Taxis, Xi'an

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Charger a taxi for a day is convenient if you are not financially constrained. one way trip to airport is CNY 120, for Terra Cotta worries, Qin tomb and a few archeology sites around Lin Dong, CNY 350 will do for a whole day.

Driver is a very friendly, honest and talkative lady. Car is a BYD

You'll be told and see signs at the hostels that there are no taxis between 3 to 4pm as this is the changeover for drivers - their dinner breaks. So if you need to catch a train, flight etc you need to go super early apparently. Well we found a taxi at 3.30pm and although it was a little difficult to find out - with our stunning blonde daughter on the corner flagging them down, how could they resist = we got a taxi to take us to the train station on time : )

Not sure if this is about "dangers" or "tranportation". The thing is taxis in Xi'an are cheap, handy, and all, but on the other hand very dangerous. Most of them are in terrible conditions, falling apart and filthy. And drivers are not much into observing safety.
There are "special taxis", not in the traditional green/yellow colour. Slightly more expensive, but safer.

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I found it amazing how inexpensive it was to get around Beijing, Xian is even CHEAPER!!! As in Beijing, taxis are literally everywhere.

“Flag fall” in a taxi is 5 Yuan. (Approx 7.6 Yuan = US$1.00)
This 5 Yuan is for the first 4 or 5 miles or 5 minutes before the meter even dares to move! (There are signs everywhere that warn that the minimum fare is 5 Yuan.
A taxi ride from the train station to our motel, in the centre of the walled city was 5.8 YUAN. I gave him 20 and told him to keep the change! We were both happy, a bargain in any language!

We actually found the taxis quite reasonable in Xi’an. Every one used a meter and they were very polite. I have included a scanned copy of a meter taxi receipt so you can see what they show. Note: get on; get off, unit price and mileage. Taxi fares: 10 Yuan Theatre to Bell Hotel
12 Yuan Bell Hotel to train station

Another easy and always convenient way to get around would be by Taxi. Costs about 10RMB every 3 kilometers. Be sure to have someone write down your hotel name in Chinese, so that your driver will know where to take you when you want to come back. Vice Versa with your destination. Have someone write it down in Chinese. Trust me...It will save you a whole lot of hassles. Oh, and one more thing, before you leave the taxi, ask for a receipt. That way, if you accidentally leave something behind, or if you find they didn't give you back the right amount of change, you can pin your taxi down.

If you are staying in the downtown, you will not have the need to, but if not, you will probably need to get to the cool places in the city. And the best transportation, in my opinion, is the taxi.
They are cheap in for a fare of $1-3 you can reach every tourist attraction inside the city walls and the main outside.
Of course, as I said, if you are in the city centre, the best way to reach the attractions is walking...
(picture: green taxis everywhere!)

Xi´An is one of the most famous city in China so it´s absolutely no problem to get there. We traveled by train, from Beijing to Xi´An it took about 15 hours ( for 1200 km). Of course you also can arrive with bus or a plane. The airport is about 40 km away of the city.
When we wanted to take a taxi to the station it happened something we didn´t expect. No free taxi. It was the first time in all these days that I saw Wendy nervous. We had to catch the train back to Beijing, we had no hotel room anymore and because of the holidays it was not easy to find one. So, after a while Wendy gave it up to try to find a taxi... and she ordered 'Bubu'. You don´t know what is 'Bubu'. Well, on the photo you can see it.. that´s 'Bubu', at least the driver gave his vehicle that name. For 14 Yuan!! Not very comfortable, but a very funny experiance....