Hardee Hangzhou Culture 101 - Lesson 1

It is 5:30 in the morning and after sleeping for 10 hours we are up . . . so I thought I'd share some of what we've seen thus far. If you are following just to keep up on our adoption; come back tomorrow. :) Otherwise: enjoy. The number one "rule of thumb" here is: if there is a gap take it. This applies in many situations. At the airport (Guangzhou) we waited for a tram to wiz us to our terminal clearly the first ones there; however when the tram showed up suddenly it was full of people and we were scrambling to find 6 seats. Take it quick or loose it. Driving to our hotel, it was marveling (white knuckles!)how our driver slung in and out of traffic--between & behind. Lines on the street are just suggestions. All while bumping along seat belt-less. :) Our guide walked us (Nonna, the kids and I) to the grocery store (makes Wal-Mart look small; it had everything) and left us to shop because she had some banking to do. While checking out, a lady kindly bumped me forward because we had gaps between us (someone could very well cut into our line). So we were on our own for the trek back. Again, we now understand why people suggest to find people and walk with them. If you are not tight enough to them, bikes, motor bikes, and motor scooters will wiz between you (they don't have to follow signal lights). It was somethings else to watch the people who didn't wait for the signal to turn run across the street dodging buses, cars, etc. I love the moms roaring around on bikes and motor bikes with their baby bouncing along in a seat behind them (no seat belts). ~Eliza