Didi Ride

I’m waiting for a Didi to take me to the public security bureau to pick up Elisa’s passport. I’m in a bit of a rush. I was waiting for Elisa to get home from school so we could go together like we did a year ago but she has an extra class today and can’t be home until it's too late. That and the location has apparently moved from a 10 minute bike ride away to south of Qianmen which is about 30 minutes by car.

The didi driver calls me. I hang up without answering. He probably wanted to tell me not to worry, he is on way but since I don’t speak Chinese it's a useless conversation. Two minutes pass and he calls again. I hang up again but this time call Sabrina and ask her to call the number and see what the driver wants. Can’t call the number, apparently it can only be called from inside the app. The driver calls again. I answer with a quickening pulse. He asks me in Chinese where I am and I tell him. He asks follow-up questions. I don’t understand. I tell him I’m a foreigner and to look at the map for my location. We go back and forth for a bit. Eventually, I see him drifting up across the street staring at the opposite sidewalk. I walk into his vision and wave my phone and get into his car.

I apologize by default and he says no need. His English is ok. He asks what I’m doing in China and when I say I live here he asks for how long. I lie and say five years instead of 19. He asks if I can speak Chinese. I say, sadly, only a little.

He asks what I do in China. First I just say “for work” then later I say I work for Microsoft. He says Microsoft lost a bunch of jobs recently in China and he knew they were relocated (about 200 or so). He says the Chinese economy is not so good now. I ask why or he asks if I know why. He says population decline and the real estate market. Says real estate lost 10% in Beijing, 40% in other cities. He says China has a chance to have the same economic problems as Japan. Maybe worse. He blames the government.  He asks me about the US government. I also say not good. He makes a surprised noise. Then I clarify that some of it is not good.

He says many Chinese are escaping to America. I say I know engineers who have moved to the US. His narratives about China - poor economy because of real estate and demographics, young people can’t find jobs, the MS AI jobs, people fleeing to the west sound straight from CNN.

He drops me off at my destination at 4:45pm. It closed at 4:30pm. I walk to the Qianmen subway and take that home.

When I get home, I tell this story to Elisa joking that I was careful not to criticize China or even the US. She jokes back that’s wise. Then she adds Didi records all audio during a drive for security reasons.