Beijing streets
The city has as part of its plans to become a "World City", joining NY, London, Paris and Tokyo. They have demolished all the narrow streets and have created a somewhat monumental scale. To their credit, bike lanes have been improved, there is separate traffic signals for the bikes and their use seems to be on the rise, relative to 10 years ago.
A short comment on horn honking; in the US horns are usually sounded to say "watch out, I am occupying the space you are about to enter" while here it is more "Get out of my way, you are slowing me down."
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more 
