chinese lane swimming etiquette is much the same as chinese driving etiquette- it's kind of a free for all.
before today, i hadn't swam in china for many reasons, but the above reason was definitely up at the top of my list for reasons why.
i think the way chinese people interpret and act on their surroundings is very different from the western viewpoint.
for example, i was doing backstroke, and all of a sudden this guy must have popped up behind me and i ran into him. i stopped and looked at him, and then just kept going and finished the lap. i was confused why he didn't move when he saw me coming, but whatever, not a big deal, maybe he thought i would make it around him. when i got to the wall, i took another look at him to see what he was up to. he was just sitting there hanging on to the lap lane looking in my direction (there was only one plastic lap lane in the whole pool, and i made sure to get next to it so there was at least some order on one side of me), so i decided to just move over a little so i wouldn't hit him again. i set off again doing backstroke. 5 strokes in, all of a sudden i just full-on collide with something. i look up, and lo and behold, it is that same guy. i'm like, are you kidding me, what are you thinking?!? i'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he was probably trying to get out of my way, but how does someone miscalculate this timing so poorly, especially when we had JUST run into each other 5 seconds before that. i scolded him lightly in english (the only thing i could think to say in chinese is like the equivalent of saying "get lost!" which seemed a little too much lol), and he moved to the opposite side of the pool.
after this, i decided that it would be best to stick to strokes where i had use of my vision.
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