With the onset of summer interrupted by frequent rain showers it is may be not a bad time to partake in a bit of reflection, particularly with regard to a few of the transportational changes that have ridden into Xi’an in recent years; arriving on a wind of progress, though on the back of an almighty stimulus package, one that has included a few unpleasant side effects. The laid-back nature and slightly underdeveloped cityscape of Xi’an that I so liked upon arrival is changing.
There are so many cars on the roads now that it is even for me, let alone the slightly aged members of the local community, hard to believe that when I first arrived in China’s Western capital I really didn’t have to pay too much attention when crossing the road and never even consider waiting at a road junction. Not so now, walking between the lanes of oncoming traffic is not only restricted by increased car use but also by government directed traffic attendants, who, in such a short time, have vigorously put into place a road crossing etiquette that was almost impossible to ever imagine existing just a few years ago.
Having ridden a bike on a daily basis over the last four years it is easy, if not a little depressing, to recognize the increased volume of traffic that I now peddle, cough and occasionally splutter passed. ‘Passed’ though being the operative word, the term traffic jam or dǔ chē (堵车) has certainly entered the common cultural lexicon of Chinese cities over the last few years and Xi’an is no exception. I can often find myself leaving sleek blacked out and branded motor vehicles in my slip stream, as I jump between lanes and lights on my US designed Trek bike.
Accordingly, it is also worth noting that the peddling equipment available these days is of a higher standard. I will not be critical of the old Asian clunker, having ridden one about in India and Sri Lanka, before continuing to do so for my first two years here. However, it is good to have a bit of mountain bike mobility about town, especially when, with a quick click of gears I can get out from within the back smoke emanating from a far from low CO2 emitting truck or bus. You could hardly spot a decent mountain bike in the city a few years ago, the majority of kids heading apprehensively to their Gao Kao this week were at least doing so on a fine set of wheels.
Although, when you talk to the slightly elder members of the youthful community, the ones desiring and in search of upward mobility, you find that such steps are to be measured as much by the possession of a driving license than a new watch, mobile phone or push bike. And the government certainly isn’t, at present, attempting to apply the breaks to such a desire, quite the opposite, with higher purchase deals for prospective car buyers requiring down payments as low as 30%. If buying now and paying later isn’t a new concept in China, it is certainly one accelerating nicely under the wing of a national stimulus package, sitting in the local branch of a China Bank in a suburb near you.
Whether you are a young woman receiving the gift of lessons as part of a package of courtship; on the rocky road, in double quick time, to becoming girlfriend, fiancée and wife, or whether you are simply young and ambitious and learning while negotiating for car ownership a little down the road, or whether you are a student gathering money from family people, the cash for the car still just a distant dream, driving licenses are being chased and instructors becoming new best friends. This cultural shift is not unlike the one that surrounds the masses hanging out in downtown passport offices, another badge of modernity, and there are certainly quite a few badge-carrying members of this particular club to.
It has only taken a couple of recent visits to the passport office here in Xi’an to realize that foreign cities, holiday locations and Universities must already have a slightly different demographic to the ones I frequented five or so years ago, let alone the ones I travelled regularly around ten or fifteen years ago. China and the Chinese are on the move, whether on a road near you or on a flight coming your way soon. The populated nations out East seem to be spreading their wings and revving up their engines, though hopefully they’ll be Lithium-Ion powered battery engines they are revving and not the gas guzzlers of American cultural heritage, or we may have slightly more problems to deal with than those simply associated with cultural communication and integration issues.
Xi’an is changing. May be the spirit of most of the people is the same, but it is a city that at one and the same time is faster and slower, more full and more empty, a gateway and the end of the road.
However, on a more positive note, let us also not forget you can still travel on the bus here for an hour or so for as little as 五 Máo ( 5 English pennies or 7 American cents) and that a subway system will be on line in another year or so. Let us also hope that China’s huge investment in clean technologies and their almost monopolistic control of rare mineral production are steps towards a cleaner form of Chinese transportation and infrastructure. And that this explosion in car use will, in the future, be seen in context and not simply as a point on the road to apocalyptic levels of environmental degradation.
More on these latter issues next time. (or some time)
西安