- E-bike season starts as spring arrives, ending winter hibernation and car reliance
- Pre-app taxi hailing was risky; scarce cabs, haggling fares, and urban legends
- Didi revolutionized transport with GPS, app bookings, and premium, sensory-friendly options
- Taxis improved with accountability, though occasional odd encounters keep life interesting
I got my e-bike out today. As the Year of The Snake crawls into March, and the cherry blossoms burst into bloom, the days grow longer and life returns to those of us who have spent the winter in hibernation. Hibernation season begins the day the ebike is retired and four-wheeled friends become my mode of transport. A lot has changed since our first Year of The Snake 12 years ago, and although I’m usually wary of sweeping generalisations, in this case, it has all been for the better.
我今天把我的电动自行车拿出来了。 随着蛇年进入三月，樱花盛开，日子越来越长，我们这些冬眠的人的生活又回来了。 冬眠季节从电动自行车退役的那天开始，四轮朋友成为我的交通工具。 自12年前《蛇》的第一年以来，发生了很多变化，虽然我通常对笼统的概括持警惕，但在这种情况下，一切都变得更好了。
Back then, before the dawn of WeChat or Alipay, hailing a cab was an entirely different experience to today’s app-flicking simplicity. It was a much more rough and ready undertaking for a multiplicity of reasons.
那时，在微信或支付宝的黎明之前，叫出租车是一种与今天应用程序轻弹的简单性完全不同的体验。 出于多种原因，这是一个更加艰难和准备的任务。
Firstly, you had to actually spy one of these elusive creatures in the wild and flag it down.
首先，你必须真正在野外监视这些难以捉摸的生物之一，并把它标记下来。
Xianlin was still in its infancy as a suburban centre back then, so they were few and far between. It didn’t help that I had two babies and an unwieldy double buggy which made many drivers speed on by.
当时，仙林作为郊区中心仍处于起步阶段，所以它们很少。 我有两个孩子和一輛笨重的双人越野车，这让很多司机超速而过，这也無濟於事。
The first option was by and far the most dodgy. You could approach a so-called “Black Taxi”; a ragtaggle collection of ramshackle vehicles that parked at the gates of compounds and drove intrepid customers around the city. Without a license or a meter in sight, it was a reliable but somewhat nerve-wracking experience. Was the driver drunk, or did he always drive like this? Was this an illegal taxi or had I hopped in beside an axe-murderer? Who was that other person asleep in the passenger seat? So many questions.
第一个选择是迄今为止最可疑的。 你可以接近一辆所谓的“黑色出租车”；一辆破烂不堪的车辆，停在大院门口，开车带着无畏的顾客在城市里转转。 在没有许可证或仪表的情况下，这是一次可靠但有些紧张的经历。 司机是喝醉了，还是他总是这样开车？ 这是一辆非法出租车，还是我跳进了斧头谋杀者旁边？ 在副驾驶座上睡着的那个人是谁？ 这么多问题。
Better by far to hail a yellow taxi (or green, depending on which side of our fair city you dwell).
到目前为止，最好叫一辆黄色出租车（或绿色，取决于你住在我们公平城市的哪一边）。
If you did manage to lure a passing taxi to the curb, the next challenge was to negotiate the fare which meant, a), speaking to the driver, and b), really asking yourself the question “How badly do I need this cab?”. Even if you did manage to convince the driver to turn on the meter, they could still detour their way to a similarly outrageous fare, turning a ten minute trip into an odyssey.
如果你确实设法引诱一辆路过的出租车到路边，下一个挑战是协商票价，这意味着，a）与司机交谈，b）真正问自己这个问题“我有多需要这辆出租车？”。 即使你确实设法说服司机打开计价器，他们仍然可以绕道到同样离谱的票价，将十分钟的旅程变成奥德赛。
One friend of mine refused to ever approach these elusive beasts, however. According to her, a friend of a friend had taken one of these taxis several years back. The friend and her husband were riding in the back when suddenly, the driver stopped on a secluded road and got out of the car to check the tire. Several minutes passed before the husband alighted to check what the problem was, when lo and behold, the driver punched him, jumped back in the car and absconded with the man’s wife.
然而，我的一個朋友拒絕接近這些難以捉摸的野獸。 据她说，几年前，一个朋友的朋友坐过其中一辆出租车。 朋友和她的丈夫正坐在后面，突然，司机停在一条僻静的道路上，下车去检查轮胎。 过了几分钟，丈夫才下车检查问题出在哪里，突然，司机打了他一拳，跳回车里，和男人的妻子一起走了。
And she was never seen again! Or maybe she showed up, minus a kidney.
再也见不到她了！ 或者也许她出现了，除了肾脏。
I can’t recall how that particular urban legend ended. This was all part of an illegal organ trafficking scam, my friend assured me, and for that reason, one should never go near these yellow death wagons.
我不记得那个特殊的城市传说是怎么结束的。 我的朋友向我保证，这都是非法器官贩运骗局的一部分，出于这个原因，人们永远不应该靠近这些黄色的死亡马车。
But I wasn’t scared of urban legends, oh no. I was far more afraid of the cacophony of smells and sounds that assailed the senses when travelling by taxi. Over the years, my brain has amassed a vast catalogue of offensive odours and nefarious noises. Cigarette smoke, garlic and fetid body odour are a sure fire recipe for car-sickness, with added bonus points for if the car-sickness manifests itself.
但我并不害怕城市传说，哦，不。 我更害怕乘坐出租车旅行时刺激感官的气味和声音的不和谐。 多年来，我的大脑积累了大量令人厌恶的气味和邪恶的噪音目录。 香烟烟雾、大蒜和恶臭的体味是引起晕车的必经之路，如果晕车表现出来，还有额外的加分。
Then the sensory overload becomes really problematic, with the risk of chain-car-sickness-manifestations.
然后，感官超载变得非常成问题，有连锁车病症表现的风险。
Add to that the blipping and beeping of the 17 iPhones attached to the dashboard, all at full volume, and we are well on the way to a full-blown mental fracture. It wasn’t my kidneys I was worried about. It was my sanity.
再加上连接到仪表板的17部iPhone的哔哔声和哔哔声，我们正处于全面精神崩溃的路上。 我担心的不是我的肾脏。 这是我的理智。
Yet, over time, the chaos yields to a certain logic, almost a poetry of motion. The taxi drivers of Nanjing are masters of their domain. If you want to get somewhere fast, hang your head out that window and grab a yellow cab. Nowadays, it is so much easier too.
然而，随着时间的推移，混乱屈服于某种逻辑，几乎是运动的诗歌。 南京的出租车司机是他们领域的主人。 如果你想快速到达某个地方，把头伸出窗外，然后坐一辆黄色的出租车。 如今，这也容易多了。
Didi burst onto the scene in 2012, using GPS to coordinate nearby cabs it allowed smartphone users to contract ride services without taking to the streets or risking bankruptcy. It became accessible through Alipay and WeChat in 2013, and revolutionised transport.
滴滴于2012年闯入现场，使用GPS协调附近的出租车，它允许智能手机用户在不上街或冒破产风险的情况下签约乘车服务。 2013年，它通过支付宝和微信可以访问，并彻底改变了交通。
At first, it was simply a matter of securing the elusive taxi without hunting for it in the wild; convenient, but still with its sensory challenges. But then, Did Premier came along, with its swanky black exterior and plush, silent insides, and friends, for the win, working seatbelts!
起初，这只是一个确保难以捉摸的出租车的问题，而不必在野外寻找它；很方便，但仍然有感官挑战。 但随后，Premier来了，它拥有豪华的黑色外观和毛绒绒，安静的内部，还有朋友，为了胜利，工作安全带！
Gone were the days of sliding up and down the back seat whilst fighting waves of nausea.
在后座上上下滑动，同时与恶心的浪潮作斗争的日子已经一去不复返了。
These swift and elegant beasts became a stalwart for the sensorily sensitive among us, and now, there are even categories such as Premiere Executive and Luxe, but I have yet to experience the upper echelons of the Didi experience.
这些快速而优雅的野兽成为我们中感官敏感的坚定者，现在，甚至还有Premiere Executive和Luxe等类别，但我还没有体验过Didi体验的高层。
Whilst the rise of the Didi phenomenon has impacted the taxi industry, they are holding their own with the multitude of Didi options out there, and the yellow cabs have benefitted from the accountability of app tracing and official taxi licenses necessary nowadays. Gone are the urban legends of organ trafficking. Gone too are the nefarious Black Taxis that operated with nere a license nor a worry in the world.
虽然滴滴现象的兴起影响了出租车行业，但他们正在与众多滴滴选择相得益，黄色出租车受益于当今必要的应用程序追踪和官方出租车执照的问责制。 器官贩运的城市传说已经一去不复返了。 邪恶的黑色出租车也消失了，这些出租车没有执照，也不用担心。
That said, last week I did jump into the back of a car and tell the driver the last four digits of my phone number, before realising that the driver was not only dressed in pyjamas, but quite perplexed as to what I was doing there. Taxis may evolve, time passes by, but life in Nanjing will always remain interesting.
话虽如此，上周我确实跳进了车后，告诉了司机我电话号码的最后四位数字，然后意识到司机不仅穿着睡衣，而且对我在那里做什么非常困惑。 出租车可能会演变，时间会流逝，但南京的生活将永远有趣。
