Back in BJ

As you know, I am in Beijing at the moment. I arrived last night and took a taxi to get to the hotel from the airport. However, being the idiot that I am, I gave the taxi driver the wrong name for the hotel (I'm staying in a different hotel than the one I normally stay in due to our new hotel policy).

In my defence, it was an easy mistake to make. I gave him the abbreviated name of the hotel. However, it turns out that there is actually a completely different hotel in Beijing whose name just happens to be the same as the abbreviated name of the hotel I am staying in!

Apologies if the above is confusing but there is a reason I am not giving out the hotel name.

Anyway, when we pull up to the wrong hotel, I can see that the name doesn't match up (but that it is similar). At this point, I realise my error and give the taxi driver the correct name for the hotel I am staying in. Luckily for me, the correct hotel is quite close (in fact, its just up the road!).

Unfortunately, the wrong hotel is in a one way slip road (that runs parallel to the main road) so in order to get back on the main road, the driver has to take a large detour down the rest of the slip road. This kind of slip road seems to be quite popular in BJ - especially as there were a couple of restaurants and another hotel on that slip road.

So, as he is driving slowly down this slip road, we pass a guy holding a stack of business cards standing next to the slip road. He holds out a couple of cards to me but I ignore him. Undeterred, he throws the cards into the taxi (the front door window of the taxi was open). Unfortunately for me, this seems to be a common practice in BJ as well. As the taxi slowly went down the slip road, I was assaulted by a constant stream of business cards being thrown into my face!

You may recall that when I was here in March, I had an incident with a madam who accosted me on the street with a business card (And if you can't recall, you can refresh your memory here). Well, it seems that they are all at it!

I am currently the (not so) proud owner of a stack of business cards. On one side is an alluring picture of a young pretty girl with the word "Student!" printed across the top. On the other side, emblazoned in bold text, is a telephone number. In slightly smaller print, it says "You Want beautiful Young chinese girls for Massage and more service... Yes, that's What we have!" (and yes, I am copying that verbatim - capitalisation an' all). Apparently, there are a lot of chinese and russian students in BJ as the chinese and russian style "massage" services are available 24 hours a day.

What can I say - if you are ever in BJ and need a "massage", let me know.



Coincidentally, I will be going for a massage tonight.
:)