It’s official. I am now into my 52nd week of living in Beijing. What a year it’s been! This time last year, I thought this time this year, I’d be packing up, saying good-byes and getting ready for the “real world.”

Plans change.

I can’t say how much I’ve changed over the past year. Sometimes I feel like I’ve learned nothing, and other times I’m amazed at what I can pull off. Sometimes I was adamant about remaining “Western,” and other times I relaxed and let China take over. I was all very China — pulled in so many directions that I now feel like everything at once. I can honestly say that I know more about China and Chinese people now while knowing even less about them. Am I confused? Not really!

So, as an ode to my new home, I want to note some of the things I have come to appreciate and hate about China. It will be Beijing-centric, as this city has defined a lot of what I know about this country (even though I know it’s not representative of the country at all!). I’m not a China lover, like many foreigners who come from the West and subsequently “fall in love with China.” I don’t find all of it quirky or charming or interesting. I am, actually, quick to judge and slow to reflect. With that in mind, here’s one thing I hate — a lot — about China:

Bad drivers.

Every driver in China is a bad driver (this is an exaggeration). Forget those stereotypes about how Asians can’t drive. In China (Beijing), people drive between lanes, in bike lanes, on sidewalks (because that’s also where the parking spaces are!), and generally wherever their cars can fit. Drivers here have an extreme case of driver entitlement, meaning they think that they can do whatever they want and that they own the road — practically the whole drivable world — just because they’re behind the wheel. Things they do:

• Pull out from a side street/parking lot/parking space/etc. right into oncoming traffic, causing my bus driver/taxi driver to slam on his brakes.
• Inexplicably change lanes all of a sudden — and take forever to do so — and then switch back immediately after.
• Turn across three lanes of oncoming traffic, instead of, you know, getting into the far lane in advance of their turn.
• At an intersection, keep driving even after their light has turned red and/or even if there’s no room for them to go, blocking the intersection for people going the other directions.
• Drive straight into a traffic jam, even if other roads are open and free-flowing.
• Cut into a line of cars waiting to turn/get onto the ring road/etc.

But the worst thing about them is that they abuse their power. According to this guy who studies Beijing transportation, 40 percent of automobile use is for traveling a distance of less than 5 kilometers. Five kilometers! That’s 3 miles! This is like when I took a car between my house and my high school, which are 2.2 miles apart. Except it’s not like that because these drivers live in a city with above-average public transportation options, not to mention bike lanes, rickshaw drivers and sidewalks.

But, according to the same guy:

In London and Tokyo, the transportation in central areas mainly relies on public transit and in peripheral areas relies on cars. In Beijing, the opposite is true.

Although Beijing has fewer vehicles than Tokyo, it has more vehicles in its central areas than in Tokyo and twice as many as in New York’s Manhattan, which means that cars are overused in short-distance travel in Beijing.

…

In addition, Guo said that Tokyo, Paris, London and some other cities have started to increase the use of bicycles, but the proportion of bicycle travel in Beijing only accounts for 8 percent at present.

So not only are bad drivers bad at driving, they’re also driving unnecessarily, making them even worse.