Liang Hongfu

Taking taxis in big cities causes major headaches

By Liang Hongfu (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-03 06:40

The Spring Festival holiday is only a few weeks away and the country is bracing for the travel craze that will tax the nationwide transportation network to its limit. While the media spotlight, as usual, is focused on the railway operators and the airline companies, many of the perennial problems that have been irking the travelling public daily have largely been ignored for years.

Let's take Beijing Railway Station. Everybody who arrives at the capital by train, and they number in the tens of millions each year, would have been confronted by the frustration of getting a regular metered taxi. There are none.

Instead, the place is swamped with what Beijing people so appropriately call "black" cabs. Not all of them are painted black, of course. The nickname for these unlicensed taxis carries a sinister connotation that goes beyond rudeness and overcharging. Reports of unwary patrons of these "black" taxis being driven against their will to deserted places and robbed are not uncommon.

In Shanghai, the Maglev Train that links Pudong Airport to a subway interchange is fast and quiet. It's certainly fun to ride, except that it doesn't go very far. Most people take a taxi into town from the interchange because the busy subway is not always a viable alternative, especially for those carrying heavy luggage.

But the taxi stand outside the Maglev interchange is in a permanent state of chaos. Walking up there is like entering into the bazaar of a booming market town on weekends. If you want a taxi, you'd better observe the ritual.

You'll first be confronted by a chorus of taxi drivers and their cohorts asking where you want to go. Then you should shout out your destination to nobody in particular, preferably in Shanghai dialect, although Mandarin and English will do. Then wait for someone to approach you and make you an offer. If you think the fare he or she demands is not too exorbitant you should quickly agree. The people working there have little patience because they know that they have something you need desperately, especially after a long and tiring flight.

This is, of course, nothing new to many seasoned travellers. Just a few years ago, the situation outside the Shenzhen railway station was a lot worse. In that boomtown then, taxi meters were nothing more than mere decorations. Fares were subject to the whim of the taxi drivers, all of whom looked tough and mean.

But efforts by the Shenzhen Government to clamp down on unruly taxi drivers have produced results. Taking a taxi in that border town is no longer a scary adventure. Taxis are easy to find and the chance of being fleeced by unscrupulous drivers is remote.

Perhaps the nagging transportation problems at Beijing Railway Station and the Shanghai Maglev interchange are too small to warrant the attention of the respective municipal governments. Otherwise, it is difficult to think of a logical reason why they have remained a constant irritation to so many commuters using those facilities for so long.

Email: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/03/2006 page4)