User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Common, very common in smaller cities.

You ride unprotected (except for a silly little plastic hat), so compared to bike riding in the West you are exposed to injury, possibly severe injury.

But on the other hand most traffic in China moves quite slowly.

On a scale of 1 - 10 in safety I would give them a 5. (A big slow old bus would get a 10.) In their favour they are ridden by people who do it for a living, and they have a driving licence, unlike most of those people getting around on 电动车。

Which reminds me of an interesting statistic I was given when doing rider education in Sydney - the single largest category of motorbike insurance claim is for bikes falling over in a car park. To elaborate, the physics of a motorbike mean that up to a point they are easier to control the faster they go. At very low speeds they get difficult - the only time I actually dropped mine I was doing about 2 or 3 kph.

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Two comments on the dialogue: 

1. The boss thanks the employee at the end - this contradicts my 'rule' - Chinese people do not usually thank other people who are paid to do something for them, unless they are asked to go right out of their way, do something unusual.  Maybe it is different in Shanghai - a more polite, civilized society?

2. I like the reference to the Bohemian quarter TaiKang Lu even though I have never been there.  The 康 kāng character [jiànkāng de kāng] meaning 'health' or 'healthy' is often used in names. There are several street names in my city featuring this character.  I am wondering if the 泰 tài here refers to the 太 tài meaning, very?  It may mean 'very healthy' or 'extremely healthy' or 'most healthy', or is it a reference to 泰国 (Thailand)?  I would imagine it means extremely healthy.  Anybody know?  Or is the origin lost in history?    

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

They won't arrest you. :) Although that would be one way to see inside of a cell?

The typical response with motorbikes is to take your bike. The bike is usually returned within 24 hrs or so if you pay the fine. However there is some concern that you never get your bike back. Rented bike - I guess that's a whole other story.

Much better (in my opinion) would be to don the little plastic construction helmet and take a motorbike taxi (where available - presumably outside the inner ring road in SH.) But then I actually enjoy riding pillion.

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

The ban usually applies to petrol-engined two wheel vehicles (motorbikes and what we call scooters in Australia) - it does not apply to 电动车. 电动车 have electric motors running off a battery. The rules applying to these will vary from city to city but if you think 'bicycle' you get the idea. They were promoted as a substitute for bicycles so they can be ridden anywhere (although they are not supposed to go on freeways) including going the wrong way on the road and on footpaths. Nasty and unsafe. Environmental benefits are also way over-rated (they often run off coal-fired power plant electricity). In my city there is no requirement for a licence or a helmet; not even an age limit.

The ban does apply in SH, actually most cities these days.

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

They don't have red light cameras?? Even in Kunming people are fussy about red lights because of the cameras.

PS. what bike do you ride?

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

It does not look like a police bike - looks like a recreational bike. These are allegedly not permitted in Shanghai. (I believe they can't be registered, and you can be fined riding in there even if you have a valid registration from another place.) There is a lot of confusing information on the Internet about this. Some say within the inner ring road, some just say 'Shanghai' which does not help much because Shanghai includes a lot of rural living. I hope some knowledgable poddies provide the up-to-date facts.

My experience with other cities is that there is a general ban on motorcycles in inner areas, often interpreted as inside the inner ring road. But for a range of reasons you see some motorbikes in many cities. In some cases these are on legal registration plates ('grandfathered'); in other cases people just take a chance.

So the lesson photo could be legal riding outside the area where bikes are prohibited, or someone taking a chance. A reasonable answer to my question is: 'probably outside the inner ring road'.

PS. You were spot on with those other answers, but I will bow to VW experts on whether it is a Santana or a Jetta.

PPS. I am not sure about the 'D' - I think it may be that AB and D plates are all issued in metropolitan Shanghai (C is Shanghai rural); I was hoping that D is a specific geographic location but I can't get confirmation on the Internet. In all provinces, a different letter of the alphabet corresponds to a different geographic location. Shanghai might be different.

PPPS. The taxi is for hire - the sign folds down when the taxi is occupied.

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

车 让 人 (cars give way to pedestrians). :)

I'm going to disagree slightly and say that in my experience motorbikes are afforded at least as much respect in China as in Australia, but possibly for different reasons. In China if a car hits a motorbike, it is almost certain that compensation will be paid by the car owner, regardless of fault. It's a social status thing. (In parts of Shanghai and BJ it may be different because in these cities you do have some motorbikes as recreation vehicles - elsewhere they are mainly ridden by workers.)

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Jenny - you've let the cat out of the bag for half of my questions (see above). :)

But I would like to know if A, B and D are identifiable regions within the built-up area of Shanghai? (Or is it just a reference to when the taxi was registered?)

Also, is D a region that allows motorbikes, or is this taxi driving outside the area where motorbikes are prohibited?

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Trivia question for poddies - where exactly was the taxi in the photo registered? How can you tell?

Name of taxi company?

Model of Volkswagon? :)

Is the taxi available for hire?

Does the motorbike beside the taxi give you any clue to the taxi's current location?

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent 4

The dialogue was slightly ambiguous but Jason pointed out that it is paid by both the tenant and the landlord and the amount in the dialogue is 35% of one months rent, 35% paid by both, a total of 70%. The arithmetic in the dialogue confirms that both pay 35%, they don't share the 35%. Seems high to me but I have no personal experience. Jason made another comment about 10% going to the agent (presumably the individual rather than the business?) but no, I am not absolutely clear either.