Arrival in Jinan

My arrival in Jinan was tough, after a great train ride. The cab drivers at the station were incredibly pushy, trying to convince me that they would take me to a very close hotel. I can’t believe that actually ever works. I thought there might be a couple right here by the station, so I walked around a little bit, with a one driver after another grabbing my arm, speaking to me in a mixture of Chinese and God knows what, and saying it was only five minutes away. I had to walk this gauntlet again when I failed to find anything here in the square other than the one hotel that looked a little too nice for my budget. It was very late, and I know that the Jinan East station is close to the provincial library, so I decided to stay here.

Turns out the place is totally swank, recently remodeled (or perhaps even recently built) and I’ve got a king size bed, fancy shower, and a view for 160 RMB. That’s $20 for those of you keeping track.

This morning it was back to the cab drivers, who basically caused me to lose my patience for the first time in China. None of the 6 people standing right outside the station would admit to being a cab driver after I told them where I wanted to go. There was another little group a little further away. They wanted to barter, and started at 50RMB. I told them “You are a taxi. You have a meter. Use the meter.” They didn’t want anything to do with me. For the first time I actually found myself swearing at someone in English. Catching myself, I said “I will take the bus.” If I knew more Chinese I would have leaned my head in the window and grabbed a license number and threaten them with calling the police (I hear that’s a really good bargaining tactic, but since we weren’t haggling it probably wouldn’t have worked.

So the bus got me where I wanted to go for 1RMB (I did walk a little bit, because when I first read a bus stop schedule I read it backwards and got confused). I took a cab back to the hotel for 7. Jerks.