The time when we saw a bad man

We had an adventure that very first week we were in China - Alex and I had just finished our shopping at Walmart near the train station and were in the taxi (to whose driver I had iven our address written down in chinese) about to head to our brand new apartment. For some reason, a van had parked such that it made it very difficult for other drivers to go around to the exit behind the store and there we were, our driver trying to edge his way past. All of a sudden, the guy who we believe was the driver of the parked van lunged for the taxi and shouted all manner of things in chinese. Our driver, being neither the taciturn nor tranquil type, immediately shouted back at him making all kinds of gestures.

There followed an exchange of pleasantries (who knows, we certainly couldn't understand a word though both of us could garner an understanding of the underlying emotions) and physical violence which included the van driver opening the front passenger door of the taxi, leaning across and punching our driver in the face. All bets were off then and our driver jumped out of the taxi and a melee ensued. Alex was very upset in the back seat and I was sitting there with 6 bags of shopping wondering how in the hell I remove us from this situation.

Meanwhile, around 30 onlookers had gathered to check out what was happening and about now our taxi driver jumped back in the taxi with blood dripping from his mouth. I wanted desperately to get out of the taxi and grab another one to get Alex away from this action, but I also needed that piece of paper with our address on it back. Trying to make that known to an agitated and bloody driver who was still dodging feints from the angry and aggressive van driver was almost impossible. About now the traffic police showed up and were trying to organise things - and then our driver threatened to run over the van driver who goaded him by standing in front of the taxi and gesturing "come on" - to which the taxi driver replied by revving the engine and edging forward - whilst indicating to me not to get out as he was going to get going. This was not going to end well so I opened the door and wrestled Alex and the shopping out onto the street whilst the traffic police were trying to get the taxi driver to park the taxi.

Thankfully one of the onlookers helped me with the bags and Alex to flag down another taxi and we were then truly on our way. Now all I had to deal with were the questions - what happened? Why was that man angry? Why did he have blood? Is he (pointing to our new taxi driver) a bad man? Indeed, the question of whether someone was a "bad man" was going to be a constant for the rest of the week, especially when we were in a taxi which was quite often.

And so we arrived at our new apartment and managed to eat our dinner on the balcony overlooking Gulang Yu. The kids fell asleep and Brett and I enjoyed the first of many bottles of Tsing Tao beer watching the lights and the water.