Trying to make sense of China’s street traffic, I think I found a window into its business culture.

During my trip in January, I took plenty of cabs around Beijing and Shanghai. Initially, traffic in China struck me as chaotic to the point of being life-threatening. Left-hand turners peel out in front of oncoming traffic as soon as the light turns green. Cars and bikes make right-hand turns into traffic without waiting for a clear opening. Vehicles change lanes not only frequently, but often without using turn signals.

Ultimately, I realized that a governing principle here was something akin to an organic sense of flow. For example, left-hand turns actually work pretty efficiently. As the turners cut across the street, oncoming cars inch forward until they make it impossible for any more would-be left-hand turners to proceed. And vehicles hardly ever get stuck in the middle of onrushing traffic.

That has something to do with another factor I came to understand: There is a lot of communication among drivers and pedestrians, even if it isn’t the kind I’m used to in the United States. Frequent, brief toots of the horn. Flashes of the headlights. Simple eye contact.

A third principle behind what seemed to be traffic madness is a constant openness to opportunities. Drivers keep trying out different lanes, or making up new ones.

It eventually struck me that a Chinese driver coming to the United States would find our road system confusing. Why so much dead time at traffic lights when no one moves? Why stick with one lane so long and be so formal about switching when you could be missing out on a better route?

My traffic lessons were repeated in my attempts to interview business leaders in China. Would-be sources seemed unwilling to set appointments in advance of my trip, and advised me instead to "call me when you get here."

Once meeting times were established, they often were changed. A Chinese executive I was eager to meet changed our appointment twice before we finally managed to sit down. Another executive’s assistant sent a message that indicated the extent of the uncertainty that I was finding all around me. Even as she reconfirmed the appointment, she was telling me it might have to change: "We have fixed the appointment with you at 2:00-3:00pm on Jan. 23rd. However, as per the current schedule, we might need to change the time."

Why all the fluidity in business appointments? Janet Carmosky, CEO of consulting firm China Prospects, prepared me for it by describing Chinese business culture as one centered on a constant search for better options.

"The Chinese live to maximize opportunity," says Carmosky, who spent nearly 20 years working in China. "We in America place a very high value on committing and seeing something through."

Carmosky’s observation, it seems to me, explains, in part, the ethical concerns that arise in the country, such as graft and intellectual property theft.

It also explains why my appointments kept changing. I suspect company leaders and consultants were constantly judging whether I—and the exposure they could get in Workforce Management--was the best they could do on a given day.

That may be putting it too harshly. People I met with were invariably generous with their time. The executive that "bumped" me twice ultimately spent over an hour with me and responded to numerous follow-up e-mails.

What’s more, sources in China consistently communicated about when meetings were canceled and offered to reschedule. And they did so politely.

The civility gets to something I came to value in China. Even when you understand a bit about the culture, the intertwining traffic and canceled meetings can be maddening. But a saving grace about people in Beijing and Shanghai is they are much more patient than their counterparts in San Francisco and New York. Just as I never had an interview go sour over scheduling conflicts, I never once saw road rage in China.

That’s something I wish China could export.

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