Our journey to Harbin was to meet with the 49 World Racers and was not aimed at connecting with or ministering to the Chinese people. So our interactions with the locals were few and for the most part tied to getting around or eating. (We did a LOT of both – GREAT FOOD.)
The Chinese language is hardly a romantic one; even in “friendly” conversations it often sounds like they are angry. So when the taxi driver seemed to wave us off we weren’t deterred. After all he was sitting in front of our hotel with his “For Hire” sign on. We showed him our train ticket and pointed to the name of the station but all he did was raise his voice more and make wilder gestures that were easy to understand as meaning “No”. There being no other taxis around, and with a train to catch, we weren’t giving up.
Chris went back into the hotel and came out a few minutes later with a bellhop who spoke a little English. The bellhop also showed the driver our ticket and after what sounded like a heated argument the driver relented and popped the trunk so we could load our luggage. The bellhop told us the fare should be about 20 Yuan.
We piled in with the intent of dropping Chris off at the hostel the racers were staying at so he could accompany one of the racers who wasn’t feeling well. Clearly the driver didn’t understand the side trip and as he began to turn away from the hostel Chris all but jumped from the moving cab to make his getaway. That left Karen and I with a driver we couldn’t communicate with much at all.
Skeptical, I watched traffic signs and the fare meter and we did indeed seem to be heading for the train station. Traffic near the station was chaotic to say the least. The driver got within about one block, stopped the car, and by his gestures clearly indicated it was time to get out. Since we arrived at about the 20 Yuan fare, we unloaded the luggage ourselves (have I told you yet that we packed way too much stuff?) and started towards the massive station.
Harbin Xian Train Station – But imagine 10x as many people!!!
We were leaving Harbin, heading for Beijing, the day before one of the big Chinese holidays — National Day, somewhat akin to our Independence Day. This turns out to be a big travel day for the Chinese. It seemed like half the population of Harbin was at the station, either leaving or meeting someone arriving there. We searched the information boards but couldn’t find our train. After fighting our way through the crowd we showed our ticket to a policeman. His only response was to point. Away from the station.
We started to head in the direction he pointed but since we seemed to be swimming upstream, against the flow of the crowd, it just felt wrong. We began to ask strangers if anyone spoke English and finally found a taxi driver who said we were at the wrong station but he could take us to the right place for only 100 Yuan! About this time I spotted a sign pointing to the Harbin WEST Train Station. Apparently we were at the EAST station.
I considered walking. Karen wanted to ask for directions. (Where would men be without our women? – Yeah, probably perpetually lost!) I approached another taxi driver and asked him how much to take us to the West Station and he held up four fingers. We loaded up and hopped in.
It seems most of the route to the West Station retraced the route we took to get to the East Station. If the original driver had taken us to the right station in the first place we would have arrived a lot sooner, at the same rate. It’s a good thing we didn’t walk the stretch between the two stations. I’m sure I would have stopped for directions after a few blocks if we had tried.
Harbin West Train Station – MUCH nicer (much more modern!) than the Xian station
It turns out holding up four fingers meant forty and not just four, but it was worth it (forty Yuan amounts to about $7!). We caught up with Chris and the rest of our small party about 30 minutes before we were scheduled to board the train. It seems Chris was a bit worried (ok – I had been too!) about what would happen if we missed the train since we didn’t have a good way to communicate with anyone else. He assumed there would be some sort of punishment for being the first Squad Mentor to lose a set of coaches. I suggested he might instead receive a promotion. In any case we didn’t get to find out. We made the train and the rest, as they say, is history.
Lesson learned: if a taxi driver seems angry or doesn’t want to take you somewhere – take a different taxi!
