"On my first visit, in 1983, the roads were empty except for heavy trucks, black government limos and battalions of bicycles. Today the roads are clogged with cars that the Chinese drive like bicycles. It is not that they are aggressive, just that, like cyclists, they seem reluctant to stop for fear of wobbling and falling off. Driving in China is a series of collisions that you never quite have." 

© Peter Hughes, Beijing, Vanity Fair, 2006