Notes From Beijing: Where To?

I hate tourist websites. They never, ever tell you what you need to know.

There are lots and lots of resources for Beijing and other large cities in China that will help you set up a travel package. Unfortunately, there is next to nothing set up to guide you around the city on your own. You see, there is one serious flaw present in almost every website I checked that makes independent travel nearly impossible. They don't have characters.

At first brush, this makes sense. After all, most people who come to Beijing can't read Chinese, even if they can speak it. Why include the characters then? For the cab drivers. None of the cabbies I met had much of a grasp on pinyin, so the characters are essential to getting around.

Case in point: When I booked my hotel, I only took down the pinyin. I knew I'd regret that and I did. Since I didn't have the tone markers (which are also omitted on most tourism websites), I had no real way to communicate my destination to the driver. I ended up having to call someone who could translate. So I guess my advice is: Always get the characters. Find someone who will help you - the better hotels always have a few members on staff who can speak English. Another tip: When going to a restaurant or shop, get the name of the street in addition to the name of the building. The cabbies may not know the buildings as well as the streets. But guess what? The tourist sites don't usually list addresses. This is why I hate tourist websites.

Onto the cabs themselves. There's no major difference between the cabs here and there aside from the price. Cab rides, like everything else, are more expensive in Beijing. The difference isn't huge, though, and shouldn't damage your pocketbook unless you're making lots of short trips. Before you take off, be sure the driver knows where you want to go. If he seems unsure, get out or you'll just be wasting your time and money.

Traffic in Beijing is definitely more familiar. The streets are more orderly than those in this city, and there are fewer crazy drivers. That includes the taxis, which are positively sedate compared to...well, anywhere else I've been, really. This gave me an opportunity to confirm my theory that the best cabbies are also the craziest. The guy who drove me back to my apartment may have given me half a stroke, but boy howdy, he made it to the apartment in due time. The Beijing cabbies have a weird habit of stopping a short distance away from wherever I directed them. When I was headed back to the train station, the driver let me off about a block away for some reason. A minor annoyance, though an annoyance nevertheless.