We all have certain mental images when it comes to taxis. Either from one we have used ourselves or from ones we have seen in films and photos. A taxi is a mean of public transport that can be found everywhere in the world. It comes in different shapes and colours, but the purpose is the same, to take customers wherever they want to, no matter the time.
A while ago, I blogged about taxis in Guiyang and Shanghai and said that at least in Guiyang, there are no taxi ranks and that you can't call a taxi to pick you up. You have to go to a corner and hail one. I had the same experience in Shanghai. The receptionist of the hotel I was staying at, was unable to book a taxi for me and advised to try my luck on the street. This can be difficult and time consuming. For a start, finding an empty taxi is sheer impossible and if you happen to find one, you might not be the only customer, because the driver will try to find other people along the route who go more or less the same way. This means that you might end up sharing your cab with complete strangers who get on and off and each pays their share of the fare. If your Chinese is at an advanced level, you can demand to be the only customer, after all it is your right.
The only ranks in Guiyang can be found at the two train stations, the bus station and the airport. I noticed that other cities have ranks at train and bus stations and airports, but I'm not sure about ranks in the cities.
Since China allows certain western goods, ideas and services, it was a question of time for UBER to enter the country. And like in many cases, the Chinese copied it and invented DIDI. The result was that the two companies merged and UBER is no more. So, if you want to be picked up, you have to call a DIDI-driver via an App. Not sure if the App is available in any foreign languages as I have never used it. You can order a private cab via the WeChat App, but the booking service is available in Chinese only. Don't expect official taxi drivers to speak any foreign languages (I have had the fortune of finding an English speaking driver only twice), know the address or the landmark you want to go to. Many drivers are from rural areas and therefore illiterate. They don't know places such as the Grand Theatre or the Rainbow Bridge in Guiyang, they can't read the address on the paper or the mobile phone screen, etc. If you don't speak any Chinese and/or don't know the way yourself, call a friend who is or speaks Chinese and let them guide the driver to the destination. Or open Baidu Maps (in Chinese only) or iMaps (Google maps work only with a VPN and are not reliable, I got lost many times) and hand your mobile phone over to the driver until you reach your destination. Most taxi drivers (at least from my experience) don't have a Sat-Nav in their car.
I had much trouble in Guiyang going either into town or back to Jinyang, a suburb in the north, on a night out. Things improved when I moved to the centre of Huaguoyuan in the city, the drivers knew where to take me.
Taxis are very cheap in China and you can cover long distances and pay very little compared to what you would pay anywhere in the West. I once took a cab in Zhengzhou, central China and paid 100 yuan (approx. 11 GBP) for a journey that lasted about an hour. I was on a tour around the country and got off the bullet train at the station of Zhengzhou, only to find out that I was in the middle of nowhere, somewhere west of the city. I fired up various maps to make sure of the location, and all of them showed a dot far outside the city. The city however has a train station in the centre, but for trains that either start or end there. Bullet trains that go to other destinations stop far outside. This station also shuts a few minutes after the train has left. If you need to go to the loo, do it quick. Outside the station you'll find various taxis and drivers who will approach you. When they saw me, they started shouting numbers in English, even though they didn't know where I wanted to go. I then walked to a taxi that was parked aside. The driver wasn't there, but he came running when he saw me. I showed him the name of the hotel and the address and got in. The taxi was filthy, the seatbelt worked with some effort, but left a black stain across my white t-shirt and the driver didn't know the way. He called someone who gave him instructions and about an hour later, he stopped at the side of the hotel.
Two days later, I asked at reception if they could call me a taxi to drive me to the bus station of Zhengzhou. To my surprise, they could. The second surprise followed a few minutes later, when a taxi with a female driver stopped in front of the hotel. I sat as always on the backseat and noticed that the driver was watching me through the rearview mirror the entire journey. The third surprise was that her car was clean and not dirty or filthy like many taxis.
Taxis in China have different colours, even in the same city. There are four different colours in Guiyang. The green ones are the filthiest and the ones to avoid, which is hard, because they are everywhere. The white ones are the cleanest, best and newest cars.
The picture changes with the private drivers. Their cars are clean, the drivers are clean too, they use Baidu Maps or Sat-Navs and they seem to know their way round. Only once in Shanghai had the driver trouble finding the club we wanted to go to, but I can't blame him, it was very difficult to find it. We had to ask for directions many times.
Besides taxi cars, you can find motorcycle taxis, like in many other places in Asia. In touristy places, they usually have three wheels, in cities and towns, they have two wheels. These kind of taxis usually have ranks, at least the three wheel ones in touristy places. But also the normal motorcycle taxis often wait for customers at certain squares, streets, sights or shopping centres or outside night clubs. They do not have metres, so you'll need to negotiate the price. They put on some sort of umbrella/parasol for rainy and sunny days, but you may catch a cold in winter. They are cheaper than normal taxis and at least the two wheel motorcycle taxis are quite fast. If the drivers know the area well, they will use shortcuts, drive on pavements to avoid traffic jams and manoeuvre between cars.
Many drivers will try to cheat you, by driving a longer way or not using the metre. To avoid that, point at the metre if you don't speak the language and insist on it using it, if not, get off and take another taxi. Fire up maps on your smartphone and check the route or have a Chinese person with you. If you know the way communicate it to the driver either orally (if you speak the language) or by using the international language of gestures. Don't be surprised if the driver stops instead of going straight or does not understand your hand signs. He may be confused because you might be the first customer using sign language or he knows different hand signs than you do. Ask a Chinese to show you how to indicate straight, left, right and stop. Then get on a taxi and try it. It's a lot of fun.
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A while ago, I blogged about taxis in Guiyang and Shanghai and said that at least in Guiyang, there are no taxi ranks and that you can't call a taxi to pick you up. You have to go to a corner and hail one. I had the same experience in Shanghai. The receptionist of the hotel I was staying at, was unable to book a taxi for me and advised to try my luck on the street. This can be difficult and time consuming. For a start, finding an empty taxi is sheer impossible and if you happen to find one, you might not be the only customer, because the driver will try to find other people along the route who go more or less the same way. This means that you might end up sharing your cab with complete strangers who get on and off and each pays their share of the fare. If your Chinese is at an advanced level, you can demand to be the only customer, after all it is your right.
The only ranks in Guiyang can be found at the two train stations, the bus station and the airport. I noticed that other cities have ranks at train and bus stations and airports, but I'm not sure about ranks in the cities.
Since China allows certain western goods, ideas and services, it was a question of time for UBER to enter the country. And like in many cases, the Chinese copied it and invented DIDI. The result was that the two companies merged and UBER is no more. So, if you want to be picked up, you have to call a DIDI-driver via an App. Not sure if the App is available in any foreign languages as I have never used it. You can order a private cab via the WeChat App, but the booking service is available in Chinese only. Don't expect official taxi drivers to speak any foreign languages (I have had the fortune of finding an English speaking driver only twice), know the address or the landmark you want to go to. Many drivers are from rural areas and therefore illiterate. They don't know places such as the Grand Theatre or the Rainbow Bridge in Guiyang, they can't read the address on the paper or the mobile phone screen, etc. If you don't speak any Chinese and/or don't know the way yourself, call a friend who is or speaks Chinese and let them guide the driver to the destination. Or open Baidu Maps (in Chinese only) or iMaps (Google maps work only with a VPN and are not reliable, I got lost many times) and hand your mobile phone over to the driver until you reach your destination. Most taxi drivers (at least from my experience) don't have a Sat-Nav in their car.
I had much trouble in Guiyang going either into town or back to Jinyang, a suburb in the north, on a night out. Things improved when I moved to the centre of Huaguoyuan in the city, the drivers knew where to take me.
Taxis are very cheap in China and you can cover long distances and pay very little compared to what you would pay anywhere in the West. I once took a cab in Zhengzhou, central China and paid 100 yuan (approx. 11 GBP) for a journey that lasted about an hour. I was on a tour around the country and got off the bullet train at the station of Zhengzhou, only to find out that I was in the middle of nowhere, somewhere west of the city. I fired up various maps to make sure of the location, and all of them showed a dot far outside the city. The city however has a train station in the centre, but for trains that either start or end there. Bullet trains that go to other destinations stop far outside. This station also shuts a few minutes after the train has left. If you need to go to the loo, do it quick. Outside the station you'll find various taxis and drivers who will approach you. When they saw me, they started shouting numbers in English, even though they didn't know where I wanted to go. I then walked to a taxi that was parked aside. The driver wasn't there, but he came running when he saw me. I showed him the name of the hotel and the address and got in. The taxi was filthy, the seatbelt worked with some effort, but left a black stain across my white t-shirt and the driver didn't know the way. He called someone who gave him instructions and about an hour later, he stopped at the side of the hotel.
Two days later, I asked at reception if they could call me a taxi to drive me to the bus station of Zhengzhou. To my surprise, they could. The second surprise followed a few minutes later, when a taxi with a female driver stopped in front of the hotel. I sat as always on the backseat and noticed that the driver was watching me through the rearview mirror the entire journey. The third surprise was that her car was clean and not dirty or filthy like many taxis.
Taxis in China have different colours, even in the same city. There are four different colours in Guiyang. The green ones are the filthiest and the ones to avoid, which is hard, because they are everywhere. The white ones are the cleanest, best and newest cars.
The picture changes with the private drivers. Their cars are clean, the drivers are clean too, they use Baidu Maps or Sat-Navs and they seem to know their way round. Only once in Shanghai had the driver trouble finding the club we wanted to go to, but I can't blame him, it was very difficult to find it. We had to ask for directions many times.
Besides taxi cars, you can find motorcycle taxis, like in many other places in Asia. In touristy places, they usually have three wheels, in cities and towns, they have two wheels. These kind of taxis usually have ranks, at least the three wheel ones in touristy places. But also the normal motorcycle taxis often wait for customers at certain squares, streets, sights or shopping centres or outside night clubs. They do not have metres, so you'll need to negotiate the price. They put on some sort of umbrella/parasol for rainy and sunny days, but you may catch a cold in winter. They are cheaper than normal taxis and at least the two wheel motorcycle taxis are quite fast. If the drivers know the area well, they will use shortcuts, drive on pavements to avoid traffic jams and manoeuvre between cars.
Many drivers will try to cheat you, by driving a longer way or not using the metre. To avoid that, point at the metre if you don't speak the language and insist on it using it, if not, get off and take another taxi. Fire up maps on your smartphone and check the route or have a Chinese person with you. If you know the way communicate it to the driver either orally (if you speak the language) or by using the international language of gestures. Don't be surprised if the driver stops instead of going straight or does not understand your hand signs. He may be confused because you might be the first customer using sign language or he knows different hand signs than you do. Ask a Chinese to show you how to indicate straight, left, right and stop. Then get on a taxi and try it. It's a lot of fun.
This is my friend Jerry in Suzhou a few months ago.
This sleeping beauty is in Guiyang.
