Bullet Taxi

ATM is out of money

We went to Beijing one day. We spent another day in Tianjin. Adventure going on at every junction – find the local bus, buying tickets for the LRT, using the subway in Beijing, the bullet train on the way there. When we arrived home last night, Greg said, well, I have heard of a bullet train, but never a bullet taxi. I knew that the person who was driving did not speak English or I would have been alerting him to the fact that I only like to drive the speed limit. Seventy-two years old and finally I get the thrill of driving 140 mph, going through 3 red lights, and hearing someone lay on the horn at uncontrolled intersections to let people know we were coming through. I had enough adrenalin to keep me awake all night. As Greg said ... a bullet taxi.

We are travelling with older people, believe it or not. An Australian couple, 78 and 74 who can keep up with us ... probably out of fear of being lost. At the market she kept checking to see if her husband was lost. I told her – no, that is his job, to keep you in sight. Your job is to shop. She just grabbed onto my arm tightly and said, I don’t know if I can do that.

... port ... 3 hours away from Beijing ... and 3 hours back ...

I can’t even get to what I want to talk about today – going on side trips with so much happening. But twice we have been really lost and Wyona finds young Chinese students, who want to practise their English.

That is what happened in Citizen Square. She asked them if they could point us in the direction of a local market – just put us in a taxi. She said to them, since we are white, taxi drivers take advantage of us with their fares. And on the street we had seen some Chinese people turned down by a taxi driver. So this woman checked the taxi’s – they, too, have travel restrictions, and sometimes can drive where we wanted to go? They can’t go across that bridge, she said, but you can walk across and get a ride on the other side. “Do you mind a put-put?” There we were – just dying to get into one of those fringed vehicles, and when I got dropped off I turned with wide eyes to Wyona and she gave me back the same look. In three hours we only did two short blocks of a market that needs a week to travel down its streets. We agreed the best market in the world. At least in my world.

Arta