Awkward Moments In China’s Car Culture Frenzy [via The Urban Country Bicycle Blog]


tn_ShanghaiBicycle
Cyclist in Shanghai – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country (2010)
As a Canadian ex-pat currently residing in China, there are moments where my culture and values clash with Chinese culture. A recent situation at a dinner with my wife’s family and friends surfaced the importance placed on car ownership in Chinese culture. I will get to this.
Last week I had a friend drop by for 5 days after after he became stranded in Hong Kong when his work trip to the United States was cancelled. During those five days we spent at least 2-3 hours each day exploring the city by bicycle.
The Chinese tend to be very forward and blunt compared to people in North America, so there were several situations where locals blatantly laughed at us for riding bicycles.
In one such situation, a group of guys in their early twenties laughed when we were leaving a bar on our bicycles, and made a comment in Chinese which roughly translates to:
“haha, those foreigners have to rely on their bicycles to get to the bar”.
[keep reading at The Urban Country Bicycle Blog]

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rail Bike Kit