Human Echolocation Explains It All

Although Douglas Adams has traveled many extreme locations for the sake of his writing, China seems to have set him on the brink of a nervous breakdown. He is so anxious on the flight over that he unthinkingly buys six bottles of aftershave even thought they smell “horrid” (149). Adams is not worried for naught for he discovers that China is in fact a very confusing country. However, he uses these confusing moments to add a humorous aspect to his accounts. One example of this is when he is observing China’s transportation methods. As he watches the bicycles, trolley buses, and trucks “converging on the intersection”, he is convinced that he is about to bear witness to “major carnage” (158). When all of the vehicles emerge unscathed, Adams is awed and confused about how it happened. He decides to humorously turn to the baiji dolphin for an explanation and compares the method of the commuters to the dolphin’s method of echolocation. He states that the dolphins see by “emitting sequences of tiny clicks… and communicate with other baijis by making whistling noises” (155). Likewise, there seems to be a continuous ringing of bells by the Chinese which is their way of communicating “here I am here I am here I am…” (159). His comparison of these humans to the “blind panic” experienced by the dolphins is humorous because it is unexpected. While the dolphins are swimming around in the mucky waters of the Yangtze River trying to avoid the rudders of transportation boats, the cyclists are trying to navigate the extremely busy thoroughfares of the streets of China without being mutilated by a swiftly approaching bus. Although many people would not think to compare the echolocation of dolphins to the human methods of “spatial perception”, Adams’ thought process makes this connection to explain the confusion that he finds in a humorous way (159).