And yet, for all its imperfections, the Turtle King was so much more practical than sitting in a stopped taxior crowding onto a Beijing bus that it had become what all new-energy technology is somehow supposed to be: cheap, simple, and unobtrusive enough so that using it is no longer a matter of sacrifice but one of self-interest.
The traveler stumbles bleary-eyed into the crowded arrival hall, only to face another two- to four-hour journey either by busor train (a taxi ride would bankrupt an Arab prince) into the city.