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A cacophony of car horns greets me as I walk outside my apartment building. After almost one year in China, I now hardly notice the sounds of traffic that are pervasive from early morning until sundown. As the country has developed, the number of drivers and cars on the roads has increased enormously. Suzhou, which is a great example of a modern suburb, is a driving city. Almost every Chinese family I know owns a car. The subway system is a work in progress; but even with it, things are still quite a distance away for anyone without a vehicle..

As time has gone on, the noise on the streets has become a dull background to everyday life. The honking, screeching, occasional yelling, and rev of electronic motor bikes is the everyday symphony one hears upon walking outside. When I first came to China, I remember feeling surprised by the number of cars I saw as well as the prevalence of honking (something that in the US is not done as frequently or with as much intensity). As I observed life in both small and big cities, I began to distinguish the varieties of car horns and intensities. I recently read in another expatriate’s account of China that just as the Chinese language has tones, it seems so do car horns. Depending on the situation, various lengths and loudness can be expected. At any given moment in almost any given city (barring Xiamen which banned honking) you can hear any one of the “varieties” of honking listed below:

You may hear the short, quick honk which can be interpreted as: “Hey, I’m here, watch out!” or “Why aren’t you moving, the light just changed?” Or you may hear the very short, almost polite honk: “Hey I’m a taxi, need a ride?” If traffic is particularly bad (which it almost always is) you are likely to hear the angry, prolonged honk: “Why are you not moving? Are you deaf? Can’t you hear the honking that I’ve been doing for 1 minute now?” This is usually a technique used by bus drivers who never seem to be able to maneuver through traffic quickly enough. Finally, there is the short but angry honk: “You just cut me off! What’s your problem!?”

Driving in China fascinates me. New drivers, new cars, new roads all converge together to create what can only be considered an organized chaos. A local friend recently said to me “I would never want to drive in the US. They drive so fast!” I smiled politely and thought to myself “I don’t think I would ever want to drive here either.”