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[Borkya]

Cause their bastards. Seriously, Hangzhou taxis are the worst. They are very picky and selective and they have a shift change at 4:30. So basically between 4 and 6pm, you know, the time pretty much everyone wants a taxi, it is near impossible to get one. They will only take you if you are going near their hub. They do it to Chinese people too.


Once, at about 4:15 or so I saw a taxi pull over for someone, but just open their window and ask where they were going. A ton of people flocked to the taxi (because it was the only one that actually stopped) and he basically surveyed the crowd, was clearly not impressed with any of the destinations and took off, leaving a bunch of pissed off chinese people!

[latefordinner]

EL, when you become supreme ruler, etc, there are a great many others who need to be put against the wall first. I suggest we leave the taxi drivers until mid-morning the first day.
At Zhoushuizi airport in Dalian, taxis at the official taxi queue have to pay a surcharge to leave the airport, and that fee gets added to your bill. Black taxis park in the visitors lot. I don't know what the fee for them is, but they more than mark it up. I quite routinely walk the few hundred metres to the nearest big road and either catch a bus there or hail a cab there, and save myself a few kuai. TBH, I like it when these guyslook at the foreigner walking away with his baggage and not riding with any of them. I hope it gives them something to think about
Borkya, I know what you mean about shift change. Same in my city. Ad to that, driver's disinclination to use the meter or go to undesireable location when the weather is bad. I can recal a time when I left the house a half hour early because it was raining, and deciding not to take the bus because I thought a taxi would be faster. Not only did it take a half hour before a taxi would stop for me, but he had to pick up and drop off 3 other people on the way. A 10 kuai ride cost me 25, and I got to school late.
Someone at work once asked me why I routinely take the bus rather than a taxi. I replied that in the 9 years I've been in Dalian, I've never once seen a bus driver get lost.

[The Local Dialect]

The shift switch thing is a huge problem in Kunming with the taxis. Pretty much the entire fleet switches right at rush hour. I don't know why they don't stagger the shifts a bit but I guess that would make too much sense. And if it happens to be raining -- forget it. You and every other poor carless schmuck in town will have the same bright idea and people can vicious with their cab ganking.

They do the shift thing in Beijing too but I think enough drivers here have their taxis all day that it isn't as huge a deal as it is in the second tier cities.

What mostly ticks me off about the Beijing taxis is that they can be pretty choosy about their fares. They usually won't rip you off or anything like that, it is just that if they think you look like you're going to be a bother they'll just pass you by. I hate trying to catch a cab with my parents -- on top of being very foreign, they're both pretty overweight and my dad has a cane. I have to make them hide when I'm trying to flag down a cab. With my two kids it is hit and miss. Some cabbies take pity on me with the kids (especially in bad weather), the rest take one look and say thanks but no thanks. It isn't a shift thing because you'll see them picking up the next guys a hundred meters down the way.

Oh and they drive like maniacs too, especially the younger cabbies. We take public transport 95% of the time because it is safer and less hassle.

[Mimi]

The shift switch thing is a huge problem in Kunming with the taxis. Pretty much the entire fleet switches right at rush hour. I don't know why they don't stagger the shifts a bit but I guess that would make too much sense. And if it happens to be raining -- forget it. You and every other poor carless schmuck in town will have the same bright idea and people can vicious with their cab ganking.

This is priceless wisdom for pretty much every major Chinese city outside of the Beijng/Shanghai/Guangzhou loop.  It is impossible to get a cab during the evening rush hour and you might as well give up if it is raining.  There is a major thing against getting wet here.  The other day I got caught in some apocalyptic storm and did a metro+bus+taxi route that took me 40 minutes and cost me 22Y.  I normally do a straight taxi that takes less than 10 minutes and costs me 15Y, but it just wasn't going to happen unless I was willing to be extremely rude.

[Escaped Lunatic]

One other hint for catching an airport taxi (may or may not work depending on how the airport ENFORCES the taxi queue).  Head over to the departures drop off and try to grab one that someone is getting out of.

[milkweed]

My experience in Beijing with Taxis at the airport was a scam. They drove me to the WRONG hotel and over charged me, then after asking reception for the correct location of my hotel I walked a short distance back up the road and a woman driving an unmarked car offered to drive me a very short distance around the corner to my correct hotel and overcharge me yet again. I was then too tired to argue (having just flown 14 odd hours from New Zealand) and went inside to the hotel for a shouting match with the hotel reception over double payment. (A whole another story). Take care in China. It's full of scams and rip offs.

[seanf]

Can anyone confirm if you are supposed to pay the toll charges on the way to departures at Beijing airport?  I have only taken a taxi there once and the driver had already pulled the no-meter scam (I got out of the car before he changed his mind) then later took me for an extra five minute run past the turning for my terminal.  When we reached the toll booth he turned around and mimed wanting me to pay, so I just pretended not to understand him over and over again until he gave up.  Once we reached the airport he had moved on to shouting at me in Chinese and holding my suitcase hostage in the boot (trunk).  He got out of the car to shout some more, so I got out and held his taxi hostage by standing in front of the driver's door and giving him a mouthfull of the choicest English phrases!  At this point he decided to release my suitcase

This is the only trouble I have had with drivers across China, but it did wind me up

Sean

[Borkya]

i just took a taxi to and from the Beijing airport. On the way out, got no extra charge. But on the way in, the guy added the 5 kuai fee to it. So i think that's what they do.

By the way, to answer to OP question, my taxi was at around 11:15 or so at night. And there was a huge line, and a ton of taxis available in the official taxi line. I think the airport world doesn't really operate on the same time schedule as the real world and midnight is just the same as say, 3 pm. (in terms of available taxis.)