It happened on the way to see tigers

Ah, the Manchurian Tiger Park, it sounds so magical I can hardly believe it took me four months to drag myself down for a look. It's right in Harbin, after all.

The park did not disappoint. But I think I'll start by describing the drive down to the park, because I've been waiting quite a while for an excuse to really rip into the drivers and traffic situation here in Harbin.

Somehow I always get stuck in the taxi with the craziest driver. When we went out to the Yes club a few weeks ago, ours was the car that arrived first...due to our barreling wrong-ways down a one way street in a clever "shortcut". My tiger park taxi was one of four or so filled with us CETers headed to the park. True to form, my taxi started in the rear but quickly took the lead by recklessly weaving through busy highway traffic. Hand clamped to the door handle and right foot pumping the break that doesn't exist in the back seat, I endured the maneuvers by telling myself this is how everyone drives in Harbin. That was until the collision with the bus.

There have been so many close calls, I'm really surprised it took until now to get into an accident here. And it wasn't serious in the least, but more of a testimony that completely ignoring all traffic regulations does have consequenses, something I was starting to doubt after getting away unscathed for four months. We were in the far right lane with a bus to our left. As the bus began it's right turn onto the traffic circle, the taxi in front of us scooted through the narrowing gap. Following one of the fundamental traffic rules in Harbin - if there's room for one, there's room for more - our driver followed suit only to slam on the brakes when he realized that in fact there was no room. As we sat motionless, the bus' right hand turn brought its rear end closer and closer to our front left bumper, finally clipping it with loud "pop". The bus immediately stopped and both its driver and ours got out, launching immediately into a shouting match. I assumed the police might get called, or perhaps insurance information exchanged. We all got out, thinking of finding a new cab. But, the driver quickly waved us back in, saying it was all settled.

Since, in my view, the fault lay with our driver, I assumed he might be a little miffed about the situation. On the contrary. It turns out the bus driver had given him 100 kuai in order to settle the issue. No insurance, no messing around, just shouting followed by a cash exchange of less than $15 american dollars to settle the issue. The money was to fix the small piece of front bumper that had been chipped off. The driver claimed it would take at least a few hundred kuai to fix, but I suspect that chipped bumper may never be repaired.