Peking Taxi!!

Warning! This story will make me look a little naive, but i'm going to
share it in the interest of educating future travellers. If you want to laugh, just do it quietly, ok!!

Taking a taxi in a foreign country is always an adventure. In fact, the trip to the hotel from the airport is usually the "first taste" of the local culture. Not only do you get a sense of your surroundings, but you also get a taste of the character and methods of how the locals do business. In my case, upon arriving at Beijing Capital Airport, I got my bags and made my way out to the taxi waiting line. A bit of chaos ensued as I exited the terminal to a throng of people and cars all vying for their spots. As I strode out the exit, a man approaches me and says something in chinese along with the word "Taxi !!". I've seen these people come at you in other airports and they are usually private (more expensive) limo services, so I just looked at him, smiled and shook my head in refusal. He followed me for a few feet trying to convince me to take a "taxi" ride. I just kept shaking my head as I moved to the "official" taxi line. After a few minutes a uniformed official directs me to a waiting taxi -- and there are a LOT of taxis so its a confusing as to where to go. As I walk down the line of taxis, another man who appears to be a taxi driver, approaches me and get me to follow him to another line of parked taxis just across the road. As I follow, he asks me where I need to go, and I reply with my hotel name. He nods and shows me to the car -- at this point i'm getting a little suspicious since this other line of taxis isn't the same as the first one. We get to the car, he promptly opens my door puts my bags in, and then directs me to get in. He shows me a card that said "Beijing Capital Airport Taxi", along with some prices (ranging from 200-380 RMB for a ride to Downtown). I objected immediately because my friend had told me that the ride would cost no more than 100 RMB (~$15 CDN). I tried to explain my concern saying that it shouldn't cost that much. But I don't think he could understand. He just kept pointing me at his meter (which looked pretty authentic) saying "meter, OK? meter, oK?" Since I'm already seated in the car with my bags inside, i reluctantly accept and then we took off (i tried to reassure myself that the price he showed me was a maximum and that i'd pay no more than what the meter said......so i'm sure you all know where this is going)

My suspicion that this was not going to be a "normal" taxi ride started immediately, as we get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on this two-lane country road out of the airport -- meanwhile I look off in the distance to my right and see an express freeway running PARALLEL to the road with traffic moving pretty fast. I ask myself, why the heck aren't we taking that?!?!?! Meanwhile...the meter keeps ticking by... on some stretches we moved one city block in 45 minutes. (Don't good taxi drivers know shortcuts?) Of course the driver remains very polite, yet apologetic throughout the ride. He even offered me a cigarette, but i kindly refused. But of course, he starts smoking....albeit with the window rolled down. Once the meter had passed 100 and it didn't look like we were anywhere close to where the hotel was i knew where this was heading. (But what could i do?) So i just sat and waited, and waited... watching the meter tick by 200, 300, 400...2 hrs later.. he stops at this street corner, gets out and points out the hotel (i found it kind of peculiar how he wouldn't drop me off in FRONT of the hotel). I see the name of the hotel and figure I can just walk the rest of the way, but before I go i have to pay what's on the meter...500 RMB (~$75 CDN). (Ding ding, ding! this taxi driver just hit the jackpot! -- and I can just hear the voices..."You were ripped off!!"). It was pointless to argue, since he couldn't understand a word i was saying. So i get my bags, and checked into the hotel. Later, I met up with my friend at the hotel, and when i told her how much i paid she was in shock. She asked a hotel employee to examine my handwritten receipt. Guess what? It was a fake. (And why not! After all I was in the land of fake Gucci bags and Rolex watches) Turns out the legitimate taxis, give computer printed receipts...and they showed me a sample of one -- noting that a ride from the aiport normally costs about 80 RMB!!! [jaw on floor] I was then told that you should always take the colored striped taxis (usually yellow/green)...mine was a plain burgundy. I was also told that these unscrupulous drivers have a special switch on the side which does something to the meter (like speeding it up by 5!!!).

Sometimes you learn your lessons the hard way, eh? So if you're in Beijing (or any other foreign country) always beware!!! Do your homework before you leave!!

If I could only sleep like this...

On Saturday, Nicole and I went down to Alana and Clayton's house to see their newborn son, Caleb. Since I had a photography assignment due this week, what would be a better subject to photograph than a newborn baby!! As you can see, Caleb was a darn cute baby. He was a natural throughout the entire shoot! I got kinda carried away and took over 150 pics (thank goodness for digital). I picked out my favorites, retouched some of them, and posted them on my Flickr! site. Hope some of you will enjoy!

School's IN!!!

The tribe has spoken. The teachers have voted to go back to work bringing nearly two weeks of strike action...errr...political protest to an end. Thousands of teachers and students will make their way back to school, and even though it may seem like business as usual, the battle may have only just begun. No one came out a winner..not the teachers, not the government, and definately not the students and parents. Many teachers were still unhappy with Vince Ready's recommendations, as they didn't provide any clear guarantees of changes to classroom conditions. However, since many teachers still wanted to go back to work, they held their noses, and reluctanly voted YES. But given how far apart the two sides were before the strike, accepting Vince Ready's recommendations and going back to work was the best thing they could do at this point in time. Staying off the job any longer would probably have meant seeing all that public support going down the drain, and created a huge backlash from parents. Since teachers still have much "negotiating" to do with the government, they needed to maintain public support. Even though Campbell and the rest of his "Dic-tater-tots" (as NL fondly calls them ;-) ) would not provide written guarantees to make changes by next June 2006, it would be political suicide if they renege on their verbal promises -- but of course this is politics after all. The public will now be watching the government closer than ever -- and the government should not expect the teachers and public to blink.

Clearly the government's strategy backfired. They miscalculated the resolve of the BCTF, and thought their illegal job action would be quickly put to an end by the court (I think even the court was a little sympathetic to the teacher's cause). They also thought the other unions would have little support for the BCTF since they also had to live with a wage freeze. It was a flawed strategy from the start, and in what might be a subtle twist of irony to this whole dispute is that while the die-hard union bashers--err..opponents :) will likely feel even more bitterness towards them, Gordon Campbell and his roving sidekick Mike DeJong has succeeded in galvanizing the union solidarity movement in BC - making them stronger than ever... which is good for the 100,000+ other public servants (BCGEU, HEU, etc.) who will have their contracts expiring next spring. Maybe it will be shortlived, but it certainly doesn't bode well for the Liberals if they were expecting to wag their big legislative stick and strong-arm the unions into accepting contracts. Hopefully Campbell has learned his hard lesson, and realize that all you have to do is play fair and just negotiate in good faith. And that's not asking much....

And for those readers still wondering how we got here in the first place, here's a bit of a history lesson.