Scam Scam Scam Scam

A few days after my first failed attempt at walking through Tiananmen Square, I returned in the daylight hours to finish the job.  Meh.  It is kind of expected that here in China they would build the worlds biggest public space, then fill it up with a bunch of buildings, surround it by fences and armed guards, and then still call it the worlds biggest public space.  Those huge buildings built in the middle of the square to me kind of negate the whole 'public square' thing...  It was incredible to watch all the thousands of tourists though, waving flags and taking photo's with the huge portrait of Chairman Mao hanging in the background!

I might have also had a sour taste in my mouth because after my first time to the square I went and read about all the horrible violence that took place there, specifically in 1989 when hundreds if not thousands of students and protestors were murdered by the government.  It was quite the contradiction to see people holding their only child, laughing and taking photo's waving the Chinese flag, while all I could think of were the dead.

Then I checked out the forbidden city.  Also, thousands and thousands of Chinese tourists being funneled around.  Quite interesting though, the buildings were beautiful.  I took this funny photo of a basketball hoop inside the forbidden city, with a bunch of army personnel marching behind it.

Outside of what Hollywood has taught me, I did not know much about the Forbidden City before I went there, so after about an hour and a half to two hours of walking around I had enough.  The place is huge, and it was REALLY crowded, and my Chinese history is not that good.  One thing that will always stand out in my mind was seeing the morbid room where concubines and queens might off themselves after the death of an emperor.  Ouch, none of that for me please.

As I left the Forbidden City countless girls came up to me, "Where are you from?"  "Want to get coffee?"  "Ah, you are a man and wear earings, so beautiful".  I tried to be nice to all of them but man they got annoying - there is a famous scam where a girl meets a tourist (white male) and shows him around town a little bit, then gets him to go take her to tea, where she orders a three hundred US dollar ancient tea and then mysteriously disappears when the bill comes.  Obviously working for the teahouses, its a dirty little scam because all it does is prevent people from chatting with people who might be genuine...

After escaping all of the harpy's, I was walking from the north side of the forbidden city to the south side when a old man asked if I wanted a ride in his pedicab.  He said, 30 RMB, $5?  Ok sure man, no problem.  He was like 60 years old, and looked honest enough.  So I jumped in seat, and he immediately drove me into the middle of a busy intersection, where he immediately jumped off the bike and a young guy jumped on the bike and started peddaling.  Oh god, here we go.  Should have just jumped out.

This dude drove me out into the middle of a Hutong, in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go.  He drove me for about 5 minutes, and chatted, and he was kind of nice.  Then pulled over in the middle of an alley and said "okay now pay me."  He pulled a pamphlet out of his pocket that said "Pedicab Tour - $300 RMB".  That is $50!  HECK NO, so I fought with him for a long time and eventually he told me that for 100 RMB he would take me the rest of the way to the subway.  I gave him 20RMB and said "Thanks for cheating me" and then I stomped off.

Around the corner, take a left, go straight, another turn, oh crap where am I.

Eventually I found a main road, and could ask where the "D" is, the subway.  Then it was just a matter of transferring some subways and I got back to where I wanted to be.

In every travel book I read they focus on the nostalgia of this old transportation method,   talk about how it is such a shame that the pedicabs do not get used much any more, and that it is an outdated form of transport.  Let me give you some truth though.  If those chumps were not ripping off every person that is not Chinese, then maybe they would have some work still.  I tell you, I will not ever take one ever again, and I will look at every pedicab driver as a cheat from now on, even though I know that is a immature outlook.

Combine this with the fact that it is nearly impossible to get a taxi in Beijing, and you start to see why the subway, although claustrophobic is such an effective method of transport.  Taxi's... well, I will give you a few facts about them and you can imagine for yourself why they are so difficult to use.

1. Not a single one speaks English at all (in my experience thus far).
2. Government sets cab rate, super low, so they are ridiculously cheap.  They actually lose money on gas if you have to go across town in traffic.
3. Dinner break from 5-6
4. Lunch break at some random time
5. Beijing is massive, population of above 22 million people.

I finally caught a taxi the other day back from a band rehearsal with my friend Heather and then we got rear ended.  I could not believe it - so the cab driver and the people driving the Mercedes behind us got into a big screaming match.  Chinese people screaming at each other?  Mucho scary - so I reached forward while they were fighting, popped the trunk, thank god my gear was okay, then walked from the middle of the freeway to the side of the road, and walked the rest of the way home.
This is why I love the subway!

SPICY!
M