How to Take a Cab Ride in China
There is a basic flat charge for however short a ride you've taken. In many cities, this is ten Chinese yuan. This basic charge covers the first few – let's say five – kilometers of your ride. If your ride is less than five kilometers, you still pay the basic charge.
Beyond the basic charge, you pay extra for the additional kilometers and also for the additional time spent in waiting (either because you've stopped somewhere for an errand or because there is traffic jam). The way the additional charge is calculated varies from city to city.
You hail a cab by waiving to an approaching taxi that is empty. There is a little tag/light inside a taxi's windshield which can be flipped up or down to indicate whether the cab is empty and available for hire – up meaning for business and down meaning occupied already. If you're leaving a hotel, the hotel staff will call a cab for you.
You can sit either in the passenger seat upfront or in the backseat. Some Chinese prefer sitting upfront, either because they want to give the driver instructions as for what he wants to go or because they enjoy talking to the driver (most likely, however, it's the other way around; in China as elsewhere in the world, there are a lot of talkative cab drivers). Many taxies have bars that separate the driver and the passenger. This is mostly for the safety of the driver (to avoid carjacking, robbery, etc). It is generally quite safe to take taxis in China, especially for foreign visitors.
It is required that cab companies have their contact information, including the cab driver's license number, on display in the cab. You may want to make a mental note of the information, just in case you want to reach the cab company or locate the driver later on.
Before you take a cab ride, you may want to take a look at a map, to get some general ideas on where you're going and how to get there. Given that taxi drivers can be easily tracked down, most drivers would not want to play games – to go a longer route, for instance. Of course it doesn't hurt to be on the alert about it. Sometimes a driver may decide to take a longer route to avoid traffic so that you can deliver you to your destination sooner; this is legitimate if the different in distance is not all that great; remember that time spent in traffic jam is your money too.
You taxi driver may speak a tourist little English, but you really cannot count on it. Some hotels have the so-called “hotel cards” for their guests, which have the name, location and phone numbers of the hotel listed on it, in Chinese and English. Carry one of those and you know you can always return to where you stay.
When you pay a taxi driver, you can ask for a receipt. You may have no use for it, but again it is good to have it just in case you need it for some reasons later on. You pay what the meter indicates, and it is not customary to tip the taxi driver in China (this is all in flux right now in China; at some hotels that cater mostly to Western guests workers have wised up and do expect tips for services such carrying your luggage, etc.)
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