Adventures in Beijing

Love love love going through different cultural experiences while travelling. Technically I'm "Chinese" but having been born and raised in Canada, well, I can't really claim I am truly Chinese. A couple of fun things I have experienced so far :

This morning my taxi driver was awesome. I was riding with my two caucasian coworkers which made it even more fun. THe taxi driver was truly iconic - he rolled down his window and did two things: "Haaaaaccck - too!" - ie bringing up phelm from the throat and spit it out the window. and then taking his pinky finger with extra long nail, picking his nose for goodies and then flicking it out the window to share with the next person in the neighbouring car all the while driving and navigating the car though traffic. His driving skills were madness - weaving in and out between cars, not stopping for cyclists or pedestrians, not allowing any other car in front of him. My coworker really thought he was going to die this morning in that car.

Last night, my coworkers abandoned me at the office. I was stuck in meetings so they told me to meet them for dinner at a restaurant about 2 km away from the office. i figured i could walk it. But a China coworker said, nonono, i will give you a ride to the restaurant since it is on my way home. Great! An escort. We leave the building and he directs me to his .... electric bike - no, not a scooter... a bike with an electric motor. OHH boy. surely it would be rude to say, oh no, i'll just walk or take a taxi....right? Luckily there is a back seat and i am able to fit my big north american bum on it and i'm told to hold onto this small metal handle at the back for dear life. If i had to wrap my arms around his waist, that would have been my limit - taxi! it took a bit of balancing but i made it - a whole 2 km away. I kept imagining that i would lose my balance and tip us both over in the middle of the intersection. i had to concentrate very hard not to do this. My coworker took us diagonally across a very busy intersection too. He brought me to the restaurant safe and sound - it was fun! Too bad i couldn't tape it with my camera. I was holding on with two hands and didn't dare reach into my bag to pull out my cam.