Our first day in China -- Getting to Excursion 2 -- the big mistake

By 10:00 am, with the rain holding off (although there were no Tai Chi practitioners) we were ready to head to the Forbidden City. We hopped in a cab and the fare was 15 RMB's. As we stepped out of the cab we found ourselves on the north side of the forbidden city -- or in other words, the exit! We were immediately approached by a pedi cab driver who offered the taxi us to the south side. We asked the price. He held up 3 fingers and said 3 RMB's. Considering the small distance, that seemed like a very good price and it would be fun to ride through the crazy roads. With so many pedi cabs it figured to be an experience we ought to try. Both Trent and I hopped in and our driver was off. He turned off the main street and entered a slummy neighborhood to avoid the traffic (or so it seemed). This part of the ride was very educational. This was a part of Beijing that was not proudly on display, but tucked behind large walls that appeared to have been built for the Olympics to hide the less savory parts of town. Fairly quickly another pedi cab offered to help so we would be faster so now we were in 2 pedi cabs. They drove us right to the edge of the neighborhood and stopped short of the official entrance to the forbidden city and we hopped off. Trent pulled out his wallet to pay them and when we confirmed the price they responded, not 3 RMB's but 300 RMB's -- each. Let's just say it was then we knew we had been taken. It was stupid of us to have ridden a pedi cab. There were a couple of other guys sitting on a stoop and we quickly realized there may not be a good way to get out of this. So we paid the 600 RMB's ($100 US dollars) and got out of there as fast as possible. It was an expensive lesson. We did see somethings that was an education in how Beijing really is and we were generous in sharing the knowledge with everyone to avoid pedi-cabs at all costs. We are greatful we had the money with us and we got out of there safely. We saw the pedi cab drivers again at the exit a few hours later still telling everyone 3 RMB's -- so it wasn't just that we misuderstood, it was just that they are scammers! So let this be a lesson to all of you!

Here are some photos I took on the pedi cab.