Left in the Street in Beijing
I'm in Beijing for the week. Just got in. Really wild ride to the hotel
from the airport. The driver got lost. Three times. Ok, it happens. Not
a big deal. He was a charming fellow and trying very hard to please me.
But each time he stopped and got out to ask for directions, he left the
car running in the street. In the middle of the street. In
traffic. With me in it. Now, Beijing is known to be a rather busy
place. In fact, it's one of the most densely populated places on the
planet. And with the lines on the road being mere suggestions, why
would you park your car in traffic with a customer inside as you dart
through oncoming traffic to ask for directions from the guy all the way
over there on the sidewalk? I must admit, this has never happened to me
before. Fortunately, the guys in the gigantic trucks were able to see the car in time and dodge around me with horns blasting. Got my
attention, though, that's for sure.
So what hotel are you in? Must be pretty obscure if the guy got lost so much.
I probably had a half dozen taxi rides in Beijing last week, and one driver did get totally lost, in spite of having actual turn-by-turn directions in Chinese given to him.
Or, there are just a ton of new taxi drivers in Beijing for the Olympics and they don't know the streets? This seems pretty likely to me, since Beijing is actually quite hard to get a taxi at many times and places.
Posted by Dave Stewart on September 23, 2008 at 07:37 AM JST #
Glad you made it in one piece. :)
Posted by melanie gao on September 23, 2008 at 08:04 AM JST #
Dave ... I'm at the Unicenter. Right near Sun.
Melanie ... thanks :)
Posted by Jim Grisanzio on September 23, 2008 at 10:42 AM JST #
Cool - I didn't know about that hotel. It's quite close to Intel too, so will have to check it out, next time I'm in Beijing.
By the way, if you like Dim Sum, my favorite place for it in Beijing is only about 5 miles from where you are staying. Menu has photos so you can order without knowing Chinese, it has great food and very inexpensive.
It's Jindingxuan, next to the entrance of Ditan Park
Posted by Dave Stewart on September 24, 2008 at 01:46 AM JST #