Also Had His Vittles

Cab driver rang the bell a few times. That usually shows a bit of spirit.  Could also mean he’s a dick.  I’d called for a ride a few minutes back and he came quickly.  Socks slipped on.  Shoes next.  Stuffed a novel into my backpack and headed out.  “Are you from around here?”  He was and so he’d understand that we’d need to go right and get on to Gao Bai Lu.  But first, “go left and do a “u” turn at the entrance.  I need to go to an ATM.”  I take my bag and head up the steps and instinctively consider how easy it would be to just keep walking and leave him there.  But I have no intention of doing that and he doesn’t seem to worry that I would either. We both know I really am going to do what I said I’d do.   Somehow I imagine it wouldn’t be acceptable to do this in Manhattan.  Perhaps I’m wrong. 

I returned to find the young guard berating the driver waiting there for me.  Too close he was, to the guard’s front gate.  I shooed the young man away.  Inside I explained where we needed to go and he headed off, confidently.  I offered but he didn’t want to look at the Baidu map I had open.  He knew where Huawei was in Haidian.  I got lost into a first and then a second phone call and before I knew it we were circling around the near Tsinghua University, pulling up to a curb side.  I’d known we were heading to “Haidian” in general but the map I’d earlier considered had us out much further west than this. My eleven o’clock appointment on the other end of the line confirmed to the driver. “Five more minutes?” I asked as we left Tsinghua.  “No.  More like fifteen.”

Huawei has an enormous campus out here near Wen Quan Zhen, way beyond the Summer Palace, close to the sixth ring road and the western mountains.  This must represent quite a commute for some of these young employees.  If you were committed to the company, I suppose you could find something affordable out here but anywhere else in the city and it would take many hours to get to and from here.  To the city (and perhaps Huawei’s) credit though, there is a subway line that extends all the way out here, which I noticed driving around.   The guard doesn’t stop us from entering.  Security seems a whole lot less strict than in headquarters, down in Shenzhen.  I suggest my cabbie go get some lunch and then take me back home, which seems as sensible to him as it does to me.

Meeting done, belly full, I return my admittance card and thank my host once again for lunch.  My cab is stuck at the main gate.  The guard wouldn’t allow him to enter this time.  I check and the cab driver also had his vittles.  He’s happy as these are two sizable fares in a row and now we don’t have any issues with where to go.  He lives not far from where he picked me up.  On the way out I notice a large, faux chateau that must have been built by the company to impress someone.  It does not look warm or especially inviting.

Wednesday, 02/15/17