Getting Around: Taxis In Beijing

Vivien and I were very lost. We had walked for about twenty minutes from our hotel to the Forbidden City, but there was no Forbidden City to be seen, and we stood at the street corner, wondering where it was. A lady came up to us. One of the things she was carrying was a big bag of peanuts, and I thought she was going to try to sell us some. Instead, when she opened her mouth, it was to ask us for directions to... I think... the subway. We looked at each other... eh, can't you see we're lost tourists but no, the peanut lady looked at us earnestly for answers. And so, in our broken Chinese, we managed to point out the way, because about five minutes earlier, I had my pic taken outside the entrance into the Beijing subway.

Outside the Beijing subway

Somewhere in Beijing... looking for the Palace Museum

aka the Forbidden City

Opposite Tiananmen... how do we get to the other side??

Using the underpass

We finally got directions ourselves to the Forbidden City, and to cut a long story short, when we got there, the queues were so long that we decided against getting tickets to get in, for we didn't have much time. Instead, we bought cheaper tickets for a couple of smaller exhibitions, and one of them was an exhibition on the last emperor.

Crowds outside the Palace Museum

Queues for tickets!

Really long queues for tickets to the Forbidden City!

We decided to see a couple of smaller exhibits.
This was the first one... Puyi, the last emperor of China.

And the second...

Found some emperors standing in a row.

12.45pm - out of Tian'anmen and looking for a taxi to go to the Pearl Market, where all our friends were having lunch at the nearby KFC after another shopping spree. It was quite impossible to get a cab there, and so we walked and walked, and my feet were killing me by that time. We had to find a way to hail a cab. A short little policeman looked helpful enough, and so we asked him. He was very helpful. He was so helpful that he didn't want us to get a cab at all.

We need a cab! But how to get one??

Pearl Market was apparently not very far away, and he said immediately that it wasn't worthwhile getting a taxi to get there, and spoke as if we were crazy or stupid to want one. At first he said we could walk, but we had been walking for the last two hours and didn't want more of that. Then he said we could find a bus there, but we weren't familiar with the bus system and tried to tell him so.

Hah, there's a taxi behind me! But how do we hail it?
Climb over the barrier?

Another out-of-towner wanted to interrupt at this point for some directions (there seemed to be a lot of out-of-towners in the area), but the short little policeman firmly told him to wait... he was attending to us. A young fellow overheard what was going on, and commented that we could take the 106 bus there. And so, we were given directions to walk four or five blocks, and then turn right or left (I'd forgotten which), and then catch Bus number 106 and get off when we see the Pearl Market. The policeman repeated the instructions twice over, using simple words, I supposed, but Vi and I looked at each other, very confused. We didn't want the walk, or the bus. Please lah, we just wanted the fastest and most convenient way to our destination, i.e. a taxi, never mind how 'near' our destination was!

We finally thanked the policeman (he really was very helpful and patient!), walked a little more and to our relief, we found a side road, and managed to get a cab there. It took about 10 minutes (due to the heavy traffic) and cost 13 RMB (S$2.60) to the Pearl Market. How much would we have saved if we'd followed the instructions and got the bus?

I hope, when the 2008 Beijing Olympics comes around on 08-08-2008, that policemen and locals should understand that lost tourists, whether they have already explored the nine hundred and ninety-nine and a half rooms in the Forbidden City or not, have tired feet and they should be directed to where to catch a cab instead of being given confusing bus directions. And that of course taxi fares should remain unchanged.

Lots of traffic in Beijing

Vivien gave me a CD of the pics she took... here's one of our
first meal in Beijing - 17th July lunch at a Muslim Chinese
restaurant with PP, Uncle Robert, Steve and Kara.

We found other people having their lunch under a
tree just opposite Tiananmen

Hmm... excuse me, what's in the trash can?