Traffic in the big city

Word of advice; do not ride buses (or taxis) in Beijing at rush hour!  Take the subway at all costs!  Yesterday I was trying to get to a gathering of some of my local friends, and decided to take the bus down to the subway station.  The subway is fairly close to my school, and as I was waiting for the bus, I thought to myself: “you know, I could probably walk down there before the bus gets there.”  Turns out, I should have; I sat on what should have been a five minute bus ride for thirty minutes!  The most aggravating part was that for most of it, the bus was stuck within fifty yards of the subway station; we were just in traffic.  The bus driver finally decided to just open his doors there, and we all got out.  It made a half hour trip take an hour. 

            On the way back to my dorm, I missed the last subway going clockwise around the loop I take, so I had to take the one going the other direction; my stop was one stop away clockwise, so I had to ride the subway the entire length of the loop.  Very frustrating.  I’ll know for next time to leave a little bit early. 

            This is a little bit of a rant, but I’m honestly still enjoying it here; I just have to remember that there are certain ways to travel and not to travel in this city.