Living in rural China, traffic chaos is a classic. It can also be described as the “Gordon Knot”. The reason is very often that village alleys are narrow, while cars nowadays are bigger than ever, and definitely more numerous than before. Also, traffic rules are not as strict as one may sometimes wish for. But the best part is: human collaboration in these situations is at its absolute highest!
Imagine this: a street in Dali Old Town in Yunnan province, near the North Gate. It’s where the big fresh market is. Typically in China, outside the official market, lots of local vendors come every day; they sit by the side of the street to sell their daily veggies or fruits. Mostly old ladies, often in traditional clothing. They bring their goods on a simply trolley, a kart, or sometimes on what is called 三轮车, the electric “Three-Wheeler”. Presented on a simple cloth or plastic, or in a basket put on the ground, they spend their day, eventually selling. Now imagine lots people walking on this street, customers, coming to do their daily shopping. Restaurant owners often come early morning. Normal people come all over the day, whenever they have time. Within you find tourists, Chinese from the big cities, the older ones, a little nostalgic experiencing such a market again. Or the young ones who have grown up with digitalized, large-surface supermarkets, or simply buy everything online for delivery.
Of course, people not necessarily are coming on foot: they often ride a bicycle, a scooter, a motorbike, or the said Three-Wheeler. Indeed, a lot of Chinese people are not so keen on walking: whenever they can drive, even if it’s just for a few meters, they will! And there are the delivery scooters, the so-called “WaiMai”, always the fastest, always in a hurry to either pick-up or drop-off something.
Then we get to the cars trying to make their way through this street, in both directions: Some “Didi cars”, the “Chinese Uber”, are finding or dropping off customers. Some self-driving tourists from other provinces, who were mislead by their GPS, with older parents and small children in the back who prefer not to open the windows given the outside chaos that they got stuck in. Within all this, some old mini-vans are delivering goods to stores. Finally, the garbage truck comes through once during the day. With the loudest music, to inform everyone it is coming, and with the most professional calm, to clean this part of the Old Town of its daily rubbish.
Finally, as if this was not enough street action, the government tourism office has decided to let their “tourist transportation e-vehicle” drive through this street, to bring tourists from the very busy and commercially exploited South Gate to the much more local, but sometimes just as busy North Gate. Open e-vehicles, about 20 seats, with a young local ethnic minority BaiZu woman or man in traditional costume talking over a microphone to introduce the Old Town to her guests. Bo’Ai Lu is not a large street. It’s a very common sized street in an Old Town.
Suddenly, everything stops.
A minivan is loading off goods to stock up a shop. Cars from both sides want to pass, but it’s too narrow. The tourist e-vehicle stands still somewhere in the middle. Scooters and motorbikes start honking, as they want to pass. Pedestrians squeeze through every small loophole between vehicles. The cyclist lifts his bike to make his way over the sideway. Maybe.
The stillness, nobody can move, neither forwards nor backwards, becomes creativeness. And collaboration.
What to do? After the stillness comes the solution.
Two or three locals take the lead. They inspect the situation, and command every driver what to do: you go a bit to the right. You go back a little bit. You go there to the left. They move a parked scooter a few centimeters to the side. They help an old lady move away her basket of tomatoes she is trying to sell. Everything takes a few minutes, the miracle happens: the Gordon Knot is solved! Everyone is happily continuing his or her way!
Close your eyes, and imagine all of the described, in one street, all at the same moment….. it might be the most beautiful expression of human chaos! The situation created is in my eyes a wonderfully beautiful one: stillness becomes solution; it demands creativeness, and human collaboration. And everyone participates, calm and cool.
And suddenly, there is this kind of feeling in the air… by the way, “Bo’Ai Lu” means “Street of Universal Love”. ❤️
