Taxi in China
It is difficult for any tourist who first came to this country to cope with their impressions of the grandeur and scale of everything, including territories, history, cultural development, economy, and transport. Taxis in China also keep pace with the times and with the entire Chinese economy. Finding a taxi is not a problem in any region of the country.
General tendencies of the Chinese taxi
Experienced travelers, based on their observations and personal experience, can briefly describe the work of a taxi in a particular city. Thus, the capital of the country will delight the guest with the presence of a large number of taxis at quite affordable prices. In Xi'an, a taxi, like all other transport, moves very slowly, no more than 40 km / h, in Kunming, due to the short metro line, there are a lot of traffic jams, so a taxi trip can be extended in time. Hong Kong and Shanghai, as the most advanced regions, are overpriced for taxi services.
Difficulties in translation
Since not every tourist is able to master the Chinese language even at a conversational level, communication difficulties will arise. Therefore, if you need a trip, you should insure yourself - either have a business card of the final point of the route, for example, a hotel or a shopping center, or ask the hotel administrator to write the desired address in hieroglyphs.
The second difficult point usually arises when calculating, since the local currency is the yuan, which is difficult for a beginner to understand. Therefore, at the beginning of the journey, you should demand that the meter be turned on, if for some reason the taxi driver forgot to do this. At the end point, be guided by the readings, the driver can call the amount 2-3 yuan more, this is an additional petrol fee, a sticker on the windshield warns about this.
Fare
The final price of a trip in a Chinese taxi is made up of several components, including:
- boarding a taxi, on average, 10 CNY (this is also the payment for the first 3-5 km of the route);
- payment for mileage, minimum rates 1.5 CNY, maximum 5 CNY, depending on the region of use, time, end point;
- payment for a downtime in a traffic jam (if the car is idle for more than five minutes);
- petrol tax, usually 2–3 CNY.
A guest in Beijing can call a taxi using a single order number (phone 96103), in other cities it is worth asking the hotel administrator for the taxi numbers. Recently, new electronic technologies for calling a taxi are gaining more and more popularity, for example, the Zuo He program - an application is downloaded to a mobile phone, then the tourist sends a voice message (calls the name, place where he is and where to get) and after 2-3 minutes a taxi will wait for the client at the appointed place.
