Cars in China

Just over a year ago, one of my students handed me an essay in which she compared China today with China twenty years. One of her comparisons was that twenty years ago nobody in China could afford a car, whereas today most people can. She drives a 300,000 rmb (about 28,000 euros) Buick and her statement is only indicative of how we can all live in our own little worlds. Most people in China cannot afford a car and we are at a stage here where having a car represents a real status symbol.
This is reflected in how they drive because although there are a lot of reasons for their bad driving, it is not only bad driving; their arrogance behind the wheel is something else and even when you are on a zebra crossing with the lights in your favour, beware! Pedestrians in China never have the right of way and while I have been tempted to test that hypothesis from time to time ..... Well, do you have to touch fire to know that it burns? Anyway, I am still alive to write this.
Another thing you notice is that the little men who stand in front of our compounds salute the cars that go in and out. So there you are, walking out of or into a compound and a VW passat, that's right, a VW passat or even a silly little hyundi, comes up behind you, beeping his horns, hardly slowing to allow the gate to go up, and the gawky little fellow in a uniform that is too big for him, wearing a hat that almost covers his eyes, standing to attention and saluting the car. Of course, when we get to the stage where having a car is no longer a status symbol in China, that is when the real problems begin. Can you imagine the day, when having a car is as normal in China as it is in the the United States or Western Europe?