Kunitzer in China

It's about 40 km (25 mi) from my apartment to work. Lately I've been riding the bus to and from work because the colleague from work that I had been riding with is currently traveling in Germany and because I do not yet have my own car. Even though driving in a car takes only about 35 minutes to get to work while riding the bus takes about 50 minutes, taking the bus each day is starting to seem like a better idea than getting my own car.

First of all, I do not yet have my driving Chinese driving license. And I can't even get my Chinese DL until I get my Chinese residence permit. Fortunately, I expect to get my Chinese RP next week because my visa for entry into China will expire next week - and I don't want to find out what happens if I am here illegally.

Secondly, since I do not yet have my Chinese DL, if I do get my own car I would also need to hire a driver. Seeing the way people drive (and bike and walk) and the streets here (definitely more on this later) hiring a driver seems like a good idea. Doing some research to find the best contract, I found a contract that includes: a brand new car (VW Passat or similar), a 4000 km (2500 mi) monthly allowance, all the gas, all the maintenance and all the insurance - for 8000 Chinese yuan per month. That's $1000 per month just for one car! Even by US standards, that is a lot of money. In addition to that, I would need to pay 30 CNY ($7.50) in highway tolls each day going to and from work. Multiply that by 22 working days each month and there's another $165 per month. In addition to that, I would have to pay OT charges for the driver: 10 CNY per hour for time greater than 8 hours per days on M-F (granted it's only $1.25 per hour but hey, I'm already getting gouged!), 20 CNY ($2.50) per hour for any time worked on Saturday or Sunday, 25 CNY ($3.12) per hour for any time worked on a public holiday, and I would have to pay for the driver's accomodations for any personal travel with overnight stays out of town. Basically I could expect to pay about $1200 per month for M-F travelling to and from work + incidentals around town and I could expect to pay at least $1500 per month if I also used the car/driver on weekends and holidays. That is a helluva lot of money for just one car! Granted, I don't understand all the details of my company's policy regarding benefits for a car, but I do know that the current policy is nowhere near as generous as the previous policy. Of course I need to understand this policy and how it applies to me before I make a decision, but right now it isn't looking so good. Comparing what I know now about the cost of a car/driver to what I know about the cost of public transportation (free shuttle bus rides to/from work, 10 CNY taxi rides around town, 108 CNY train fare for 4 people round trip from Suzhou to Shanghai), it seems like a very attractive financial option.

A third reason to not get a car, even if I were to drive myself, is because it is extremely difficult to find my wy around new streets. I can't read a Chinese street sign, I can't read a Chinese map and I can't just stop at a gas station to ask for directions because the only Chinese I can speak so far is "Ni hao (hello)", "Xie xie (thank you)" and "Pijou (beer)" and the only English most Chinese people know is "How beautiful" or "How lovely" - generally spoken to my girls at least 100 times each day as a lead in to wanting to take a picture of my girls. Fortunately for me, some of the street signs (especially those near where we live) are starting to have Latin letters in addition to Chinese characters. When street signs are written this way, I at least have a fighting chance but it is still very difficult. Take the street I live on for example: Suxiu Road, or in Chinese characters, 苏绣路. I at least have a chance to read it, but trying to say it so a Chinese person can understand me is still next to impossible. I can't just say "Suxiu Road" to somebody because they don't understand the word "Road". The Chinese word for road is "lu" or "jie" or "dadao" or a few others that I still can't remember. So, in order for somebody to understand me, I need to say "Suxiu Lu" eventhough the sign says "Suxiu Road". But even if the sign did say "Suxiu Lu", I can't just say "Suxiu Lu" because I need to use the correct intonation on each syllable. But is that indicated on the street sign? Of course not! Again, using my street as an example, the "su" in "suxiu" could be pronounced "su" or "sù" or "sú" or "sū" or "sŭ". Likewise for the "xiu" in "suxiu". So, for a 2-syllable street name, I only have about a 4% chance of guessing the right combination of intonations, unless I've already heard it and committed it to memory. The other challenge to reading street signs and maps is that my brain is just not trained to recognize the Latin letter combinations used in Chinese. All the words that start with X start to look the same: xiu, xie, xi, xin, xing, xia, xian, xiang, xien, xieng.... And forget about Chinese characters because it's impossible. If i have an address card and try to find that street on a map, I forget what the character looks like just as soon as I look away from the address card and onto the map. So for me to drive myself to someplace new, I say it is next to impossible right now. But for a taxi or a driver, this is no problem. I show them the address card and they take me right where I want to go - almost always. Tuesday night I had to take a taxi home from work because I worked late. I showed the taxi driver my address card and we were off. No problem. We're cruising down the highway at 140 km/hour - not German autobahn speeds, but we were passing everybody and life was good. Until we get within 500m of the exit and he shows no signs of slowing down. So I point my finger at the exit and say "Suzhou!" He looks at me and says "Suzhou?" Again I point to the exit and say "Suzhou!!". Then he points to the exit and says "Suzhou!" and cranks the wheel to cut across 3 lanes of traffic and take the exit. We make it through the toll both and again, I point my finger at the intersection and say "Suzhou!" He looks at me and says "Suzhou?" Again I point to the intersection and say "Suzhou!!". Then he points to the intersection and says "Suzhou!" and we get on the correct road. Since I now know he doesn't really know where he is going, I try to tell him the next place we need to turn and I say "Xian dai shi zi lu kou". He looks at me and says "失败是成功之母?". I make an intersection sign with my hands and again I say "Xian dai shi zi lu kou". Again he looks at me and says "失败是成功之母?". Since we have a few miles to go, I give up until we get closer. I guide him to the lanes we need to stay in and suddenly he points to the left and says "Xian dai da dao!". Then I point to the left and say "Xian dai da dao!" (realizing now what I should have said). The he points to the left and says "Xian dai da dao!!" and we're making a left turn where we need to make a left turn. Finally, it's time for me to get out and we repeat this charade again. I point my finger down and say "OK!" He looks at me and says "OK?" Again I point down and say "OK!!". Then he points down and says "OK!" and pulls over so I can get out. Not a normal taxi ride, but normal enough for here.

And the final reason to not drive myself is because of the truck/bus/car/scooter/bicycle/pedestrian traffic. But I'll save that one for later.