I spent part of last summer on a tour of China for idiot Americans who speak no Chinese.
By the time we hit Shanghai we were feeling restless, and knew how to get a taxi back to the hotel (there are these amazing cards in chinese... anyway)...
So we had begun to explore the city in our free time.
This meant taking quite a few taxis. Most of my taxi experience was in London-- which is basically the EXACT opposite of a Chinese taxi.
London Taxi Chinese Taxi
Huge Hearse-like Monster A Ford Festiva is huge next to it
Leather seats One cab had plastic stools
Air conditioning The windows don't even open
Smooth ride Hold on to your hat
Obeys Traffic Laws Actively tries to kill you
And before you decide
I lie about the last one...
Things our cabbies did in China...
- Went three lanes over the lines into oncoming traffic to pass two cars on the left
- Bumped a pedestrian for not getting out of the way fast enough
- Something that got us a ticket (scary moment for a U.S. tourist in china: pulled over by the cops)
- Went down residential alleys at approx 40 mph.. the wrong way
- Played chicken with oncoming semis
- Sideswiped SEVERAL other vehicles
We eventually became the ultimate
tourists--- and started using the
video capture on the camera for the taxi rides.
Next time I go to
China I am SOOO taking lots of taxis.
Way fun in that "I hope I come out of this
alive" way...