All of the taxis that I have taken in China so far have been clean, well-kept and notoriously efficient at getting me from point A to B. There are a good variety of options to choose from as well! As you can see on the left, there are new cabs such as the one shown. This is a Beijing cab which has a different colour scheme from the ones in Tianjin (Which are brilliant sky blue) or any other city. There are many new taxis in the cities I have been so far, all with identical colour schemes. The only way to tell differences between taxi companies is via the Chinese writing on the front doors. There are older taxis as well which are obviously the older looking cars you see driving around. They come in solid beige or red hues and are not all that bad for a ride as well. Of course, they will be just a tad dirtier than the new ones. Both cabs go for the same transport price despite their age. Base price in Tianjin is 8 RMB or 10 RMB for Beijing to which expenses per kilometer are added. All of the seats are covered with a cloth cover of sorts and some even have fancy additions to the seat for your enjoyment. Knowing Chinese is a good idea for most cabs but some drivers I have come across speak excellent English.
In Tianjin, there are a great deal of female taxi drivers as well. To date, Tianjin is the only place in the world where I have seen so many female taxi drivers (With the exception of one I had a ride from in Kingston who drove a Toyota Prius!). Also, there is absolutely NO smoking in all cabs. This can explain why the cabs are all so clean here. Each cab also has a cage system to protect the driver and your safety. The cage is usually in the form of a grille between the front and back seat but some older cabs have a sort of cage enclosing the passenger side seat as well. One thing to note about driving in China is that almost nobody wears seatbelts. This is the same story for Japan as well. Taxis are no exception to the rule. Sometimes, there are no seatbelts, or the belt is present but the buckle is missing. Once, I tried to put on a seat belt for the front seat but the driver patted my hand until I eventually relinquished my efforts (I think that he took my desire to wear a seat belt as an insult to his driving!). Coming from Canada, you'll have to give up that seatbelt habit if you're going to fit in seamlessly in Asia's driving world!
The drivers are also quite adept at getting through tight spaces and getting you from point A to B fast. A friend of mine told me that one of the cabs she has taken drove up on the sidewalk to skirt a red light! There is also the potential to bargain with the drivers. They usually turn on the meter and give you a receipt but this money will go to the company. You can bargain by getting into a cab, telling the driver where you want to go and then naming your price. If they agree, they begin to drive, but if not, they look confused (if you are a foreigner) or get mad (if you look like you are from China). With me, I think they are so surprised that I speak chinese that they go a bit easier on me with deals! So far, my best deal is getting a 12 yuan trip for 10 yuan. I'm hesitant to go lower and risk getting a hard-working driver angry!
In larger cities there are also more amusing types of cabs for the enjoyment of locals and tourists. According to my colleague, pedicabs such as the one to the right are mainly a big hit with tourists! I had the priveledge of riding the one in the photo in Tianjin with my friend Michael. There are a good variety of pedicabs as well. There are the motorized type as seen here and also the pedal variety which of course I prefer due to their lack of carbon dioxide emissions (Not counting the cycling driver's breathing!). There are a range of seat configurations for the pedicab as well. From four seaters to single seaters, there is an ample range of configurations to meet your travel needs. However, like taxi cabs these pedicabs will not satisfly a seatbelt craving! The advantage of these smaller pedicabs is that they can go where no cab dares to venture. They can easily take you down crowded side streets or through popular shopping areas, weaving between people and honking to part the red sea of people between you and your destination.
5 comments:
Mark,
Your taxi experiences in China have been considerably better than mine. Admittedly, most of my experiences are a few years old. I mostly stay in Shanghai when I go to China, and have had very few problems with taxis there (if I weren't going far enough, they didn't let me in the taxi).
In 1999-2000, I stayed in a university dormitory in Beijing for 6 months, and found that about 1/4 of my trips resulted in the taxi taking a very roundabout way to get me back to school. Most of the time the excess fare was only 5 yuan so I didn't bother arguing. Other times I wasn't as lucky and it cost more than that. The couple of times it was more though, I wasn't willing to wait for a police officer and gave in after a 5 minute disagreement. I frequently had a problem where the taxi driver wouldn't take me if I wasn't going far enough (happened multiple times in 1997, 1999, 2002)
I did have some fun cab rides, where the taxi driver acted as a Chinese teacher as my fellow students and I messed up the language.
I never saw the nice, neat taxis you describe, I'm guessing everything is getting prettied up for the Olympics.
Hello Richard,
Thanks for the comment, Hope you enjoy reading what I've got up so far!
Wow, those experiences are pretty unfortunate. I'm glad to see that this is not such a common occurance, at least so far for me. Presently, all taxis are under very very strict regulations. I haven't had any drivers take any roundabout routes on me yet and 9/10 have been extremely friendly with me. It is great to see how much has improved in the span of 8 years!
My Tianjin experiences were the same for Beijing as well. The drivers were friendly, polite, and all of the ones I had knew a decent amount of English as well!
These neat new taxis are the standard, I sense that the older ones are being phased out. When you get to any major road in Tianjin or Beijing, there are usually droves of these new taxis going by at most hours.
Hiya...
Like your blog in many ways but sometimes it's too much to be baked under only bright side of chinese sun, in terms of truth? I'm with you, when you strive to rescue tons of positive things in china, from a swarm of 'special' foreingers with condesceding look walking & commenting non-sense, but defending everything this way is too much, isn't it?
Particularly taxi experiences of foreigners in china are quite opposite from what you say? The excess fare would only 5-10 yuan most of time, so most of us don't bother arguing everyday but we know it's getting tedious, taking a taxi a couple of times everyday for some months and years, even with fluent chinese?
Please take off your burden to love your origin, and focus on delivering truth, with harsh criticism as well... that's what all writings should be, not to waste our ink and pen?
kay2628
Hiya...
Like your blog in many ways but sometimes it's too much to be baked under only bright side of chinese sun, in terms of truth? I'm with you, when you strive to rescue tons of positive things in china, from a swarm of 'special' foreingers with condesceding look walking & commenting non-sense, but defending everything this way is too much, isn't it?
Particularly taxi experiences of foreigners in china are quite opposite from what you say? The excess fare would only 5-10 yuan most of time, so most of us don't bother arguing everyday but we know it's getting tedious, taking a taxi a couple of times everyday for some months and years, even with fluent chinese?
Please take off your burden to love your origin, and focus on delivering truth, with harsh criticism as well... that's what all writings should be, not to waste our ink and pen?
kay2628
Firstly, I'm glad you like the blog and thanks for the criticism. I don't try to blindly defend things in China, I think that defense is not really necessary as some arguments are uninformed at any rate. What I try to do is write about all of the wonderful, unforgettable and unique things I happen to come across. I can't recall defending anything really, just talking about the things I have experienced here.
I have not had a single cab driver here who has tried to rip me off. Some make mistakes, some drive in very interesting ways, but none of mine have been devious with me. Of course, I won't generalize these good experiences (some of the drivers I have are some of the friendliest people I have met) but it also should not be generalized that all drivers try and rip you off, that is unfair.
I have no burden, and have never felt obligation to love things here due to my heritage. I freely love things here, just because I do, simple as that. If you want harsh criticisms you will find none here, because that would not reflect how I feel. Writing is what you want it to be, harsh or not, it has to be what you think, or its not your writing.
Post a Comment