Somewhere in the distant past, I seem to remember the bliss of climbing into my car, pulling out of the garage, and driving wherever I wanted. It was one of those things that we really didn’t appreciate at the time. But now when we want to go somewhere, it can be a pretty significant task, especially if you are trying to get a taxi at rush hour:
We recently planned to meet some friends for dinner on the north side of town at 6:00PM (a 20 minute ride). After being blown off by 5 drivers, we finally found a willing driver 50 minutes after we started our search:
Fortunately, taxis in our city have accurate meters and a reasonable price: about $4.00 for a trip into town:
Now that we have lived here for a year, we are beginning to figure out some of the more common bus routes. The bus is very cheap (17 cents), but can sometimes get rather crowded:
When riding the bus in Atlanta, it might surprise and concern you to look across the aisle and see a man with a hachet, but not in China where such things don’t even draw attention:
When you can’t find a “legal” taxi, there is usually an unregistered driver who is willing to take you for a ride if you can negotiate a good price. I am still baffled by the collective mindset here, where a huge crowd of vans all gather in one spot (even blocking lanes of traffic) to compete for customers heading to the exact same destination:
For 6 RMB, one of these three-wheeled jitneys will take you to places within a short distance of our school village. It’s kind of like a taxi ride, only more “exciting”:
When all else fails, we walk – a lot. Interestingly, one of the more popular places to walk here is along the train tracks:
It’s certainly the shortest distance between two points. And while this practice might seem kind of risky to folks in the west, just remember that the movement of a train is far more predictable than most of the vehicles driving on the roads (and sidewalks) here.
That guys with the hatchet looks like it is about to use it on you! You guys better watch out! We miss and love you guys!
I would be nervous about the guy with the hatchet getting upset when you took his picture!
Actually, I snapped the photo with my cell-phone camera while responding to a text message, so I hope it didn’t look too intrusive. But now that you mention it, he doesn’t look too friendly…
What’s the deal with the bars around the taxi driver?
I suppose that it’s for security, but we feel safer in China than in most US cities. More likely, it’s to protect the health of the driver when he crashes (like a roll-cage) since the cars here are made of pretty thin sheet metal.
My dad was a coyote hunter in Oklahoma. He had an old pick-up truck that he called, “the Jitney”, which had a box for greyhounds mounted on the back. I went with him, only once, and it was quite an experience as we “flew” through the pastures! Perhaps “jitney” means a cobbled together truck with a box mounted on the back to hold someone or something.
wow, that’s intense!
We got your back! Remember in Lord of Rings, Gandolf says to the burning thing with a whip, “You shall not pass!”.