Why you NEVER Travel on a holiday in China!

Hey Laowinners!  The traffic is mind numbingly insane. I used to remember my parents at home saying "you wouldn't believe the traffic on so and so road" as a child. This usually meant that they had to sit in a line of cars for a couple of minutes. 

This did not prepare me for China.  Golden week is the week long holiday after national day here in China.  It is the week that the family packs up the car, or hops on the train and usually heads home to their hometown, or heads to one of a bazillion AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA rated tourist destinations.

The traffic can go from manageable, to literally days stranded on the road. It's almost become so predictable, that people pack their cars full of instant noodles, board games, and selfie sticks, just in case they wanna show off the jam to their buddies.

What baffles me, is that if you know, 100%, that you are going to be sitting in traffic, for probably a couple days, why would you still go out? My mother and father in law tried to get Vivi and I out to travel to a countryside village a couple hours away. I asked them, "do you want to sit in traffic for 10 hours with a screaming baby in the car?" The response: well it's holiday, we need to go somewhere.

The stupid thing is that none of us work, so using the holiday as an excuse to go out somewhere makes absolutely no sense. So we turned them down, and proceeded to see video after video, pic after pic of my father in law being stuck in traffic for the entire day.

The logic that you MUST do something because that is what everyone else does is very pervasive in China. It's something I have noticed since day 1.
Sure people from around the world have their traditions, but you would be surprised at how little individuality there is in terms of decision on where to go and what to do. Holiday time? Get into a traffic jam. Go to a mountain. Climb the stairs (which are a traffic jam themselves, and yes, Chinese mountains have cement staircases built up them) Eat snacks like chicken feet. Pay triple the price at a local restaurant near said mountain. Go back home.

Clockwork boys and girls. Clockwork.

In the meantime, Viv and baby Liv and I are enjoying the completely empty streets of our city. It really is bliss to be able to push the stroller down the road with out the cacophony of car horns and people swerving into us while they make blind passes on sidewalks.


And yes, I am kind of bitter after coming back from Japan. My apologies.

PS- The video you voted on is coming soon (Vivi cooks a meal), I just have some back log to get through, and after we got back from Japan the water was turned off, so after I get back from some ADVChina shooting, I will shoot the meal video on Friday! Thanks for your support and your patience!!!