We live in the suburbs of Beijing, about 30-45 minutes from the central city. Our kids' school is out here, as are lots of lovely people, a neighborhood where the kids can safely bike and walk and a nice array of shopping and restaurants. We are also closer to the wall here than folks in the city. That said, we do live in a serious expat bubble. Most of our fellow compound residents are European or American as well. So, there isn't a ton of real, authentic Chinese culture here. The grocery stores here cater to the ex-pats, as do the shops and restaurants. Finding an actual Chinese restaurant near the house is amazingly difficult. To experience "real" Chinese culture, you have to leave the bubble and go to "real" Beijing.
Since we have no car at the moment, that means we have to take a cab into the city. Beijing cabs are a tricky business and well-deserving of a separate blog post of their very own. Our situation is even trickier because it is actually illegal for all 5 of us to go in one cab. There are cameras everywhere that photograph the drivers on the highways -- and then issue traffic tickets. So, cab drivers generally will not break the law and let us ride in one cab. Even if one of us is a "baby" (yes, I know she is almost six). So, now you are up to a cost of at least $20-25 each way for our family of five to get into the city. Plus, you get the added joy of the fact that the cab drivers appear to not communicate with each other even when they are all called at once by our housing compound staff and seem to have a chat beforehand. So, they might, you know, do something fun like drop one set of us off at the South Gate of the Forbidden City and the other set at the West gate. Just to test our navigation skills. Which doesn't sound that bad until you see the Forbidden City and how very, very vast and crowded the entire place is. We were fine, really, but I digress...Hotels here do not want more than 2-3 people in a room. Train cars don't hold more than 4 people either. I mean, a family of 4 here in China would be a very large family. I'm somewhat used to five being an awkward number. In America, the world is definitely geared towards families of 4. That is the size that fits in most hotel rooms, that most package deals are aimed at, etc. But China definitely takes a slight travel complication to a whole other level. Family deals here? They mean 3 people. Our (borrowed) tuk tuk? Why yes, it holds 3 people! Or 5 if you are really, um, creative.
Beijing does have an expansive, inexpensive metro system. But it takes about 2 hours to go from downtown to our suburb. We did it once. With all of the tired, exhausted cranky kids. The best part is that it isn't the time on the trains that takes so long. That would probably be fine once we go everyone settled into place. It is the fact that to transfer between stations from one line to another, you have to hike about 2 miles winding around and around and up and down. With kids complaining about how tired they are and very heavy 5 year olds demanding to be picked up and carried. Or sitting down and refusing to go any further. We do use it to get around while inside the city proper and really have no serious complaints. It cost about 20 cents a person for unlimited transfers. I think they are more modern than the DC metro. And somebody has offered Violet a seat pretty much every time we ride. Thank goodness because otherwise she spends a lot of time pretending to be a cat. This means you crawl about on the floor of the metro (where you can see pools of spit everywhere) and act like you might lick the legs of other passengers.
We do hope that we can problem solve some other workable solutions. Especially once our car arrives. I'm guessing the solution might be that we will end up utilizing a combination of driving and public transportation. In the meantime, we get to continue playing the Beijing Taxi Roulette game. Will one pick us all up, will they take us to the 'burbs, will the seat belts work?! Stay tuned....
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