A Taxi Experience in Beijing

As I mentioned earlier, I collect Hard Rock Cafe bears. So while in Beijing, I wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe to get a bear. One of the men on our pre-cruise group in Beijing collects Hard Rock pins so he, my husband, and I decided to take a taxi to the Hard Rock Cafe, purchase our collectibles, and eat there since we knew the food was familiar. The concierge at the hotel gave us a card with the name and the address of the hotel written in Chinese so we wouldn't have any problems getting a taxi back.

We had no problem at all getting to the Hard Rock Cafe where our friend paid the taxi fare. We noted now much it was. When we got ready to go back to the hotel, we got into a taxi that was waiting in front of the cafe and our friend showed him the card given to us by the hotel. My husband and I noticed that the way back didn't look like the way to the cafe and it seemed as if we were going a long way out of the way. When the taxi driver stopped at a strange apartment-looking building that looked nothing like our hotel, we showed him the card again and he reluctantly took us a very long distance back to the correct hotel. The fare was considerably more than the fair going to the restaurant.

As we got out of the taxi, the doorman, a large man with a turban on his head, went to the taxi driver and asked him where we had come from. We explained to him that the driver had taken us to the wrong hotel and then way out of the way. The doorman and the taxi driver got into a very loud shouting match and the result was that we were refunded some of our money. Apparently, the doorman knew of this taxi driver and this is why the taxi driver didn't want to go to our hotel. I'm sure the driver was reported to his company by the doorman, who thankfully looked out for his guests. Anyway, I did get the panda Hard Rock Cafe bear, which sits in a place of honor in my computer room.