The phenomenon had been haunting me for more than four months and I just has some ideas and thoughts about it, I want to share them with you.

One April weekend I stayed in Shanghai continuing my Spanish lessons, I went to the class that Sunday morning and when I was about to cross the road three foreigners with conspicuous blonde hair caught my eyes. Instead of waiting for the green light, they ran the red light as if there was nobody else present, but at least they remembered to walk on the zebra crossing. It was obvious that they came from Europe because they are speaking German. Since it was rather early, around 7:20 A.M, the traffic was not heavy. I was fairly confused about their behavior, wondering whether they had daltonism and if they didn't , I may deeply doubt about the "with great moral obligations " slogan the citizens of western developed countries advertise for themselves. It was ironic that when they were running red light, we Chinese are still sitting tight for the green light in an effort to meet our "lost" moral principles, this isn't fair. Moreover, I think it's incorrect to blame their behaviors to Chinese legislation, for Shanghai is implementing a highly strict traffic management system and in the next few weekends in Shanghai I had seen many travelers acting like this but none of them was Chinese citizens. At that time, I was unable to understand completely.

After my trip to Russia, I started viewing this from a different perspective, there are possibilities that cultural differences and disparate domestic situations had led to the phenomenon. Indeed, there does not exist a traffic light on the zebra stripes as that in China. You can cross the road straight directly if no cars are coming and if there are cars, just make sure you are walking on the zebra stripes, the drivers will definitely give precedence to you. I think it's the same with other western countries. Therefore, western citizens have no idea about China's traffic rules, so they make some analogies, they may not even realize the lights and take it for granted that the cars will stop for them politely.

This is a huge mistake and thus can cause great danger here in China. When I returned to Beijing from Russia, I was not used to the traffic. Even though I crossed roads with green light, some drivers still turn right in front of me, forcing me to stop for them. I was annoyed and disappointed at first, but then I felt relieved. China is developing at a rocketing speed, everything work out at a rapid pace. Take Beijing for example, Moscow has more congestion than Beijing only because of the narrow streets. However, with those wide roads and highways, Beijing does have an extremely heavy traffic, the city cannot afford to wait for just a few seconds under such great pressure.

At this moment, I find out that I have known a bit more of the real China and Chinese citizens, I have to say, in spite of some exceptions, the majority of Chinese people observe law and discipline and China is a prestigious nation full of hope and enthusiasm. I take pride in my motherland, so what do you think?