So, our first hitchhiking attempt was an epic fail.

We knew we had to get out of the city, so, looking at a map, I figured that we could take the subway line to the northernmost station and walk to a bridge that would take us where we wanted to go. From there, I figured, we could pick up a ride.

But, in the last four years, a city’s worth of suburbs had been built on the other side of that bridge, and it was now essentially urban. We stopped at the bridge’s entrance and waited, trying to flag down drivers while cabbies hollered at us, waving us towards their vehicle. I talked to some people who had pulled off the side to check their tires. They were kind enough to look up where we were going, but not kind enough to take us across the bridge (I’ve lived in Taiwan for too long; in Taiwan, they would not have thought twice about taking us there).

Going Nowhere

After a while of standing and waiting, a driver pulled up to us, asking in hardly understandable English, “Where you are want to?”

“Han Dynasty Emperor Jingdi’s Tomb” I said in Mandarin.

“Okay. 100 r.m.b.” he said, switching to Chinese. 100 r.m.b. That was about $17 USD.

“Um. Way too much.” I knew that hitchhiking in China sometimes involved paying for rides, but this was highway robbery. I offered him a tenth of the price.

“No way. I have to make money.” He responded.

“Thirty,” I said, trying to negotiate.

“Fifty,” he responded. “Take it or leave it.”

Having waited for a while, I decided we should take the ride. We entered, and I put my best face on it. It wasn’t ideal for hitchhiking, but at least we had picked up a ride on the road. I guess it counted as hitchhiking, right?

Listening to the driver talk to the other passengers about us, I realized that hitchhiking in Xian was difficult, if not impossible. Everyone there is so keyed into making money through tourists. No one is willing to pick up a rider, particularly Westerners, for free. We will have to get a little bit farther out to do hitchhiking.

Lesson learned.