Guangzhou Tuesday 11-8-11

Guangzhou Tuesday 11-8-11
　
Carrefour grocery store is the French owned version of Wal-Mart. We decided to catch a cab today to buy some supplies. The drizzly rain wasn’t stopping us. And neither was the first cab we got into at the hotel when the cabbie held up a sign saying “reserved” and we had to get out. Didn’t think to much about it at the time but later realized this should have been a sign. Our hotel found us another cab and we were off. Carrefour is only about 3km up the road but way to far and dangerous for us to walk with 2 littles. We didn’t want to have to keep up with the strollers so Jewel was in the Boba and Joseph was in the “hip hammock” with D. Shopping was fun. I did limit the shopping to only one bag since we had to get it back to the hotel. But then….. Walking out to the street in the drizzle D tried to get a taxi. Hum. The cabs wouldn’t stop. Well maybe they were full? Most of them did have passengers already. Then we noticed the empty taxis did stop in a different area so D moved over there. And the few empty taxis started stopping where he had been. ??? So back to the first location. No cabs stopping. Its raining harder now and there are less empty cabs and more Chinese people coming out of the store and even they are having to wait several minutes. We regrouped and tried two different waiting places with half the group each. Thinking maybe they didn’t want to stop for such a large group? No. Upon further reflection the bellman had said something quietly about the taxi not wanting to take us since it was a short trip, 10Yuan. But they weren’t even stopping to see where we needed to go. That’s right. Our first experience with direct racism. We have been so privileged in our lives not to have dealt with this before. After probably 30 minutes D got one taxi to finally stop and when he heard when we needed to go he closed his door and drove off. More waiting in the rain. When I was waiting by myself with Jewel in the Boba one stopped and I showed him a 50 Yuan and got in waving frantically for everyone else to come. He tried to say no and I just showed him the 50 again and wouldn’t get out. ADVICE Carrefour is to close to Holiday Inn Shifu to get a taxi in the rain. Don’t go without alternate planning.