The Taxi Diaries - Edition 1

We wake to rain pelting the windows of our 21st floor apartment. The streets of Beijing are filled with large puddles; the water seems to have no place to go. It is Friday morning and we need to leave for school.

Our normal routine is to walk to the front of our apartment complex where there are many taxis waiting. Umbrellas in hand, we splashed our way to the road. This particular morning, there were none to be found. We were warned this could happen; apparently rain or snow brings more selectiveness with the taxi drivers.  We, as Laowai, (foreigners), are suddenly avoided like the plague. How do we get to work?

We swished our way down the street unable to avoid the water puddles that were up to 6 inches deep. I was grateful to have sandals on; Daniel’s leather shoes and cotton socks were dripping wet. We walked one-fourth of a mile to the closest bus stop to take the bus to work. We made it, and made plans to leave an extra set of clothes at school for the future.

This is our new city life. In suburban Minnesota, it is hard to imagine life without a car. I am too scared to bike or scooter yet, so my choices are limited to walking, taxi, bus or metro.

I have no patience for waiting for taxis. This is one of my discoveries about myself.  Not only does it freak me out a bit to drive with someone when I don’t know how to communicate very well, but I also just don’t like to watch them drive off when they see I am not a Beijing native.  

Last Tuesday evening I was going to meet some friends for dinner. It would be a 10-minute taxi ride or a 30-minute walk. I opted taxi since it was a direction that I was not completely familiar with. I stuck my arm out. Taxis abound, but mostly filled with passengers. When I finally see a few empty, I am ignored. Hating rejection, I walked across the 3rd Ring Road to catch a bus. I vaguely remembered that Bus 104 might go to the street I was after … but then there was that issue about Bus 104 north or south. They look the same, but go two different directions.  Debating the options, I saw a group of people walking toward the direction I needed. I joined the pack. It is much more comforting to manage the traffic in packs. Guess what? Twenty minutes later, smarter, wiser and a little sweaty, I made it. S-U-C-C-E-S-S.

Chapter two of the Taxi Diaries was last Friday. Dan and I were heading out to meet a couple who had lived in Uzbekistan and our colleague, Patty, for dinner. It was DEFINITELY a taxi ride away. No walking option this night. But those taxis ignored us again. We crossed the 3rd Ring Road again, hoping to grab a taxi on the other side. This time there was a row of taxis … and all refused to take us! This led to drastic measures: I asked the “Bus Flag Lady” for help. You may be wondering—who is this person? Well, in Beijing, for reasons we don’t completely understand, there are women (and men) with flags that organize passengers before entering the bus. I approached one woman with my piece of paper with the Chinese address for YawSho, a fairly touristy place, and the rest was magic. She worked through her network of people, and with the use of sign language between us, she got me on bus 104 (Note: a bus 104 stopped by right away and she gave me the NO look, then another bus 104 came and she gave me the YES nod). Further, she instructed the bus driver to make sure we got off at the first stop and transferred to bus 110. Actually, we didn’t know what she said, but it seemed like it might have been something like that. Anyway, we get to the first stop, the bus driver tells us to get out (pointing) and then watches us debate what side of the street we should be on to catch bus 110 for our destination. I know he was watching because he beeped his horn at us and then pointed again across the street, basically saying “get these morons in the right place so I can move on!” 

Bus 110 traveled through completely unfamiliar neighborhoods, but we started feeling more confident when we saw a staff member walking down the street. And sadly, we knew we were in a touristy spot when we saw Hooters.