Last weekend our family decided to take a road trip in northeastern Beijing. We live in Shunyi county (nearby the Beijing international airport) and heading out of the city in the general direction of the Mutianyu Great Wall seemed a natural way to get away from the city. So on Sunday morning we headed out on Jing Shun Lu in the direction of the town of HuaiRou. Driving on Jing Shun Lu can be okay or can be very challenging. The issue is that the road is the main artery heading to and leaving from Beijing towards the Northeast. As a result the road can be occupied by a diverse mix of cars, minivans, buses, and huge trucks carrying various loads and very often heavily overloaded. Then there are the three wheeled tractors/trucks which are very unstable and slow. Having listed all these vehicle types picture this — you are driving along the two lane road (two lanes in each direction) and all of a sudden in front of you merges a puttering three wheel truck spewing diesel exhaust and of course moving very slowly. On your right at the same time could be a city public bus, which given its size, pays no attention to yielding during the merge process. So you find yourself boxed in very quickly. Your only recourse at that point in time is to slow down to a crawl and hope that the bus driver gets going fast. So, while you drive in Beijing, you have to watch out for a number of things on the road: slow drivers (yes, they actually can be a lot more dangerous than excessively fast ones), drivers who do not care about rules on the road, traffic signs that are merely a recommendation, small three-wheeled motorcycle-based vehicles, tractors…the list goes on and on. Long story short, keep your eyes open and your foot close to the brake. Chances are you will use it very often.
