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China
Charlie
A weekly column
 about living
in Dongguan, for those new to Dongguan, new to China, or anyone
that likes a good story. Written by an expat who
first came to Dongguan in 1987, hopefully this series of
articles will be both entertaining and informative.
Archives:
Welcome to China
Charlie
Dongguan
Driving Challenges
Fun With Air Travel in
China
Vertical Speed Bumps
Language and Culture
Mobile Phones and Other Stuff
Karen Carpenter, Kenny G and the Chinese Water Torture… . .
Dan Gerous, where are you when we
need you?
Life in hotels in the “old days”, a “Moon Shot”,
and the saga of the pink panties….
Was There Life
After M*A*S*H
Camaraderie of Dong Guan in the “old days”.. . .
Who's on First, China Style
Life at the
Ramada/Guangzhou, Resting trucks, Dynamite, and other stuff
Is
Dongguan becoming too civilized?
Roadside Word
Games, China Style
Thoughts on American Thanksgiving
The Traffic Food Chain
Hong Kong Sleigh Ride
Those
Nuisance Messages
Will the
Grinch Steal Christmas?
New Year's
Recap
You're Probably
in China If..
Chain Reactions for Most Situations |
Just about the time, and the
Y2K may be one of the best, but… . . . .>
In the last installment, we looked at “Chain Reactions”, and I
wrote that I thought I had about seen it all, except
for a “Vertical Chain”. Boy, was I ever wrong!!
Right after that “China Charlie” was posted, I saw 3 cars involved in
a chain reaction accident on Dong Guan Dado (Dong
Guan Boulevard). Now, while seeing three cars
involved in a chain on Dong Guan Dado is hardly
unique, the way they did it was definitely original.
They had performed what I would have to refer to as
either a perfect “Y Chain” or “2 on 1 Chain”
It appeared to me as though the first car was
straddling a lane marker when he had to make a
sudden stop. He may have been changing lanes,
although I rather doubt it, as lane markers here
tend to be regarded by most motorists here as
useless paint spilled on the pavement.
In any case, it looked to me as though the cars that were
behind him in the two lanes he was straddling
couldn’t stop as quickly as he did, because they
both hit him.
I couldn’t come up with a better explanation for 3
cars setting dead still in the middle of a busy road
with one car straddling a lane marker with damage on
both rear corners, and two cars stopped right behind
him with damage on their front corners. One had
damage on the right front corner and the other was
damaged on the left front corner.
This
was my first exposure to an apparent “Y Chain”.
Traffic here is always good for a “war story “or
two, and what follows is a new example.
Recently, one of the cable TV shows was comparing
motorcycles, to determine the 10 best, and one of
the “bikes” in the top 10 was a motorcycle powered
by a jet engine, called the Y2K.
With the cost of this “bike” very few have been sold, but
one wound up in the hands of the host of a late
night TV talk show in the U.S., who’s a motorcycle
“nut”. There was video of him riding this machine,
and also of him describing what it feels like to
straddle a jet engine on two wheels.
Because of the exhaust temperature of the jet
engine, the Y2K has a tail lamp that advises unwary
motorists to stay back. After a demonstration of the
taillight, he told the story of a guy in a Honda
(automobile) that was behind him at a traffic light
and got too close in spite of the warning on the
tail lamp. The light changed and the (plastic) front
of the Honda melted when the Y2K accelerated away.
He also described the rapid acceleration that this
machine has.
All of this was fine, except I’m not certain that they
rated all the top performance motorcycles, and
somehow missed including certain models of the
Chinese built Honda 125 in their list.
Now, before you question my sanity or call the guys with
the butterfly nets in, I need to explain.
Recently, right here in our fair city, I saw a
Chinese built Honda 125, with 5 (that’s right folks,
5) LP tanks strapped to/hanging off it. This guy had
4 of the small LP cylinders slung saddle style on
the rear fender, and one large cylinder strapped
across the tops of the 4 smaller ones.
With the amount of explosive energy on that 125, I
suspect that given the right conditions, it could
have made any Y2K at full stride look like it was
running in reverse.
Of course, given the wrong conditions, it could have
looked more like a hyper “Sidewalk Spinner” (the
fireworks that spin rapidly when lit), have raised a
“Mushroom Cloud” the likes of which haven’t been
seen in this part of the world for over 50 years, or
made the driver the first Chinese person on the moon
(probably driven into it, rather than taking a
stroll on it like previous Lunar visitors have).
While mentioning things Lunar, the end of this week ushers
in a new Lunar Year. Even though China Charlie
presents a somewhat skewed and hopefully humorous
view of life here that sometimes may seem mildly
critical of cultural differences, we would like to
wish all of our friends a healthy, happy and
prosperous year of the Dog.
Now, if we could just get our friend on the LP laden
Honda 125 to reduce his risk factor a few points.
Oh well, may be during the year of the Dog… . . .
Until next time “Y’all have a rice week now”
China Charlie |
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