In a construction zone, we saw this fake policeman. I think he is supposed to function something like a scarecrow, but instead of scaring crows away from your corn, he makes the construction zone safer since people might slow down when they see him.
A similar device is the fake police car. You can see it on the left side, and it even had flashing lights.\
When you pass it, you can see that it is just a prop.
No matter how many fake policemen and police cars you put up, you can't stop Chinese drivers from making more lanes when they think it would be better. Here we are in one lane, and a giant truck is making a third lane out of the middle of the road. It isn't nearly as funny when you are in the smaller vehicle.
Some of the construction makes you wonder--like this huge bridge which seems to be in the middle of nowhere.
One of the most humorous vehicles is the tricycle truck. That is what Hannah and I named them. They drive on the road and sometimes they are so loaded you can hardly see them. This one has a more modest load on it.
Here is an empty one. There was one that had been overloaded with what looked like sandbags, and since it is a tricycle truck it wasn't stable enough and tipped over. There were sandbags everywhere and two empty ones that came to carry the stuff away. I didn't get a good picture of the tipped-over one, unfortunately. It is hard to take pictures in traffic, from the windows, while juggling a wiggly child.
Here is one of the little scooters with a cargo bed. It is basically a scooter pickup truck. This one has pipes on it but they are used to carry anything you can imagine.
Crossing the Yellow River bridge, and here is a scooter thing right on the road.
The street sweepers are everywhere in town, and they actually are people with brooms and dustpans. Some of the brooms are just like what a witch would ride on, a bunch of twiggy stuff tied to a handle.
Some of them have the more modern, colorful broom.
This woman is trying to cross a 6-lane road with her baby in a stroller.
This guy almost got squished when he tried to squeeze between the vehicles on his motorcycle.
Scooters can carry whole families, and of course no one wears helmets. Of course you can't use a carseat on a scooter, but in China they don't use them in cars either, or seatbelts.
Therese was very tired of driving, and she entertained herself with a sticky note for awhile. It was great when she was putting it on her mouth, but then after this picture was taken she wanted to stick it on the window. It wasn't sticking anymore, so she tried to use spit to make it stick. When I wouldn't let her finish that project she had to entertain herself by crying and yelling the last 15 minutes or so until we got back to the hotel. It stopped like magic as soon as we got out of the vehicle.
