... on the wrong side of the road. I switched hotels yesterday so that I could be closer to work, and because the Marriot at Xin Mei (Union Square) is really set up to be Executive Apartments. Each room is huge, has a little kitchen, but most importantly, has a washer and drier.A few days ago, I had snapped a photo of a sign saying "Xin Mei Union Square Office Tower". I'm not sure why I did it, other than because I had my camera out taking pictures of other
interesting signs. Well, yesterday, it came in very handy. As I picked up my luggage from the bellhop, I asked him to get a cab for me, to Xin Mei, and just in case I was pronouncing it wrong, I showed him my camera with the Chinese characters. That did not seem to help. The Xin Mei office tower and the Marriot next door, are two identical 38 floor towers. I think they are pretty substantial, and the office tower even says "Xin Mei" at the top, but I guess in Shanghai, that's nothing. I tell the taxi driver, "Changsheng Lu", which means Changsheng Rd, but I guess I've butchered the pronunciation so much that he has no idea what I am talking about. Finally, after 3 different bell hops try to help, and some random strangers on the street put in their two cents (er, Yuan) we set off. The driver seems to be going a different way from the way I've gone twice before, but its not like I can explain to him that the best way to go is the take the "Fuxing Rd tunnel". I'm not really sure how to pronounce Fuxing, and I forgotten to learn the word for tunnel.Luckily he seems to know the right way to go, though I'm not so sure that he knows how to drive. At some point, god only knows why, he crosses the double yellow line, and he seems to be rather content to drive the wrong way on the street, with no sign of crossing back. I guess for Shanghai that might be okay, because the light up ahead is red and nobody is coming towards us. And then? Yes, the light changes, and a car is coming right at us. And if we are going 20mph, and so is the other car, then we are approaching at 40mph, which is pretty quickly. And yet, my taxi driver seems entirely unconcerned. I don't know what to shout. I'd like to saying "What the Fuxing are you doing????" Finally, as you have probably guessed since you are reading this, he cuts back across the yellow line, narrowly missing the oncoming car and cutting off the small bus that was traveling just to the right of us.
