Blount: A one-way trip to Tiananmen Square

By RACHEL BLOUNT, Star Tribune

Last update: August 8, 2008 - 2:53 PM

Riding in a taxi can be an adventure in any country. Riding in one with a driver who doesn't speak your language, in a city that changes by the minute? That's extreme territory. But the Chinese eagerness to please surmounted all those barriers Friday in our first cab ride in Beijing.

Jim Souhan and I wanted to explore a bit and check the mood of the city in the hours before the opening ceremonies. The taxi ride to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City was cheap -- about 50 yuan, roughly $8 -- and we had a friendly driver. (We also found out how serious the Chinese are about the new insistence on standing in line, after we witnessed two volunteers chase down a taxi that picked up a pair of queue-skippers. They made them get out of the cab and go to the back of the line.) When we reached the area where we were going, we should have seen trouble coming when several security guards would not allow him to pull over and let us out.

Seems the streets in the area had been shut down. We walked for a while, then tried to get a cab back. Because my Mandarin is limited to hello and thank you, we had our handy-dandy laminated sheets -- kudos, U.S. Olympic Committee -- that have every Olympic destination written in Chinese. Point and go. Except no one wanted to take us back to the Main Press Center.

I stuck a 100-yuan note into my pocket to bribe the next guy who pulled over. He seemed friendly, but we figured out he didn't know how to get there. A man passing by recognized our plight -- and our English -- and was able to translate, as well as provide some directions. We got in and thought we were home free.

We were, with a few stops along the way. When the driver wasn't sure how to proceed, he looked for a cop, pulled over, borrowed our translator card and asked the officer for further direction. Each time, he showed the universal sign for frustration -- pretending to pull his hair -- and laughed. He clearly wasn't upset by the difficult trip. We had somewhere to go, and he was going to get us there.

When he delivered us as close to the MPC as he could, he didn't want to take a tip. I insisted he keep the 100-yuan note for the 51-yuan fare. He earned it. I'd love to thank him by name, but of course, it was written on his taxi card in Mandarin.

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