Trying to imagine dimensions in China is a hard thing to do， at least for an average German. Even the “medium-sized” city of ShenZhen is a behemoth， extending across 100 km (east to west) by 10 km (south to north) at the narrowest point and by 40 km at the widest， in its west. Millions of people dwell and work in an area that is similar to the shape of a sausage which someone has beaten flat on one side.
I am from the Rhein-Ruhr-Area， which is the largest conurbation in Germany and the fifth largest in Europe. About five million people are living there， compared with ShenZhen that is about a third of its people， in an area more than twice as large as ShenZhen’s.
Driving north or south from the town of Herne， the approximate centre of the Rhein-Ruhr-Area， you will leave the cityscape latest after 30 km and arrive in the less populated countryside of the Münsterland or the Sauerland (both are admittedly still more densely populated than the Tibetan Highlands)， whatever direction you may have taken.
But if you drive two， three or four hours by car from ShenZhen to the north (and a little later to the west)， you pass through other such behemoths – provided you do not stay in one of the inevitable traffic jams. First， there is DongGuan， about as large as ShenZhen but with one third more residents， next， GuangZhou， the provincial capital， deeply rooted in history， three times as large as ShenZhen and twice as populated.
To the south of ShenZhen no major sparsely populated areas can be found， either. Within sight of the sea there is already HongKong.
Well， far in the North of the behemoths DongGuan and GuangZhou there are vast agricultural areas. Known are the large banana plantations， there you get a very delicious variety (shorter but thicker as we know it). To the south， in the delta of the Pearl River， vegetables are grown and there is a lot of aquaculture. Somehow they have to feed those dozens of millions of people.
So， ShenZhen and DongGuan together cover roughly the surface of the RheinRuhr-Area but feature more than six times as many inhabitants. Add GuangZhou， and on an area that is less than three times as large as the Rhein-Ruhr-Area there will live as many people as in half of Germany. And we have not yet considered ZhongShan and ZhuHai， again with millions of inhabitants each.
And all of these residents are competing with each other every day， in every respect. Much more than we may believe， observing from our outside position， China is a boiling kettle of competition， of people moving on with tremendous speed like drops of water on a hot plate that try to find a cooler place the first， so as not to evaporate the first.
That is why everyone wants to be the first to arrive where everyone wants to go， whether at the bank counter or at the other end of the city or in its centre. The same rules formally apply to road traffic as in Germany or the U.S. or England， in reality some... else. The honking is so overwhelming sometimes and in certain places that one day I said： “They are practising for the Big South China Honk Festival， I suppose？”
– “What festival？”， our driver asked， confused， because he had never heard of this competition – no wonder， for I had made it up just then.
If the semaphore switches from red to green， no one knows what will happen： Anybody may set off quite comfortably， but it may also happen that someone spurts ahead from the rear， brakes away to the left and turns left into the side road in front of everybody else. If the semaphore is wired that way that at the same time it will show green light to the opposite lane， then those in the real rush will try to bend left before the approaching traffic， even if that means to slow down for a few dull pedestrians， because you cannot disregard flattening twenty people on the road： It costs too much speed.
Strangely enough， no one complains about that. There is honking everywhere， at every opportunity， but during such actions， no one does – unless the meddlesome fellow suddenly stops in the middle of the track. But if he rashly draws through and spurts ahead， this is acknowledged as advantage in competition. You might have been faster， too！
Excellence in competition， even in traffic， is generally acknowledged in China. Those common German wisenheimers do not seem to exist in China： No one will overtake another car that was reeving in front him， honk， curse or even drive pathetically slow before him to “punish” him.