School "Parking"

Schools here apparently aren't expected to budget any space for parents to pick up their kids at the end of the day, 'cause every school I have the misfortune of passing by at a certain point in the afternoon is like this. People double and tripled parked, completely blocking side streets and even major, congested roads while they hang out waiting for their kids...this incredible selfishness and disregard for others (pictured above, but blaringly, shockingly manifest in all kids of ways in life here) is one of the things that has stunned me the most about modern China. The old China of Laozi and Confucius that I read about never prepared me for this, nor did my extensive reading about Communism. Who knows, perhaps this is a moment in time that will fade away as the country develops, but in the meantime it is what it is!

Metro Construction

Construction is finally underway on the Harbin Metro's Line 3! What's disappointing about the construction is that instead of working on one segment of the line and only disrupting traffic in one corner of the city, someone decided it would be best to begin construction on ALL of the stops. (Pictured is one of the construction sites on Hongqi Avenue.) Line 3 is a ring line, so there's significant disruption to the Harbin's traffic going on all around the city. Even so, I have the feeling that Harbin will be much easier to get around in a few years' time!

Event Parking [Mis]Management

Cars parked three deep on Gongnong Street (a north-south artery) - a 6-lane road with space for curbside parking - due to a school event. On the right of the picture one lane of traffic is very slowing moving north, with traffic behind backed up well past the intersection of Gongnong and Zhigong Street down Gongnong and so far up Zhigong that it was blocking up Aidemongdun Road/Chengxiang Road (a major north-south artery). Not a policeman in sight where the actual problem was (the parking craziness pictured above) despite the insanity of it all. There's just so much ridiculousness here when it comes to cars!

Red ≠ Go

I'm not sure why red means go in the PRC, but apparently it does, with this result during rush hour. (It's hard to tell, but these are cars from three directions gridlocked at the center of Hexing Road and Xidazhi Street, a major intersection in south-central Harbin.)

Winter Traffic

Curiously enough, China's Ice City is not so great at dealing with snow and ice. We recently had some heavy (for here) snowfall and it paralyzed the city for a couple of days. Buses driving busy routes that normally came every 5 or 10 minutes stopped running entirely, others came at much longer intervals than normal, taxis became impossible to find, and horrendous traffic jams made off-rush hour trips that usually took 15 or 20 minutes by bus take an hour or more. It's my second winter here and even though I left for work extra early each day I still barely made it on time, and once not at all! (Pictured above is the tail end of a traffic jam I got stuck in on a bus - it took nearly an hour to go a kilometer and a half. When we finally made it to a bus stop I walked the rest of my way.) So be warned, if you're going to be in Harbin in the winter, bring your winter gear and think about walking to wherever you're going if it's just snowed!