Guangzhou is my first experience of Chinese city traffic. The city is teeming with people and the roads are jam packed full of every kind of vehicle you can imagine. Plus the odd stray pedestrian. Every one of them is convinced that they are immortal and have full and exclusive rights to the road.
Our bus driver carries on at least three conversations at once; one on his mobile phone and one each with our two guides. When you add in the cigarette, the hand gestures and the commentary on other road users it does not leave much time for actually driving the bus. This does not seem to bother him much indeed as soon as he spots a spare metre of road space he heads for it immediately. This would not be a problem if the space stayed empty but in the time it takes to actually start moving the space has filled up with at least two pedestrians and one bicycle. Undaunted by this he continues towards the space scattering the pedestrians. The only thing that seems to deter him, and even then not much, are the prospect of a couple of very large trucks with convincing looking accident damage getting there first. We have not hit anything or anyone as yet but in my opinion it is only a matter of time.
Contrast the anarchy on the roads with the situation outside at night in around our hotel. The People's Armed Police are everywhere. There is no nonsense about policing with consent. Their first reaction to any problem is force their second one is extreme force. Our guide said that the Chinese people value order highly. The PAP are there to make sure they get it whether they want it or not. Most clearly do.
Our adoption is going very and my new daughter has already got me under her spell.