Culture crash…
A recent driving trip of mine to Tibet ended in Yunnan’s Shangri-la. From there I returned to Hong Kong by plane. My flight from Shangri-La to Kunming was scheduled to depart at 8:55am. The driver of the taxi that took me to the airport was a burly Tibetan fellow with a comfortable smile and an infectious laugh. The ride from my hotel to the airport was to take all but 10 minutes.
At the south-end of Shangri-La town there sits a large stupa at the centre of an expansive round-about. As we approached it, I expected the driver to turn right and whirl around it counter-clockwise (as is the custom in right-hand-side driving countries). Instead, he turned left and swung around it clockwise. Even though there was no traffic coming at us, I cried out in alarm, “What are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to go the other way round?
“No, in the mornings we’ve got to go around it this way,” he assured me with his warm smile.
As he said it, I recalled that Tibetans circle all holy things, including stupas, clockwise. “From when to when is this rule in effect?” I asked him incredulously.
“No ‘from’. Just before 10am,” he explained.
“And what if an infidel should come the other way round?” I couldn’t resist pursuing the argument to its inevitable conclusion.
“There might be a crash,” he said with a dead-pan face.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Hi Peter
The standard of driving and rules continue to defeat me here in China if it were me driving I am sure I would have had many accidents but as I use a local driver who I trust emplisitly I feel very safe.
Alan
October 1st, 2009 at 9:33 pm
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
Actually, I’ve driven a good 80,000km in China, and I’ve never had a genuinely worrying moment. All that’s required is to think for oneself rather than rely on rules and all is fine…a bit like when driving in Rome. In fact, in many ways I enjoy driving more in countries that don’t blindly rely on rules
Perhaps that’s because to me driving is like breathing…the most natural thing ever… breathe…
October 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
the challenge is to discover the un-written and invisible ‘rules’ in cross-cultural exchanges … ;p
hope all is good for you and your loved ones.
greetings from Zurich, Phyllis
October 7th, 2009 at 1:40 am
Hello Phyllis, indeed, that’s true…and, in fact, driving in a country is usually a very good way of discovering “the personality” of the people of a country. Swiss traffic feels Swiss because the drivers are (mostly) Swiss; Italian traffice feels Italian for the same reason; and this is true of China as well…
October 12th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
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satış pazarlama teşhir ve afişe sitesi
http://forum.globaltimes.cn/forum/blog.php?b=343
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:21 am
I do enjoy so much your blogs, it reminds me of so many similar episodes we have encountered in China. It is so sad that so many visitors to China never see the real China other than their 5-star hotel and made-to-order shows just for touring groups. The rarely get to see the real people of China. But it is the same for many visitors to the USA. They get to see Las Vegas, New York, Miami, and think they saw the USA.