Comments on: Taxicab Confessions: Beijing

By: Caliboy

Caliboy — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:19:00 +0000

Was in Beijing for a few weeks recently and found the taxi situation infuriating. Beijing cabbies seem much less knowledgable about their city compared to their Shanghai counterparts.

Though part of it has to do with Shanghai being more compact and having street numbers that actually mean something.

I remember Beijingers complaining to me that Shanghai streets were too windy compared to Beijing's "orderly" grid. But perpindicular streets are of no use to me if I can't find an address (especially when a street name changes like every other block!)

By: Jo

Jo — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 09:35:00 +0000

It’s not all bad. I’ve had some cabbies who felt so sorry for me because of my poor Chinese that they bent over backwards. I was once looking for a restaurant at number 17 Huayuan Lu, but it turned out there were TWO number 17s on the one street, so the cabbie got out and asked one of those inexplicable sentries for directions. Whoever said Chinese people lack initiative was being a little unfair. I’ve found that as long as you have the phone number for wherever you’re going, they will use their own phone and call [ and have a conversation which is totally unintelligible because of all the ARRRRs ] and things eventually work out. But as for the Olympics, well I think they’re up shit creek. Aside from the recorded message “hello, welcome to take Beijing taxi” the poor tourists and athletes will find English words few and far between. I’ve heard a radio program that attempts to teach the cabbies English while they drive, but I’d really rather they weren’t preoccupied with getting their tongues around “ok, let’s look at the map” while careening through the streets of Beijing. The government should put all those school kids who’ve been learning English from age 3 to good use and stick one in each cab to translate.

By: 花崗齋之愚公

花崗齋之愚公 — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:37:00 +0000

I too have had my experiences with the “Miandi of death.” At one point we were…driving really doesn’t capture it…slaloming into Tiger Leaping Gorge in a Miandi. One tire clinging to the mud and me, riding shotgun, getting a good view of the valley floor every time we passed a car at a curve. Each time this happened I remember thinking to myself: “So this is how it ends. I’ve always been curious and now I know…”

By: 無名 - wu ming

無名 - wu ming — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:29:00 +0000

my favorite beijing cabbie episode was when the driver missed an offramp, and nonchalantly threw the little red hatchback into reverse on the freeway until she got back to the offramp, into full oncoming traffic.

i had far more near-death experiences taking rural buses, though. nothing like a game of macho bus chicken on a windy mountain road to get you humming tom waits’ “hang on st. christopher” to yourself nervously.

By: Froog

Froog — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 06:53:00 +0000

Ha – that would be “2nd most famous” after…. Fudan, I presume?

There’s definitely something about Qinghua – it’s the only place I’ve frequently had problems getting taxi drivers to recognise (and that’s travelling in the morning, or late at night, when traffic isn’t too much of a problem). Of course, my Chinese is almost non-existent; and I have been told that it is one of those names that is particularly prone to humorous misinterpretation if your tones go astray.

I do think the cab-driver situation is getting better here, though; I’ve had very, very few bad experiences in the past couple of years. And, once in a while, you get a heartwarmingly good experience – I recorded a recent instance of this here: http://froogville.blogspot.com/2007/03/good-cabbie-where-in-world-am-i-25.html