2/3/2008
-Harbin! The land of magical dreams! Let me keep you updated on the comings and goings of our trip so far:
-First night. We arrived a bit later than expected, partly because of our plane being delayed 40 minutes and partly because we mixed up the time of our flight. We also showed up about a million hours ahead of time to make sure we got through the supposed hellish traffic of Chinese New Year, so there was lots of sitting around. Fortunately I brought my ipod so I was well entertained by watching UNC take out dook on their home floor in 2001. We ended up at Harbin airport around 12:30 am, quickly bundling ourselves up as much as possible before getting off the plane. I was already cold going through the walkway between the plane and the airport, so I knew we were in for some fun.
Before we could even make it out of the airport, a horde of taxi drivers descended upon us. Our group had gotten split up at the baggage claim, so I was trying to find the rest of my friends before any of us got into a taxi. The drivers, however, would have none of it. They were yelling, standing in our way, even grabbing our luggage to “assist” us, trying to make us choose them as our chauffeurs. We found the rest of our group at the exit, but still wanted to get outside and see the cabs before we agreed to anybody’s offer. We had already heard about unregistered taxis in Beijing who try to rip foreigners off. Fortunately, those can be clearly spotted because they don’t have any “Taxi” sign on the top, nor do they have the registration stickers on their windshield and dashboard. They basically look like normal cars. As we were walking towards the cabs, the first group of drivers still wouldn’t leave us alone. A couple actually began pushing us towards their cab, and I literally had to grab my suitcase from them to keep them from taking it for me. We found two cabs that looked legit (at least they looked like the legit ones in Beijing), but I was still nervous at how excited and eager they were to take us for a ride. We had the name of the hotel written in characters on a sheet of paper, so we had to show it to both drivers before either of us could go. The second driver went ahead and put my luggage in the trunk before we had even shown him where we were going. Fortunately, I was relieved to see stickers on his windshield and dash, so I was feeling alright. It was amazing already to see the culture change after leaving Beijing. Dr. Sun had told us to watch out in traveling to Harbin, that the people in the north are “not as nice” as in Beijing. Maybe this is what he was talking about.
Anyways, we’re riding along for about 5 minutes when we get a call from the girls in the other cab. They were making sure our meter was running because their driver hadn’t turned on his and just said “you’re both going the same place, so you’ll pay the same as the others.” Ours was running, so everything seemed okay, but still…that’s a little strange. We realized it was even more strange in a few minutes when our meter had already hit 60 kuai after driving for no more than 10 minutes. An hour-long drive in Beijing only gets up to about 75 kuai. This wasn’t right. We had assumed since he had a meter on that it was legit, but no. He apparently had a faster setting to put it on for the “American” taxi ride. Now it makes sense why each driver was so eager to grab us as their customers. The worst part was we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Even if we had known enough Chinese to argue with him (which we didn’t), we couldn’t really say anything when he had a meter telling us the “correct” price. And if we refused to pay that much, what would he do? We were in the middle of cold Siberia, after midnight, in a town we don’t know whatsoever. Even Beijing seemed safe and sound compared to this place. We realized just how far away from home we were. Fortunately, the driver indeed took us to our hotel, and the price wasn’t TOO bad, at least not nearly as high as we were fearing it would be. 170 kuai for each cab (a little over $20). We could get over that.
Checking into our hotel took a little while, as nobody at the desk spoke any English. Fortunately, Hillary has taken up to 400 level Chinese, so she was able to do most of the talking for us. We were still, however, pretty paranoid that every step we took, somebody was going to rip us off. It was amazing, while waiting in the lobby two different cabs could see us through the glass and stopped outside. I had never felt like such a target. We ended up getting everything straightened out with the room and spent the rest of the night laughing about how everything was going to be a trick. We imagined getting into the shower, only to have a cage fall down around us, requiring money to exit. Our sleep was comfortable if short.
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