Eric's Beijing Diary

Transportation. I am thinking specifically about inner city transportation now. I live and work on campus, so transportation to work is not an issue, but life is more than just going to work--somehow you have to be able to get about. There are four primary means of transportation for getting around the city. They are the Beijing Subway System, the city busses, taxis, and finally a bicycle. I will deal with the subway system first, because it is really in a class by itself.

The primary subway line (Line 2) is a circle around the city. If you look at the station names, you will see that many of them end with "men." "Men" means "gate." So the stops on Line 2 are located at the sites of the primary gates of the old city wall. But if you look at a city map of Beijing, you will see very quickly that the city of Beijing has grown quite a bit beyond the original size of the city. So while the subway system is great for getting around the city center, there are many parts of the city that are not covered. I live in the upper west side, which is the university district. Thanks to the light rail (above ground) extension to the subway system, I can get on the subway in Wudaokou, which is ten minutes from the North Gate where I live. So if I am going to the city center, the subway is definitely the best way to do it. Very cheap and very convenient.

But I am not always going to the city center. In fact, most of the time I am not going to the city center. Most of my life centers around the Haidian District, so I will talk about the remaining three modes of transportation in terms of that dynamic. The first issue I will address is language. Busses require the highest level of language proficiency. The bus system in Beijing is pretty good. I was not really surprised by this, because I grew up in Asia, and mass transit tends to be much better in Asia than in America. But while the bus system is pretty good, all the place names are in Chinese. So I really cannot use it exhaustively. But I am learning the bus system slowly, mainly by taking rides with other people. If you happen to know the name of the stop you are going to, and the specific bus number, the bus system is pretty handy. Friends I have who use the busses extensively are pretty good at reading the online bus schedules, and they use busses everywhere they go. My use of busses is slowly increasing as I learn the routes.

Next to busses would be taxis (again, in terms of required language proficiency). With taxis, you don't need to be able to read bus signs and know the names of the bus stops, but you do need to be able to tell the driver where you are going, and those guys do not speak English. I really wish my Chinese were better, because most taxi drivers that I have met are pretty nice guys. If I am going to meet someone, or going to some function taking place at a certain location, I always try to find out how to say the name of that location in Chinese. I remember one time I was going to a home fellowship with some foreigners. The guy I called for directions was trying to explain to me what landmarks to look for, where to turn left or right, etc. His instructions were sincere, but useless. I don't have a car, and I wasn't going to be driving. I asked him how to pronounce the name of the place in Chinese. That really is all the information you need, although it certainly doesn't hurt to know the general location. When I first came to Beijing, an American businessman I met at BICF showed me a card with the Chinese names for key locations written in Chinese. Clever, but if I had a card like that, I would burn it. I live here. I really do need to learn the names of places. Now, if I am traveling, and I am staying in a distant city, then I will sometimes take the business card of the motel with me, so that I can always get back. But in the long term, this is no way to live. You've got to be able to speak Chinese at least enough to inform the driver as to your desired destination. There is one way to get around this. A while back, I was going to someone's house, and I knew the general direction, but did not know the actual location. When I got in the taxi, I called my friend, asked for specific directions.

"Never mind. Give your phone to the driver."

Bicycles require the lowest level of language proficiency. You don't need to know bus stops or transfer points, and you don't need to know the Chinese names of places you are going to. But your sense of direction has to be a little better. You have to find your way there. You can buy a basic tourist map at the bookstore for 8 kuai, and that will take care of helping you find where you are going. The layout of Beijing is pretty simple.

But there is an additional benefit to riding a bicycle. Sometimes, I get up on a Saturday morning, and I just want to tour the city. Not easy to do with a bus, and too limited with a subway. But I can get on my bike and be at the park near the city center within about 45 minutes. Beijing is well laid out, all major streets have wide bicycle lanes, and the weather is usually dry. There are only two or three days during the year that I cannot ride a bicycle.