This morning while driving to work, my taxi driver was watching me work on my computer. That is not unusual, it happens almost every day, and some are looking like they have never seen a laptop before. But this one said: “Ah, pingguo diannao, hen hao!”. For the non-mandarin speakers, he liked it that I was using an Apple computer. So I started chatting a bit with him. In his free time (not much, he works 12 hours per day driving his cab) he likes to program and surf the internet. And he uses an Apple computer as well. He thinks they are the best computers, but very expensive. He paid over 20,000 RMB for his laptop, for which he could have bought 3 local computers. I was surprised how he would be able to afford a laptop that is more expensive than his annual income, but decided not to ask him that question. When he asked me what I do and I told him about Toodou.com, he told me he knew the website.

I had many, normally short, chats with taxi drivers, but this one was the first that was actually interesting. Most of them are about where I am from, how good my Chinese is (which it is absolutely not, I am ashamed that I am still at a very basic level after all these years in China), and about Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit (two long-retired Dutch soccer players, who are still on everybodies mind). But this conversation was fun and he did not even ask me where I was from. If you ever happen to be in Dazhong taxi no. 246357, send him my best regards.