Beijing quicky
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2008
1
23
85
Trip End
Nov 11, 2008
Beijing,
China
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
14/7/08
Arriving at 7.30am I soon settled into the hostel across the road from the station. I decided to walk to Tienanmen Square and was soon surprised at how it had changed since my last visit 3yrs prior. There were more trees and gardens lining the streets. Sign were now also in English. And the drivers, although still rushing, sounded less noisy on the horn.
Beijing center was a nice change from the buildings of HK & Shanghai.
After about 1 hour it was drizzling and I was tired. So I jumped into a taxi. The taxi drivers have not changed. He did not understand the hostel location written in Chinese script
01. Shanghai-Beijing Train
. He was about to call them when I got the map out and pointed to the main railway station. I thought they had to learn a little English ready for Olympics! After a rest and shop for supplies I grabbed another cab who was just as useless. Again providing scripted directions and a map I ended up being kicked out on the main street to find the trans-Mongolian tour operator myself. Some guy on a mo-ped stopped me and asked for directions to the German embassy. 30 seconds I had the answer, 2 blocks that-a-way. How many taxi drivers would he have had to stop to get the same right answer?
Afterwards Sofia (who was in Shangers for weekend) joined me at the Tree, Belgian beer bar. She had the same issue with the taxi drivers. She's not looking forward to a month here using them. And so it was a fitting end to China, trying some new Belgian Beers
with Westerners :-)
