The New Beachhutman Blog

One of the things the old Beijing hand has to do, and I am not an old Beijing hand, having been here about 20 months, is to leap into a trapped (see earlier postings) cab and after "Ni Hao!" give the address clearly in Chinese instead of thrusting a piece of paper with the characters on it at the driver. Regular readers will have followed my experiences with "The 200 tones of Poly Dasha", but of late I have taken to riding in the front (DEATH SEAT) and engaging in VERY minimal chat with drivers.

So it was that the otehr day I lept into a cab outside the apartments, and cried "Ni Hao! Du Bar Hoo Ton'g" and he nodded assent, and off we went. At some point there was a brief exchange along the lines of "Do you want to go through all that bloody chaos on Chaoyangmen Dajie, or can I cut up to ChaoyangBeilu, which is faster?" and I opted for ChaoyangBeilu West bound, and I nodded the nod of a total dork to a local cabbie, but it was fine.

As we passed the bus station there was an incident involving a driver at right angles to three lanes of traffic, and we made "What a bloody idiot" noises at each other, and chuckled (me) and made gestures (he) and we headed on west, at which point I said "Chaoyangmen Xiao!" to him, and he made, "Yeah, look, I been driving here 10 years? I know?" noises at me.

And as we crossed the bridge I pointed, and he tutted, but I still said "Fu-lu!" and "Yow!" and he inclined his head and entered the side road and turned right into Du Bar Hoo Ton'g, where I said "Jie Shi!" excitedly, and pointed to "Shin Baoli Dasha!" up ahead. As we arrived at the building he made the universaal Beijing cabbie gesture for "Shall I take you inside the compound?" and I thought, "Hey what the hell, why not?", so muttered "Shur, Shur" and "Haola"

As he dropped me at the foyer I said "mmmph... san shi wu kuia !", and he took 35 Kuai instead of the 31 on the meter, and said to me ............

"Last time I dropped you on the street.... Now I know where you work! See you tomorrow" 

And I said, "Yeah, duh, sorry, but my Chinese ..... you know?" and shrugged a lot, and smiled stupid, and said "Thanks" and "Bye Bye"........ and slunk off to the building in hideous embarrassment.

Beiing cabbies. A breed apart.