Lesson 2: How to get Home

Trying to get back to our hotel was more challenging than you would think. First, we had to get over the language barrier and communicate where we wanted to go and for how much. We had 5 total that were trying to get home, and considering it was China, we thought it would be ok to fit 5 people in a 4 person cab, but they were having none of it. Not only would we have to take 2 cabs, but they also wanted us to pay 40 块, when we original only payed 10 块. We've been told that they would try to scam westerners, and it is completely true.

After ditching the cab divers, an old man approached us with his "car" or what we dubbed "motorcycle with a box." We didn't know how to say how to get back to our hotel, but we did have a card with our hotel address on it, the only problem was that he couldn't see the card cause he didn't have glasses. So we asked some random person on the street to tell him where to go.

After we clarifying where we needed to go, we had to determine the price. Every time he set a price it changed. It ranged from 10块 to 90块. He would tell us 10块, then when we got in the "car" he would say 90块 under his breath. It was only when he thought he would lose our business that he settled for 10块. 

It was dark and we were going into the vehicle of a strange man, who couldn't understand us, and who we couldn't understand because of his dialect (don't worry mom i'm still pretty sure it was safe). I wasn't too worried, even he closed the door and "locked" it with a bungee cord.

There aren't many traffic rules in China. Most of the communication is through the horn. 2 beeps if your passing, 1 beep to tell someone your about to hit them, 1 long beep if you're annoyed with them.

This thing wasn't the fastest on the road, in fact some people were passing us on bikes. A lot of the main roads in the city are 3 lanes. At some point i looked around us and there were headlights in all directions (including in front of us because we were going the wrong way on a one way road) accompanied by a symphony of horns. We eventually made it home safely after breaking almost every traffic rule. But overall, it was a good time.