Lost in Dandong- Taxis

I'm going to break my Dandong trip up into sections so it's not so long...happy Zach? lol. So first thing's first, the taxi drivers there are ridiculous. For one, there is a surplus of taxis and not enough people who need to take a taxi- the city is pretty small so there are not many places you would need to take a taxi to. So anytime Bell and I were walking we would literally have to fend off the taxis by hiding behind parked cars. They would pull up next to us and beep even when we were waving them away. One time a taxi driver tried to push us out of his cab because we were getting our money out too slowly and he spotted some more people who needed a taxi. Unfortunately, another taxi swooped in from the other side of street and nabbed them from him. I'm sure he was cursing us...

The taxi drivers there also don't know where they're going if you give them a street address, they only know landmarks (this is according to an English guy who lives in Dandong). I have never heard of a taxi driver not knowing street names! The streets in Dandong are also numbered 1 ___ road, 2 ____road, 3___ road etc. as you go up South to North and East to West so it's really easy. Our first experience with this was when we were trying to go to a bar, which we had the hotel staff write down an address for. When we gave it to the taxi driver, it was quite evident that he was very puzzled. He drove around for a while and finally stopped in front of a coffee shop. Bell and I were like great...he has no idea!! We told him it was the wrong place, but it seemed like he was insisting that it was the right place so we were about to get out and start from scratch when all of a sudden he looked at the paper again and jetted off. I thought maybe he had had a mental breakthrough....but then a few minutes later we went down a side street and he slowed down to pull up next to this old man burning something foul on the sidewalk. The taxi driver started talking to him and referencing the paper we gave him- I couldn't believe that he was having to ask this man for directions. Well he finally got us to a bar, but it turned out to be a Chinese bar...I'll save that for another post.

Our other notable experience with a taxi driver in Dandong was also trying to get to a bar, but this time we actually had a Chinese person talk to the taxi driver and tell him the address and where to go. They talked for like 5 minutes so I thought all was going to well this time...but no. Keep in mind what I said earlier about the streets being numbered 1,2,3,4 etc. We were trying to get to 8 ___ road and when we got to 4 ____ road the cab driver pulled over, and this time asked some random guy who was working up on a roof for directions. I could not believe my eyes. All we had to do was go 4 more streets and then we would be there. If these taxi drivers did not have their pedestrian GPSs they would be totally lost in Dandong!!!