Taxi's

Before arriving in China I had been in a taxi a total of three times. All of these times I was with my family, and I certainly never had to hail a taxi before! In the movies it looks so easy. You go out to the curb put your hand up and a taxi appears! You jump in, the taxi guy puts the meter on and off you go. You can tell him quickly and efficiently where you want to go.

In Beijing getting a taxi is not that easy. Oh there are plenty of taxis. There yellow and maroon cars mock you as you wait for them. The light on the top that signs they are available is just a tease...

Whizz..there goes an avaliable taxi right by, ignoring your hand raised in signal to please pick me up (note its gotta be a floppy hand).... Here comes the creeper unmarked black taxi cab men.. taxi, taxi do you want a taxi.. or rickshaw rickshaw how about a rickshaw..  (a rickshaw is almost a little carriage attached to the back of the bike. The driver will take you short distances on it and charge you a crazy price) NO! I just want a taxi!

Phew here comes another taxi...whizz..and then stops two feet from you to pick up a local person! Grrr Taxi drivers in Beijing will always pick up a local person before they will pick up you. Many taxi drivers will ignore your call for the taxi and will continue  driving right on by! Some have even turned off their lights and then turned them right back as soon as they passed you.

Finally a taxi comes and picks you up. You get in and tell him in broken Chinese where you live. A lot of taxi drivers can't read so if you show them a paper with the address or location chances are they won't know. They will tell you to get out. They know the tourist areas but that's about it....

Finally in the taxi you make your way home. It happens to be raining outside this particular night and its about 70 degrees outside. The taxi driver has the heat on full blast in the car, and the window open.... That is not the biggest issue, driving in any sort of vehicle in Beijing is well damn scary.

The three lanes of traffic that are drawn on the road are optional, cars whiz in and out of lanes like no other. They merge without looking. The honk their horns non stop at you. The shoulder turns into another lane... they speed up right before you merge. Last night in the taxi alone I saw my life flash before my eyes about 4 times.

As you approach home, you think oh I know a faster way to get home, so you tell the driver to go straight. He goes straight, unfortunate for you he was trying to go sneaky way home. The sneaky way home is the way that will cost more money. Only you didn't realize that as you were sitting in the backseat a little tipsy and texting on your phone... SO he gets off and starts swearing and yelling at you in Chinese. Luckily you know where you are and point him to where you want to go. He continues to swear and yell at you in Chinese. You finally get to where you want to be but realize that oh wait you are on the highway.... The taxi driver slams the brakes on the car, swears at you some more and takes your money. You then get out of the cab and have to walk ten minutes to get home....

(true story this happened to me last night!)

So yes, getting a taxi in Beijing is no picnic if you are foreigner. But at the end of the day you will eventually get one...though he might not be the nicest person in the world..