How to get from point A to point B in a Taxi with no knowledge of the Chinese language whatsoever.
How am I going to get to the hotel, the restaurant, a bar or even home not being able to speak the Chinese language. And even when you know where you want to go, being able to pronounce it with the right ‘pinyin’ stays a challenge, definitely with all the different dialects. The best way to actually get where you need to be, or at least in the neighborhood, is to show the address to the ‘shufu’ (Taxi-driver).
Most of the time people try to find someone who can write the address down, so that they can show it to a Taxi-driver. But that involves a Taxi-driver, actually knowing where the address is located. Some people use Taxi-Books, small books with plenty of good addresses, both in English and Chinese, all over Chengdu. Moreover it has a Map included, so that Taxi-drivers can easily locate the shown address. And if that doesn’t work, the Taxi-driver can still call your destination, as phone numbers are also available for each address in the book. Not only is this product regularly updated, but it also is available in over 26 cities in the entire country.
And even when you know where you want to go, you still have to find a taxi. In a city with over 4 million inhabitants, and with less then 30.000 Taxi’s, finding a Taxi is a mission, definitely during peek-hours. There always are those tricycles, which are relatively easy to find, but only do short distances and are quite expensive.
One thing is certain; it is a problem that concerns all of us. Like any other country in development, it will take some time before it will change, if it ever does. In the mean time my advice is to use all tools available to make your life easier here.
Sebastiaan Fransen, Management Team
www.taxi-book.com
