China 4: Driving

In the Singaporean context, the average person learning driving will spend his first lesson being introduced to the various components of the car, followed by the recommended ways of gripping the steering wheel. In China, I highly suspect they just tell you where the horn is, how important it is to keep sounding it, and then wish you well.

In fact, I was actually struck by the relative quietness of our Singaporean roads on my return. The taxt driver in our cab back from the airport looked like the kind who could fulfill any traffic policeman's quota for a month, but I think in Shanghai he might have gotten a job as a Board of Safe Driving consultant.

You simply just have to experience it to know what I mean.

The long and weary path to a driving license in China is ironically harder to obtain. Apparantly, all applying suicidal-daredevils have to first sit through a tedious True/False theory exam, which was (at least two years ago) impossible to pass on the first few attempts unless you brought some loose change along, if you know what I mean.

After which, the learners had to chalk up 60+ hours of driving experience before they sat for the practical test. The tricky part was, as the driving centres are all located in the suburbs, it didn't make sense to travel for 2 hours to the driving centre, drive for an hour and a half and then go home, much like we do over here. Thus, they actually report first thing in the morning at six, and drive all the way till seven in the evening before they end.

Oh, and did I mention that four students would share a car? At the same time?

It is for the above reasons that I hardly know of any Singaporean driving in China. Most prefer to hire a chauffeur, a job package which, as an unwritten rule, also includes the extra services of representing you in any heated traffic dispute. I don't think anyone (in their right minds) would also want to go through all the agony of getting a lousy license again over in China.

If you ask me, if I had to endure so much just to drive, I would be one disgruntled, aggressive and abusive driver. Which would explain quite a lot.