Walking in the Street and other Oddities

A benefit of taking the subway to work every day is getting the chance to get out into the street and get along as a local might. Well to a point anyway! The walk from the subway station at Shaanxi Nan Lu and my office is always filled the typical smells, sounds, and sights of China's big cities in the morning. There's a local vendor who drags his slow cookers out the apartment gates (I assume he lives there), sets them up on a raggedy old table made from plywood and sell warm soy milk in plastic bags and boiled eggs flavored with Cinnamon and soybean paste. Sound awful, but I expect it now on the way to work.

But there is something I get to see about once a week and I just don't get it. Huaihai Lu, the street where my office is located, is a very busy street, 4 lanes, lots of buses, no bike lane (they are supposed to walk them or avoid this street but is normally not the case), and a metal fence that runs on both sides to keep folks from just walking into traffic and causing traffic jams. That does not prevent some people from walking right down the street, in a lane where buses and cares are whizzing by! And mostly it is women who perform this perilous activity. I am always reminded of the Bruce Springsteen lines from 'Out in the Street':

When I'm out in the street

Baby, out in the street

I don't feel sad or blue

Baby, out in the street

I'll be waiting for you

And I guess they decided that if they are going to risk their lives walking in the street, there is no need to hang out close to the curb, instead they walk at least a meter away from the curb, thereby cutting traffic down to one lane! OK, so that in itself is crazy, but what I find even more bizarre is the fact that no one even HONKS at these violators!!! China will probably never cease to amaze me...