Driver picks me up. We’re heading out to the at huge new tech
park, way out beyond the Beida, where Baidu, and Netease and Inspur and Asia
Info have all moved their offices. And
I’ve been there a dozen times. Today the
driver, who is loud, asks me if I prefer to take the GPS or not. I respond that whatever is faster will be
fine. He acknowledges this, loudly and
soon we’re off towards the entrance to the Jing Cheng expressway.
He double checks
with me, seeing if the sixth ring road will be OK? I think for a minute. It will be longer, certainly and more
expensive. But the place is way up north
on the west side anyway. Sure. Yes. The
sixth ring. And he cuts to the opposite
side of the road and enters the other entrance which I don’t normally use.
It’s only been
four or five months since I road this stretch but now, along the east side of
the road, a series of what can only be high speed rail supports has been built
out. Soon this will have a new line
speeding along, presumably up to Chengde and beyond. For now, it just discrete parts that intimate
the rail line yet to come. They’re tall, rising four or five stories up from the ground.
Heavy equipment lies idle along-side this or that section.
Turning west we are
now on the sixth ring road itself. I
don’t recognize these surroundings though I’ve ridden this road, before. We are flying along now doing at least seventy
miles per hour along with all the other traffic. One never gets to drive seventy miles per
hour in Beijing. I consider my seat belt
which I don’t usually put on in the back. Every now and then the loud driver says
something loudly. Happily driving
along. Everyone is driving very fast and
I wonder about everyone’s ability to intelligently anticipate each other’s
moves at this speed.
Finally, I finish
up a call that took too long. I lay back
and close my eyes. And then I awake and
the wrong location, but near to where I am heading.
Wednesday, 04/03/19
No comments:
Post a Comment