If a taxi at the station want to screw you, you will know quite quickly. The driver won't put the meter on.
Fake or tweaked meters are not common in BJ.
It doesn't happen often at the airport but it happens and it is quite the bore... Getting out of the cab and walking back to the station is the only option and won't be a problem.
Make sure they turn the meter on ASAP and you are OK.
Originally Posted by
TinDrum
Originally Posted by
lhgreengrd1
FYI, in the event you decide to take a cab to the Hilton Beijing from the airport, be aware of a scam ... I had the misfortune of getting on one of these, and ended up paying about 4 times what the legitimate taxi fare should have been .
Originally Posted by
Stripe
...I stayed in a long taxi queue at PEK (after arriving too late to catch the train). But I was approached probably a dozen times by guys trying to get me to take a private taxi. ... none of the touts could come close to that. As it was, the legitimate taxi driver tried to cheat me, so I would recommend avoiding taxis to/from the airport if possible. The trip back to PEK via subway and express train was a breeze.
Originally Posted by
moondog
This applies to pretty much every airport or train station in China. On the rare occasions that I use touts, I'm sure to lock everything down (destination, price, no other passengers) in advance. The lines at PEK tend to be manageable even when they are long (fast moving).
So if you do not speak any Chinese, how do you "lock everything down" and how do you prevent being taken for a ride quite literally? If a taxi driver delivers me to the Hilton with the meter reading a huge amount (say CNY 300 instead of the expected ~CNY 80), can I expect the hotel to intervene on my behalf?