Comments on: The Olympics Ruined Beijing Taxi Drivers

By: Augusto

Augusto — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:32:49 +0000

“I am reading these messages in July 2009 and nothing has changed.”

Let me tell you something:

>I am reading these messages in December 2011 and nothing has changed.<

By: Mark Salmon

Mark Salmon — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:19:54 +0000

The spellings and aggression inherent in most of the messages on this page suggest to me that they were written by north Americans. Why are people from your countries so aggressive, both in your language (peppered with offensive words) and in your body language and general demeanour? As a British man who has lived in Beijing for years, and who is a frequent user of taxis here (at least five or six times a week), I have only once had a driver withhold change, which he fancied as a tip (I insisted on being given all that was due to me). I find Beijing’s taxi drivers are always willing to engage in conversation, call their friend/boss if they don’t recognise the address I ask them to take me to, and are always good-natured. The key to success is to smile, be friendly, don’t talk too loudly (especially in a foreign language as this may come over as aggression) and keep your temper under control. I work with north Americans every day and the Chinese people I also work alongside are fully aware of the difference between north Americans (pushy, swearing, exhibiting aggressive body language and speaking loudly) and British people (much more polite, respectful, more placid and rarely using offensive language in front of Chinese women, children and men). Your comments on my observation are welcome, but please try to curb your aggression and keep your language suitable for the global audience that this website enjoys (and by that I mean please try to refrain from unpleasant language). It would also be best to use your real name and not hide behind a nickname or pseudonym.

By: gonzalo

gonzalo — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:33:14 +0000

Having lived in Beijing and Shanghai, I must say Beijing is full of rude, stupid, lazy bastards taxi drivers, who refuse customers, drive you around for unwanted “tourist trips”, don´t understand even if you speak perfect putonhua. In Shanghai is the opposite, plenty of taxis, never refusal and always drive you efficiently and know the city. These Beijing guys reflect the reality of China, a “wannabe” country still in the Iron Age. I am getting a driving license and a car just not to pay a penny to these miserable, crappy people. Fuck you, Beijing taxi drivers!

By: Rob Johnson

Rob Johnson — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:08:20 +0000

I am reading these messages in July 2009 and nothing has changed. Rude and surly, I have never been anywhere else where my destination has been refused so often, where drivers won’t put on their meters so frequently. It backfires on them too because I certainly don’t tip and I sit in the cab until ALL the change I have got coming is returned. It is usually pennies I wouldn’t bother mentioning elsewhere, but these grumpy guys are getting nothing extra off me. Beijing authorities need to sort this nonsense out unless they just want to be another third world ****hole. Although, no, I take that back, I’ve been in a number of ****holes where the people (taxi drivers included) had both dignity and charm. Beijing is just beyond the pale.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:22:27 +0000

In my experience, Beijing cabbies are the worst in China and they were like this long before the Olympics. They hate foreigners not because they hate foreigners, per se, but because they have no clue where they are going and they figure foreigners also don’t know.

By: AngelicaLee

AngelicaLee — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:26:19 +0000

you guides should get on one of the Guangzhou bus,and that is when the torture begins. Yet the taxis drivers here are a lot better

By: China tours

China tours — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:24:25 +0000

Even for our native Chinese, some of Beijing cabbies are not friendly and tricky. But there are still some nice ones. I agree with chriswaugh_bj. The news drivers from other provinces may have more living pressure in this metropolis, so they look more aggressive and rude.

By: Blog Roundup – November 14, 2008 | China-teachers.com

Blog Roundup – November 14, 2008 | China-teachers.com — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:03:12 +0000

[...] it’s frustrating being a foreigner in China. This guy blames his recent frustrations on the [...]

By: chriswaugh_bj

chriswaugh_bj — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:26:24 +0000

I have to disagree completely.

1: In my experience Beijing cabbies have always been gruff. One of the good aspects of my year in Taiyuan was the incredibly talkative cabbies- I learnt a hell of a lot of Chinese from them. Beijing was a bit of a shock, but I have never had such consistent trouble from the cabbies here as you all imply- and I’ve been in Beijing almost constantly since July 2001.

2: The cabbies here have always been gruff, but there’s always been a few of the more garrulous variety, and there’s only ever been a few who have been genuinely rude or (as implied) racist (refusing people based on their foreign appearance). Somewhere in the region of 90% of Beijing cabbies I have dealth with have obligingly, if perhaps gruffly, taken me where I told them I wanted to go. I’ve even had more than a few follow my directions rather than simply hear the destination and take the road they know.

3: I would agree that cab service has gotten worse, or at least less good, since people from the outer suburbs were allowed taxi licences. When I first moved to Beijing, all the cabbies were hardcore laoBeijingren, as in their families had been in inner city Beijing for generations, and they knew the city better than they knew the back of their own hands. Back then, getting in a cab meant the driver would as often as not zip through a bunch of non-descript hutongs in a not logically obvious series of zig-zags and arrive at your destination faster than you could’ve imagined possible. These days there are too many drivers from the outer suburbs who have lived in downtown Beijing for less time than my foreign self and don’t know the city anywhere near as well as I do, and who automatically head for the ring roads and other major arteries because they don’t know any better. I really need to get back in the habit of telling taxi drivers where to go.

4: Refusals and other bad taxi service are far more likely to happen in areas that attract tourists. Walk away. You generally don’t need to go more than a block before you’re back in normal Beijing. Of course, if you’re in a rural area, that becomes more difficult. Buses are your very good friends. Bus to somewhere you’ll get a regular cabbie, not tourist predator scum.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:11:59 +0000

I’ve not been to Beijing yet however that’s the way the taxi’s were in Xian. They wouldn’t even stop for me unless I was carrying luggage. I was headed from the north gate to the south gate (nan da men) and I went up to a taxi at a red light who was waiting and he flipped his sign and refused to even listen to me. However once you get out of the cities that foreigners have been to (like the city I am teaching in Jingbian (靖边) then they flock to you-especially since you’re probably their first foreigner.