Originally Posted by
whipwhitaker
Thank you for all the information. I will actually fly out on NH to NRT, no checked lugguage. I am UA*G if that expedites anything at the airport. And it's a Sunday morning, not sure if that helps with anything.
As for the cab from the hotel to the airport, can I assume that hotel staff will get me in a metered (non-scam) cab and what wait time should I expect in Wangfujing?
Sorry for all these questions, I'm a first-time visitor to PEK...
Sunday morning, traffic should be much lighter, and can get from centre of town to PEK in 45 minutes. Agree that asking the hotel to arrange a cab the night before is standard. BUT, I am not confident that it will actually happen 'on the dot'...in reality, almost all hotels these days will just call a cab 5 minutes beforehand. That may mean a 15 minute wait for the car or a 1 minute wait. But yes, it will be 'scam free'. My comment was that 'scam free' taxis will be relatively thin on the ground in Wangfujing, because the pickings are so much richer for non-metered duping of tourists. Having said that, the worst times for this are friday/saturday evenings, when it can be genuinely hard to get an honest driver quickly.
tb