Taxis/Rickshaws, Beijing

My boyfriend and I just came back to our hotel in beijing from the Summer Palace together with our unpleasant experience with a rickshaw driver. We just got out the East Palace Gate when a rickshaw driver offered us a ride to the nearby metro station (Xiyuan) for 10 yuan. Since we were planning to use the metro and were tired at that moment, we accepted the offer. The distance from the East Palace gate to Xiyuan station is about 1.5 km. The Rickshaw seems to be powered by electricity. We arrived at Xiyuan station in about 5 minutes. I took out my wallet and handed over 10 yuan to the driver and then he said eno, not right, 10 yuan per personf . Just then, we knew we were tricked. We know that the cost for taxi within 3 km is 10 yuan in beijing. There is no way it can kost 20 yuan by a rickshaw for 1.5 km! I refused to pay the axtra 10 yuan and asked him to show any liscence or identity. I said eif you show me the ID or the liscence, I will give you the extra 10 yuanf. He refused to show anything. Apparently he is an illigal driver and making some dirty money by ripping tourists off. I didnft buy the trick, after a big quarrel, I draged my boyfriend directly to the metro entrace and left him behind. He didnft dare to follow us. Right now, sitting in the hotel we are still feel upset about the bad experience. We could have given him extra 10 yuan to avoid the quarrel. But we knew he wonft be appreciate for the money at all and maybe laugh at our weakness. Luckily, I can speak good Chinese, I can do a good quarrel.

Unique Suggestions: Like what other people have pointed out, here I remind you again never take any non liscenced transport in beijing, beter in whole China. You can never know what can happen. When there is anything unpleasant happens during using official taxifs in Beijing, you can still find a place to complain to. But when you are ripped off by non liscenced drivers, you can only upset yourself. When you take a taxi in beijing, always get the receipt. If you find the driver annoying, unplite or rippering you off, write down his working nummer, which you can find in front of the front passenger seat or write down the liscence nummber of the car. Then you can try to call 83611888 (or the telephone nummber on your receipt) to complain. But in China, itfs always difficult to get through the complain line. If your case is big, you can try to containt the English newspaper China Daily or the TV media CCTV channel 9, or you can also try to contact Beijing Tourism Administration (BTA)

I think, like meC a lot of people do like Chinese culture and China tour. I believe we should complain to chinese media when we are treated unfairly in China not only to protect our own interst but also to help China tourism develop healthily.

Our family just came back from beijing a week ago. Had our fair share of dishonest Beijing taxi drivers. First off, the taxi driver out of the airport tried to ask us to lie to the airport guard so that he could get a permission slip to come back to the airport for another pickup for the night. Instead of saying our hotel's name in the city, he told us to say another hotel's name closeby if asked by the guard of our destination. But, we didn't comply. Of course, he didn't get the slip and was not happy.
Second case, when we took a taxi from Temple of heaven to Summer Palace, the cost was rmb68 but on the way back to Temple of Heaven, I think we got into an unofficial taxi and was charged rmb104. Come to think of it, the taxi back has a smaller taxi sign on its roof and the meter was stuck under the seat. It looks kind of flimsy as well. The inside of the taxi was dirty and smelled of gas fumes the whole time. All these should have tipped us off.
Third case, the ride from Wangfujing st to our hotel or vice versa usually costs rmb15-20. However, on one night (around 10 pm) going back to hotel from Wangfujing st we were charged rmb70. I think that was an unofficial taxi as well even though it has a taxi sign on top of its roof but no meter in sight.
We encountered a very common problem in beijing with their taxi drivers even though we speak their language. When told of the destinations that we are headed, for example a wellknown restaurant to the locals like Bianyifang , 9 out of 10 times the taxi drivers would reply that they don't know the place and that they would have to make phone calls to verify the address. Then, they would start cruising around and rake up the meter charges. You know you've been had when u pass thru the same corner twice just in different directions. One time what should only have taken 15 minutes took the driver 45 minutes to get us there. Of course, the charge was 3 times more than what it should have been.
Beware of the pedicabs. After trying unsuccessfully for 20 minutes to hail for a taxi in front of Beihai Park to go to Tiananmen square during rush hour, we got into one of the many pedicabs. There were 4 of us and the seat was actually just big enough to fit 2 lean adults. However, the driver squeezed all 4 of us in the pedicab. 10 minutes later, when he saw a traffic cop, he quickly asked us to pay him and get out of the pedicab. Come to think of it, this is quite a dangerous ride. What if we were hit by a car or the pedicab flipped over since it is 2 wheeled. Afterwards, in talking to our beijing friends, we were told most of these pedicab drivers have permits for personal use not for picking up passengers. Even if they have the permits for transporting passengers for money, it's only within a certain hutong area definitely not at Tiananmen Square.
The city of Beijing really needs to step up and take care of these dishonest taxi and pedicab drivers. Nearly everyone that has been to beijing that we talked to has encountered this problem. We didn't encounter any of these problems with taxi drivers in Shanghai or Tokyo. What a shame that these drivers bring to such a culturally rich city.

Unique Suggestions: Look for the official taxis. The more reliable one that we would recommend is the white and yellow taxis. They are clean and air conditioned.

Fun Alternatives: Subway is another good alternative to get around but avoid during peak hours since they get very crowded.

The three wheel rickshaws/bikes/etc are a complete ripoff. Avoid the 1Y charge to get into the Forbidden City. They will take you a long about way and charge you an extreme amount. Same goes for the rides to your hotel. Not sure why but no taxi would take me so I elected to use one of the 3 wheel jobs after negotiating a price. On arrival the price was long gone and a large arguement ensued. Avoid at all costs, it could cost you 20x what a taxi would.

Unique Suggestions: Find a taxi and be patient. Whatever you do avoid the 3 wheel money pits

I just got back from Beijing two days ago and noticed many taxi drivers are trying to keep the change after payment. They simply act dumb or pretend not to understand you. I had to be forceful to get them to give me my money. They will try to keep any amount. I gave one driver 100RMB for a 45RMB ride and he wanted to keep the change!

Unique Suggestions: There is no tipping for taxi rides in China!!!

Fun Alternatives: You should bring smaller bills so that you can give the driver the exact amount.

As soon as u get off a taxi, the rickshaw guys come after you and corner you to get in and say that its only for RMB3 per ride. Then they get you over to a part of Tiananmen Square when u can't get over the fencing or call for help and demand RMB300. I paid RMB60 fearing for our life. We just got off the plane that morning and thought it would be easier if we took the ride and got a lousy experience in return.

Unique Suggestions: Dont ride in any or them. China should be ashamed of people like this and should round them up and give them regular beatiings or shoot them! The olympics is just around the corner, China, do something!!!

My wife and I finished our tour of Forbidden City and we wanted to have lunch at a restaurant that we'd been to before. We were just outside the gates of Forbidden City where a number of taxis and bicycle pedicabs were clustered. A taxi driver shook his head when we showed him the card for the restaurant, but a pedicab driver quickly offered to take us. We figured maybe too short a trip to interest the taxi driver so we agreed to ride the pedicab. I asked "How much?" and he said "three monies". Being a little too trusting and thinking this was probably 30 RMB, I agreed and off we went. Very soon another pedicab, obviously colaborating with our driver, came along side and shouted something we didn't understand. Our driver said that there was too much weight load, and one of use needed to ride with the other driver, whose passenger bench was empty. My wife and I are both average size and weight. Sensing a setup, we immediately said no way. Our driver continued down a couple of streets and then into a series of local alleys. Then he stops and says our destination is just beyond the wall where he'd stopped. His nice demeanor suddenly turned beligerant as he demandes an outragous sum. We refused and offered the 30 RMB. Then he pulls out a printed card that had a fee of 300 RMB ($39) listed. My wife sticks the 30 RMB in his shirt pocket and we walk off. As soon as we round the corner we realize that we're nowhere near our destination and that he'd simply dumped us.

We realized that this was a prearranged scam from the start. We'd used pedicabs several times before and none were a good experience. This ride finally taught us to avoid them altogether, at least as a mode of transportation. The pedicab tour of the houtongs in the Houhai area is the only exception, but for transportation in the city use a taxi. We quickly discovered that they are extremely cheap ($2-5) for most destinations within Beijing. A 40 minute ride across town during rush hour was our most expensive fare within Beijing, and it was 60 RMB ($8)!!!

Unique Suggestions: Except for a houtong tour, don't use a pedicab. Use a taxi - they are extremely cheap!

We arrived at the central train station and knew our hotel was not far away. We asked the taxi driver how much to hotel: his response 200 Yuan.

No-one else wanted to take us to hotel so we caught the subway and then walked in 3 degrees temperature but it only cost us 6 Yuan.

When you arrive at Beijing Capital Airport, ignore the touts who might offer you a ride into the city in their private car. They charge a ridiculous amount, about 300yuan for a normally 80yuan taxi ride. Get a cab from the queue.

Also, on your way out of Beijing, there are people at the departure area who pose as porters and who without your asking will grab your bag from the taxi driver and load them into their carts. The authorized porters wear uniforms, you pay 10yuan at the collectors counter, not to the porter, and they issue a receipt.