it was! After narrowly escaping two head-on collisions with e-bike/motorbike riders:

1) a policeman riding on the WRONG side of the street who didn't make an effort to move to one side or the other for the TWO of us bicyclists on the correct side of the road to carry on, and

2) an oblivious man who was smoking AND texting at the same time and furthermore didn't even look up when I rang my bell, even as I was shouting HELLOOO!? NIHAOOOOOOO! directly in his oncoming face, and ultimately had to nearly hit a parked car in swerving to avoid HIM!

... and then...

Kari was actually HIT by a car whose driver failed to yield to her, as she was making the final left turn into Li Ren, the gated neighborhood where our school is located. The unyielding driver failed to stop and check for traffic (ahem, including bicyclists! of which there are many in China!) before making his lefthand turn into oncoming traffic, thus smashing into Kari's left side as she was already well into her turn. Most importantly, Kari is safe and unhurt. (She pulled her left leg up just in time, and popped up immediately after being toppled over!) Her coffee didn't even spill a drop in the fall, until the shaking, nervous Chinese man tried to pick it up to hand it to her, all the while saying, "Sorry, sorry!" From what we can survey, the bike suffered hopefully only repairable damages. But really!? I was soooo ticked off. Later, Kari realized that the case of her laptop had been damaged in the fall.   :(

...and the best part was that the collision happened RIGHT IN FRONT of the neighborhood's guard station, with at least half a dozen men on duty... and not a single one of them came out to help. As I was in front and didn't see the collision happen, when I heard the crash and Kari's little scream (not the first scream of the morning, due to narrowly avoiding the previous two collisions), as I was getting my bike out of the way and turning around to come to Kari's aid, I glanced up at the guards, who were stone-faced and looking on, showing not the slightest inkling to get their fannies outside and help with the matter in the least! Grrrr!

What is up with Chinese male drivers this morning!?! This is China, people, TIC.

As an additional visual tidbit, here are a couple images I snapped on my phone yesterday as I was biking home from school. About five minutes of the bike ride is on a street that borders much construction (primarily new buildings in business and residential sectors). Safe, right? 

Oh, and happy Pi Day from this side of the world (March 14=3.14)!