I have never truly thought about transportation before, I have almost always had a car and when I needed to get somewhere I put the keys in, started it up and off I went. If the distance was too far I took a plane. That was the sum total of my thinking.
Now I find that I spend an inordinate amount of time every day thinking about what kind of transportation I need or want. First there is the strange situation of having a driver. Truly the driver and car are Joe's, but after Daniel (our driver) has taken Joe to work he comes back and I can use him to go about town until about 4:00 when he has to head back out to pick up Joe. But when Joe is out of town on a business trip I can use him as much as I need, he is more or less at my disposal. Hence the problem. He wants and needs overtime work to make as much money as possible. I want and need to ride my bike and walk as much as possible so that I don't become the only ex-pat to gain weight instead of lose it in China! So then I have this constant internal debate in my head about should I use Daniel to drive over to the market, which is literally 4 blocks away, so that he gets the extra time and makes more money? Or should I ride my bike and do what's right for me? What's my obligation to my driver and his ability to make a decent living? BTW - I heard the alarming fact on television a couple weeks ago that the minimum wage in Shanghai 840RMB/month, which is roughly $120/month. Even with the cost of food very cheap for locals, that seems a minuscule amount of money to live on in a city as expensive as Shanghai. I feel a heavy obligation to help my driver make as much money as he can.
So that's the situation with the driver. Then there is the rare time when we don't have our driver, for instance yesterday when he asked for the day off, which we gladly gave him. We wanted to go to a Halloween party at Olivia's school, which is a 25 minute drive away. So we all pile into a taxi. No seatbelts, and a driver who truly believes the objective is to get there as fast as possible and has no hesitation about swerving around trucks, passing on the right on the shoulder, and generally scaring the piss out of westerners. Really, how often do I want to put my kids into a taxi? Not often.
And then there is the traditional mode of transportation, biking. I have mentioned before that I often take Gigi to preschool on my bike in the morning. Unlike many Chinese kids, she sits in a child seat on the back of my bike and wears a helmet. Many kids simply perch on the rack above the back wheel, siting sideways and holding onto their parent or grandparent. And I have only ever seen a handful of helmets on people here, and they were riding mopeds. Anyway, the other day I decided to take note of everything I saw and experienced on my bike on the way home so you could get a sense of using a bike as a mode of transportation. Here goes:
As I pulled out of the compound where Gigi's school is, there is a large lot with construction. The men were sitting on the corner taking a break. As I rode by one yelled out "hullo!". I turned and waved and yelled "Ni hao". This brought on hoots and hollers and laughter from all 15 of the men sitting there.
I rode along in the bike lane with many other people since it was rush hour. While there may not be any old cars in Shanghai, there are LOTS of old bikes. Many rusty and held together by wire. But people who ride bikes in Shanghai all seem to go the same speed, and I rarely see a bike with gears. It's slow-and-steady wins the race around here.
As I'm peddling along a see a man peeing on the side of the road at the wall.
Then I pass a man on a 3 wheel bike who has styrofoam stacked behind him easily 10 feet high and 7-8 feet across, held together by no more than 3 ropes. This is a totally common site in Shanghai, with styrofoam, garbage bags, empty water jugs, etc.
Next, on the sidewalk is what I call the bike drive-thru breakfast. There is a woman with a cart that has a half a barrel drum turned over. Somehow she heats this surface, because on top of the barrel drum she cooks what looks like a huge omelet/crepe concoction. It's eggs, meat, onions, garlic, etc, but spread very thin like a crepe. When it is cooked, she folds it over and over into a sandwich looking thing, puts it in a plastic bag tied at the top, and hands it to the gentleman waiting on his bike. He either ties the bag to his handlebars, or takes the omelette/crepe out and eats it while he rides his bike. A side note-pretty much anything you do in your car on the way to work, people do on their bikes on the way to work, including carpooling, eating breakfast, listening to music, talking on a cell phone, etc.
I continue on through an intersection where I stop literally in the middle with about 30 other people, and then continue on after the row of cars turning left is finished. People are dressed in anything from nice suits to jeans and t-shirts.
As I'm riding along, a gentleman, probably late 30's, rides up next to me and says "hello". Now, as you may remember from earlier posts, I am not the steadiest or best bike rider, although I am getting better. So I turned and smiled and said "ni hao", and then quickly looked back ahead to where I was riding. We are riding in a group of people so concentration is essential for me, and he asks me, in English "going to work?" In Chinglish (some chinese words, some english words), I tell him "no, i take daughter to school. I go home." He smiles and says "Where are you from?" I tell him "meigua (America)" and he grins at me. "You teach English here?" More Chinglish..."no, wo tai tai" which roughly means "no, I am a mrs." Then he says to me "oh, you don't need money?" In all English now, "Uh, I have to turn here." and off I rode down my street. It is a precarious thing to be polite to your country's hosts, but at the same time not want to really engage in a conversation while riding on a bike and trying to recall the little Chinese you do know! And really, he was starting to ask some personal questions!
Last, but not least, I am proud to say that I am no longer a "metro" virgin. Last week I took the subway for the first time and found it to be a clean, very efficient mode of transportation. One I would want to use often if the closest stop wasn't a 15 minute taxi ride away.
Alas, the choices of transportation are many, but the constant thinking about which one I have to use at which time is tiring!
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