Rain, Shine, Line Dancing and Traffic Congestion

A note back on the streets of Xi’an and rainy streets they are to this week. The dry and, no matter what other hardened foreigners might say, humid city streets of Xi’an have been turned into May-soon washed, quagmiresque tributaries. In other words, it does not rain here much, it was just becomingly stiflingly hot but this week it has pretty much rained non-stop. However, being English and having recently re-engaged with my old running regime, I was happy to be out there jogging in the rain and not in the 25+ summer evening temperatures that I can never quite get used to.

Amazingly, or it would have been if I had only just arrived in Xi’an, as I have not it was actually to be expected, on arrival at Shi Da’s running track I was to discover that I was only one of three on the track. Normally, this time of year and around that time of the evening, 9ish, there are literally hundreds strolling, walking the dog, chatting, romancing and even running around the track. Not to mention the soccer and badminton players, the Tai Qi exponents and the rhythmic, line dancers taking up all the other available spaces. The Chinese do not do going out in the rain.

I will dwell on these dancers for a moment as they are always a joy to behold and as I have watched them a few times in different locations this week. These dancers are not restricted to the wonderfully peaceful environs of Shi Da’s Campus sports ground but are to be found in public spaces all over the city. Someone has usually assembled some kind of music system that can actually create quite an imposing sound and not uncommon to even hear a little western dance music. A collection of women, often in there early 40's and upwards, proceed to move in rhythmic harmony, legs and arms swirling in synchronised flourishes.

The core of regulars are usually joined by a few young hopefuls attempting to keep in step with their more mature partners. I like to occasionally observe these gatherings because whether they are middle-aged regulars or young track suited students there is a conspicuous lack of self-consciousness in their movements, no matter their ability, which is rather refreshing to behold.

To continue on a different note but still with a rainy reference, I decided today to stand and contemplate one of the many minor road collisions that are increasingly occurring during this time of main road madness. A direct consequence of roads a plenty being ripped up in the name of the subway construction process. Of course, a greater number of accidents occurred in the torrential rain of this week. Two cars had a minor coming together at the entrance of a two-lane road near my house, blocking one side completely. The cars on the side of the accident tailed up behind them, while those on the other side continued to swing on down the road, access unimpeded. I had inside me at first a growing sense of frustration as I watched the two drivers just sit at the entrance of the road, paying no attention to the congestion they were creating behind them. Then becoming increasingly annoyed at the way in which the oncoming traffic made no concession to those left stuck behind the two stationary vehicles.

I wanted to get in the road, traffic attendant like, letting cars out here, holding others back there and generally getting the traffic moving on both sides. However, as I continued watching I realized that even though nearly all the actions that took place were being decided upon on selfish grounds, the natural flow of life allowed a reasonable give and take of cars moving in both directions. People crossing the road, a stalled engine, a turn taken too wide, a traffic light further down the road, a U-turning vehicle all added to what became a natural flow of traffic up and down both sides of the road. A little stilted maybe and on occasion more frustrating for one side than the other, but in the great scheme of things not a great deal less fluid, if at all, than what would have been managed by a Chinese police officer standing there intentionally directing traffic. Apart from one of course who had got those two cars moving in the first place.