I’ve learned that the Chinese don’t restrict gambling to lotteries, dice or cards. They also gamble on real estate along with any venture that might turn a profit.
Most Chinese are born entrepreneurs. I’ve read that the Chinese invented paper money and added credit to banking a thousand years ago during the Sung Dynasty. The Chinese are masters at doing business and that’s probably why my wife, who is Chinese, warned me not to do business in China. Do not misread my words—I don’t mean Westerners shouldn’t work with the Chinese. Read my piece on Doing Business in China or what Bob Grant has to say on the topic.
However, it was during a trip to the shores of the Westlake in Hangzhou where I learned how far Chinese drivers are willing to take risks to earn quick dollars.
Traffic in China. This is mild!
On a drizzly, cold evening, we hired a three-wheeled motorcycle to carry us to the lake where there is a paved walkway along the shore. It was raining but we had umbrellas. The driver decided traffic was too slow on the right side of the road so he drove onto the walkway where a police officer appeared from the shadows, blew a whistle and waved him off.
Then the driver drove down the wrong side of the street with a wall of traffic headed toward us. We were sitting on a seat behind the driver of a three-wheel motorcycle.
There was a bus in the lane we were in and the bus started to flash its lights. Our driver did not blink, and the bus swerved out of the way. All the cars behind the bus went around us too as if our driver were Moses parting the Red Sea.
We reached the lake alive, and the driver went in search of another paying customer.
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
iLook China 