The Wonderful 104

Our favorite bus in Beijing is the “Wonderful 104.” In fact I’m currently typing this entry while riding it. It was really the first bus we were comfortable with. It was the one bus that we knew went from my parent’s house to the Xizhimen (pronounced shee-jer-men) subway stop, which is the nearest “di tan” (subway) stop to their apartment. There are plenty that go there, but when we first got here we weren’t really interested in just getting on a bus and hoping it went the right place.

Actually the reason we always remembered the 104 is because my family refers to it as the “Infamous 104.” Apparently on more than one occasion they have boarded the 104 expecting it to bring them home (because there is a 104 stop right outside their complex) and it just brought them further away. My mom warned us about the 104, she said we could trust it to take us to subway, but no further.

Luckily a friend of ours told us that the 104 is actually one of the most useful buses in the city. We just moved into an apartment in Wang Jing, which is just outside the north-east corner of 4th Ring Road. The 104 had a stop just a couple blocks from us and is currently bringing us all the way across the city and will drop us off right at my parent’s complex on the western edge of 3rd Ring road (click on the “Map of Beijing” link on the right if you’re confused). It takes a long time, but because our stop is one of the first 104 stops after it leaves the garage, there are always plenty of seats available. The only way I would be able to write a blog entry while riding the bus is if am sitting in one of the forward facing seats near the back.

Right now Kara is on the aisle “zai you bien” (z-eye yo bee-en) or on my right side and we have an open window “zai zou bien” (z-eye zo bee-en) on my left.We probably have the best seats on the bus. There are about 30 seats on this type of bus and they are currently all full. Another dozen or so people are standing in the aisles holding onto handrails. There will undoubtedly be another 30 or more people crammed into this box on wheels before we arrive at my parents house.

On almost all busses there is a driver and an attendant. The driver’s only responsibility is to get to each stop and avoided collisions. The attendant calls out the next stop and informs the passengers at each stop that they can only get off using the rear door. Every bus has one “on” door and one, or sometimes two “off” doors. On some buses (like our Wonderful 104) there is an automated recording that informs you of the upcoming stop and aforementioned exiting strategy. One of the most endearing features of the 104 is the recording that reminds us to “Please getting prepare for your arrival.”

One of the least enduring qualities is the fact that there are several TV screens on the bus, as there are on most buses. This wouldn’t be so bad, but all they play are videos about the upcoming Olympics. Also not so bad, except that you may or may not know about the Five Friendlies. They are the mascots for the upcoming Olympics, animated and peppy mascots who star in the same four commercials that play over and over again on the buses as well as on the TV and before some DVDs. They are actually pretty well-designed, but there is the feeling of brainwashing after seeing too many of these same commercials. Especially since we can’t understand the writing on them, it feels like being inundated with subliminal messages is the real cost of taking cheaper public transportation.

The easiest way to use public transportation in Beijing is to buy a rechargeable bus/subway card. Every time you get on a bus you press your card against a scanner and it deducts .4 yuan from your card. This is equal to approximately 6 cents. On the 104, and other buses with long routes you also scan your card as you disembark and depending on how far you have traveled the price can go up to .8 yuan. It’s really cheap to travel this way, but the downside is that on most buses you end up standing for long periods of time and are usually in direct contact with at least three other people.

One of the most difficult things for us illiterate Americans is determining which buses go where. There are signs at every stop that show all the stops along the route, unfortunately between Kara and I we know about 25 out of the 20,000 or so characters in the Chinese language. Several times we have boarded buses only to find that the route ends before it arrives where we want to go.

It does seem odd not having a car and buses are definitely not always the most fun thing, but its also very freeing, We never have to worry about parking, we don’t have to pay for car insurance, and we don’t have to do any maintenance. We are actually getting pretty near my parent’s place now so I’m going to put the computer away and “getting prepare” for my arrival.