Rickshaw Rage: Beijing
It was just any old night out in Sanlitun.
My friend and I had been having a quiet drink and catching up on the day’s events.
When we were ready to leave, there was the usual annoyance of bargaining with the cluster of taxis and rickshaws that hung about on the street corner. Many of them were asking for ridiculous prices that some unwitting tourists no doubt would pay.
But not us.
We finally got a rickshaw pedal cab for a sensible price, seated ourselves in the back and set off for home. The driver pedalled away like a champion, pulling our weight up gradients and over rough spots in the road. Although he was quite an old man, he was obviously in good shape from doing this work all day long.
As usual with Beijing drivers, he had no idea where my friend lived and asked for directions. When it dawned on him exactly where we were heading, he got a bit irritated. It must have been further than he anticipated when we agreed on a price.
His irritation grew as he pedalled onwards with my friend directing him. When we arrived at the right street, he gave up and called it a day. Then he turned to me and declared, for no apparent reason, (in Chinese) “wo bu xihuan hei ren” (I don’t like black people). My friend is black, understands Chinese very well, and was the person paying for this rickshaw ride.
Of course she was pissed off. She jumped out of the rickshaw without paying and started walking away. The driver got out, chased after her and started trying to drag her back by the arm. I ran after the pair of them, grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from her, telling him he was ‘tai guo fen le’ (going too far). I told my friend to just pay him but she angrily refused. It was heading out of control and the guy was getting really mad. He went back to his rickshaw, picked up a bike lock and started waving it at us. Luckily some onlookers had gathered at this point.
My friend took out the money and shouted at him ‘ni shuo ni AI hei ren!’ (‘say you LOVE black people’). He simply grunted ‘dui bu qi’ (sorry) and she threw the cash at his feet. We headed home fortunately unscathed and still able to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
