After breakfast, I prepared myself for the day and ... wrestled once again with ...
The Issue of Chinese Taxis.
This has been going on my entire time here. It started at the Beijing airport, where we didn't get a taxi large enough for Ellen, Bob, myself, our stuff, and our interpreter Zheng. So ... logically ... I was thrown into a taxi by myself! And I got myself to the hotel (which is a miracle, since my Chinese knowledge makes my Hungarian look positively fluent).
On another day, Ellen was in a taxi heading back from string-sectional coaching, and the taxi dinged the one in front of her. They just kept going. No stopping and exchanging information.
The days that followed were a myriad of taxi-stories. Couldn't find one in the morning (Beijing traffic is something of a nightmare). Couldn't get one immediately before our concert (that was a near-DISASTER because we really needed to get to the hall!). And had it not been for a miracle, chance encounter that we had with a visiting violin professor from the UK (thank you ML!!!), Ellen and I would have been late to our Friday master class in Beijing. Getting a taxi near Tiananmen Square (where we were staying) is simply near impossible. And we did end up getting to the hall in time for the concert, but we had to find a sleeping cabbie, wake him up, explain to him (in our "Chinese") and pay 5 times the amount you would normally pay to get to the hall.
Shanghai was better (I had learned how to use the metro by then, as I can now read Chinese calligraphy for metro-stop names, the sign for "road," and the sign for "exit"). But we were close enough to walk everywhere, so that wasn't so much of an issue.
And today, I had practice-time arranged at the Nordica Art Gallery (more about that incredible place in another post!). The taxi was to have arrived for me at 9:15 AM. By 9:35, still no taxi for me, so I made the bellhop flag one down for me. He proceded to get lost.
I should also mention that things like U-turns and just deciding "Oh, I should turn around here" are very -- well, spur-of-the-moment. Aside from the rickshaw ride in Beijing our first full day there, my favorite taxi moment of the trip so far was this evening.
(At this point, it is necessary for me to explain currency and cab fare norms):
about 6¥ = 1$
Cab rides within a part of the city where it is too far to walk, or you are carrying flowers and a viola, etc., can cost you about 18¥ (about 3.00$). That's not too bad. Even our black-martet-cab-ride the night of the Beijing recital cost ¥100, or less than $20.00 (I dare say, a standard fare in NYC).
Now, in Kunming, since the city has grown far faster than the roads or metro (which they are building) can accomodate, traffic and taxi-negotiations are ridiculous. So, our friend Mari, our original inspiration and invitation for this entire tour, had figured out something ingenious and hilarious.
For the cost of ¥35 (about $6.00 US), you and four of your closest friends (all included in the price) can be taken around the city, to your destination, in a bread truck. No haggling, no waiting to flag down a cab.
However, the driver can reserve the right to make a bread delivery on the way to driving you to play for 300 children. And no, I'm not making this up. This actually happened. Today.
The picture is at the Nordica Art Gallery, where I practiced today after an anxiety-filled taxi ride.
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