As a rule, the more different forms of transportation I can fit into my day, the rad-awesomer (牛B!) it is. I suppose the ultimate day transportation wise was a day in rural Shandong when Zhu and I took a cab which switched us out to another cab halfway through the journey for some reason (passengers of both cars got out and swapped on the side of the highway) then we went to the train station and wanted to take a train, but they were no tickets, so we walked to bus station and bought bus tickets the next day and took a bus to a hotel and then woke up the next morning, cabbed to the long distance bus station bussed it back to Beijing and subwayed to our respective homes. I'm only missing a plane and a boat for that 24 hour period.
Other transportation win: being stranded (well, again not being able to buy train tickets back to Beijing) in Shenyang with my roommate and her boyfriend. No plane tickets either, so with collaborated with someone on a Chinese craiglist to hitch a 8 hour ride in the back of a tiny sedan back to Beijing. This is called 拼车 (pin che) but I don't know why.
Typically, a winning day in Beijing means having a day that requires the subway, bus and a cab. (I should note, cabs in China a cheap and more of a necessity, not a luxury item or rarity like they are in the States). Having subway + cab days is pretty common, as I typically take the subway to get myself close to my destination, then cab the rest of the way. Beijing's subway system is extensive, but the city itself is much more expansive an often times the place I am trying to go is a good 10-15 cab ride away from the most convienent subway stop. (Again, expansive subway system-but going to the closest stop can mean awkward transfers and terribly roundabout routes).
Today was a winning day. Cabbed it to work (okay, this was a luxury cab ride--I was running late because I wanted to have my favorite food-炒肝chao ganr, a garlicly thick consistenced soup/gelatin with liver and intestine-with the fam for breakfast. But it was a Sunday and I was going to work-I deserved to sit). To get home I take a bus to the subway then the subway for two stops.
The whole point of this story is a video that I was on a flatscreen TV that subway cars in Beijing are equipped with. I was told that this occured around the Olympics, so that Chinese would never have a moment where they could possibly miss a minute of Olympic coverage.) Now they play ads, made for subway TV cooking shows and short educational bits featuring Leon the Frog.
I love Leon. He's an adorable little green guy that uses plenty of my favorite Chinese part of speech-modal particles.(wa:哇 la:啦 ma:嘛 o:哦,噢,喔 me:么 lo: 咯 ye:耶) and is always getting into all sorts of trouble and learning life lessons from it. Today's lesson was called: The Temptation of Beautiful Girls.
Leon needs to take a cab. He hails a legal cab, with an ugly driver and high price-13 RMB per km. Then he notices a black cab-the illegal cabs that plague Beijing-which is driven by an elephant with long blonde hair, blush, flutterly eyelashes and a pair shiny pink lips. The price is listed as 5 RMB per km. Naturally, he goes with the "beautiful girl." The screen now shows a map that displays the roundabout and circling route-nearly the final destination but never reaching it. Then we see Leon protesting, at which the beautiful cab driver removes a blonde wig, eyelashes, and make up, reavealing the hideous truth. Then we are told: "Don't get sucked in by beauty, don't talk black cabs!"
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