Kindness needs no translation

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BEIJING -- There is an old Down East expression that says, ‘You can’t get there from here.’

(If you hear it in situ, meaning in Maine, it will sound like, ‘You cahn’t get they-yah fum hee-yah.’’)

That expression applies Down Far East, at least where (or whey-yah) the main concentration of Beijing’s Olympic venues is concerned. It all has to do with security, and it can be frustrating.

For instance, the shuttle bus that brought me from the airport got to within 10 yards of the entrance to my hotel only to be stymied by fencing that would prevent me from getting there from here.

And a taxi bringing some of us back from dinner in the attractive lakes district of central Beijing approached the hotel in a way that met a literal roadblock and police who could not tell us how to get there from where we were -- about two miles away from our destination, which was nearly impossible to locate through the smoggy night air.

All was not lost, though, thanks to the persistence and courtesy of the Chinese I encountered.

The bus driver and Olympic volunteer accompanying him kept asking for help until they found the route that would get me to the opening in the fence that gave access to the hotel. They weren’t satisfied with getting me close; they wanted to get me right there.

And, after we left the cab and found ourselves hopelessly disoriented as well as linguistically challenged, the driver of a ‘stretch’’ golf cart answered a plea for help by taking us as close to the hotel as he was allowed to go, which was a far sight nearer than where we began.

In both cases, I gave my best approximation of ‘thank you’ in Mandarin. I hope the people to whom the thanks were addressed understood how much I appreciated the way human kindness had bridged the distance.

-- Philip Hersh