It was bound to happen...

We've been living in China now for 8 months and Bill spends a considerable amount of time in the car amidst the sea of chaotic craziness.   Driving here is a whole different animal than anywhere else in the world, the rules that we know and abide by are all just "guidelines" here to be followed very rarely. Lanes don't really mean to stay in the lines, drivers rarely signal when turning or switching lanes, etc.   It's hard to explain but really the roads are mass chaos!

We were in Shanghai for a language lesson yesterday and Mr. Fu had offered to drive us, we were going to take the train but he insisted it'd be okay he wanted to drive us so we said okay.  As it turns out something is wrong with our car so he was using his personal car.  On our way home at 9pm - end up in a massive traffic jam and of course get rear-ended!

Now we're on an 8 lane highway (4 in each direction) and we're in the left fast lane but this is China so you just stop - don't move to the side, don't get out of traffic, just stop and get out of the car.   While cars just keep flying by and honking at you.   Bill and I stayed in the car - we're not getting out in the middle of a highway!   So another thing that happens is the drivers get out assess the damage and negotiate a fair price the other driver then pays you and away you go.  

The other car had an entire family in it and of course they all get out, start walking around on the side of the road - a kid is running around!!!  It was crazy!  Two of the guys get into it with Mr. Fu - from what we can tell they're assessing the damage - Mr. Fu makes some calls, we think he's calling the police because he's walking away from this guys.  We keep waiting.  The guy starts peeing right next to our car!  Seriously - there are 4 people in your car, we are in our backseat and you are peeing right next to the car on the highway!!!  WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!?!?!

Finally the guy seems to get worried because of whatever Mr. Fu is saying on the phone and he hands him a wad of cash.  Mr. Fu gets in the car and away we go.

What the heck just happened?
Good news is - we are okay, it could've been worse.  Bad news is - it was Mr. Fu's car, not our car so we hope whatever money he received is enough to cover the damage.
What a crazy Saturday night!