1, Thank you for this info, i was not sure if Beijing Taxis allow sitting in the front.

3, not necessarily trust a uber driver more, but there are fail-safes in case problems occur, i was tricked twice by Uber drivers, once in Strasbourg and once in Rio...
Both times I could see the route was abnormally long with a detour, I just had to open a support ticket and in both cases I was issued a refund in a matter of hours.

But, thank you, with your information I will honestly much more comfortable taking a taxi