What Begins and Ends with a Car Accident?

Answer: Our Beijing weekend.

Our first accident happened on the way to the train station. It’s nearby but because of construction, the driver had to take a detour. We weren’t in a hurry because we left early but I wish I could say the same for our taxi driver. He dodged in and out of traffic like a maniac and drove on a sidewalk because the traffic on the road had stopped. This was fine if I closed my eyes until he tried to move ahead in stopped traffic. He tried to squeeze into an opening at the same time as another taxi and ended up losing his passenger side mirror. Still ok until he turned off the engine. Here we were, stopped in an unfamiliar area of town and quickly running out of time to meet the train. Luckily, we knew we were near and he motioned the direction we should walk. We also had my flashcard from the last time we took the train so Don showed it along the way to make sure we were heading in the right direction. It was a short walk to the familiar train station and we got on the train as soon as we walked in. In retrospect, it was actually good that he got into the accident. With the traffic jam, had we not walked, we might have missed the train even though we were only a few minutes from the train station.

We took the fast train to Beijing and enjoyed first class comfort. This sounds better than it actually was. The train tickets were about $30 each and only slightly more than the 2^nd class option. The only difference is wider seats and a little bit more attention from the attendants. We arrived in just over 3 hours.

The next part of our adventure was making our way to the hotel. But first, we had to buy our return tickets since the system is such that you can only buy the return ticket when you get to your destination. I have yet to find a good reason for this and it makes things challenging to say the least. We managed to do it with a bit of frustration and then we found our way to the taxi stand, here is what we were met with.

It was intimidating to see the long lineup but I guess they are very used to it because there was a very efficient process in place. There were people orchestrating the orderly taxi dance. A large group of taxis would drive up very quickly, passengers would hop in, the taxis would take off and then the scene would be replayed. The lineup moved quickly and we were in a taxi in no time.

I had come prepared with the Chinese characters for the hotel and the address so we were on our way into Beijing quickly. Our first view of Beijing was in the late evening and the large brightly lit buildings were impressive. Our taxi driver got us to the general vicinity of our hotel and then was a bit lost. He stopped on a quiet street just off the main road to recheck our directions. Fortunately, I had studied the hotel name and actually saw it across the street from where we stopped. He couldn’t see it cause the sign wasn’t lit up. Mental note: learn to give directions to taxi drivers, at least “go straight”, “turn left / right” and “stop here”.

We went to Beijing to attend a foreigner job fair. We had planned to go a month ago and then in the meantime we were offered jobs in two different cities. We decided to go as planned as an excuse to go to Beijing and to see if we might see other opportunities.

Here is an idea of what a job fair might look like for our students and here was ours.

It was more packed than this but I took this with my cellphone during lunch. There weren’t that many employers really but the event was held in a relatively small room so it made it feel busy. The lanes where we walked were close together and so were the booths for the employers.

Sam, our friend from the school, was also there to try to recruit replacements for us. The booth was decorated with some nice big photos of the foreign teachers. We noticed pictures of Don and I as well as a really large photo of Don’s teaching award.

After talking to a few potential employers, we went back at lunch to check on Sam and that was the last I saw of Don for the day. He started talking to interested applicants and soon became a recruiter. To keep myself busy, I wandered around and met some Mexican Spanish teachers. I had met one of them earlier and when I saw a group of them talking I couldn’t resist joining them just to listen. Spanish is music to my ears! It turns out that I hadn’t forgotten as much as I thought since I could still follow the conversation. They were frustrated at the lack of opportunities to teach Spanish here and that many employers want native speakers. After that, I went to chat with a Chinese language school to see what my options were to learn quickly. I picked up some English publications aimed at foreigners living in Beijing. It was such a pleasure to talk English to everyone and anyone. Since the job fair was held at a 5 star hotel, all of the staff spoke English.

We left the job fair a bit early to take a tour of the school that had offered us a job. They sent a car to pick us up and after a 40 minute drive, we were given a tour of the city and the school. We were treated to dinner with the boss and one of the teachers and had a very pleasant visit.

Day 2 in Beijing – A whirlwind tour

After a fantastic Dim Sum breakfast where we got to meet the head chef from Hong Kong , we started at the geographic centre of Beijing, Tiananmen Square. We met an “art student” who wanted to practice his English and to show us his work at an exhibition right next to the Forbidden City. Sounds good. I say “art student” because we’re still not sure if it was a well-known scam. Of course, we didn’t read about it till after we came home. Never mind, it makes for a good story. Here he is at work making us a piece of art. He is writing the Chinese character for “love” and writing our names in Chinese under it. Small price to pay for this souvenir.

We also got in some shopping. The photo of me at the beginning shows that we visited a famous shopping street. Well, window shopping really. We ended up at a Western style mall with designer brands so all I could do was window shop while Don took it easy at a café. It’s strangely comforting to see familiar brands.

The other nice thing is that it smelled nice. Wearing fragrance is not yet popular in Jinan but walking through the mall I realized that people were wearing fragrance. Now you might not think this to be a big deal but you really have to live the toilet experience in China to appreciate places that smell nice. Enough said. Sadly, I have yet to tap into affordable shopping here. I need to come back.

We arrived back in Jinan late and had the most frustrating experience with the taxi driver so far in our entire time in China. Coming in late, after the buses have stopped running, is apparently just begging to be ripped off – Chinese and foreigners alike. The driver refused to put the meter on and asked for a higher price than it should be. Even though we were on our way, we demanded to be let out. I was really angry but had no Chinese to express it so I ended up channeling my anger into simple English words he might understand. I called him a “bad man” as I got out of his cab! We finally got into a cab that agreed to use the meter. Unfortunately, we were rear ended by another cab before he delivered us to the wrong gate despite our very clear instructions, which were backed up by our address in Chinese. I am grateful that the other cab was not going fast since there was just a light tap. I was not a joy to be around that evening though, ask Don. I am happy to report though that our taxi experiences have taken a more humourous tinge now since I’ve told this story numerous times to amused students.