The sheer variety of modes of transportation on the streets of Wujiang and Suzhou is astonishing.  Cars, trucks, strange, small vans, mopeds, electric mopeds and scooters, bicycles, rickshaws and pedestrians hash it out for a spot on the road.  Lots and lots and lots of those electric mopeds and scooters, which I think is super-cool (although their riders may have second thoughts on rainy days!).

 

In many areas, there seems to be a separate, wide lane (with a concrete barrier separating it from the traffic) that is used by pedestrians and bicyclists.  This is probably good because the traffic patterns are… interesting, to say the least.  Merging is not a request, and the flow of traffic around rotary interchanges is an exercise in brinksmanship.

 

I’m genuinely surprised at the number of Western-built cars on the road here.  Especially Buicks.  For some reason, Buick seems to have great market penetration in China.

 

Smell of the day.

Okay, I want to make it clear that I am not intending this to be derogatory in any way.  I think a big impression of a place is the smells that you pick up in the air, as much as the visual and audible environment.  So, to get a sense of my days in China, each day I’m going to pick a smell of the day.

 

 

I’m not going to go into the actual work that I did at the factory, because that stuff is confidential.  But, there’s plenty of other interesting stuff to talk about.  Stay tuned.