When you stay at a nice hotel like the St Regis, you automatically become a target for the taxi drivers to rip you off.

The taxi we took from the Airport to the St Regis had a rigged meter which tripled the fare, a short distance before we reached the hotel.

The next day, we hired a taxi (a blue VW Santana) to go to the Great Wall (Mutianyu) and throughout the journey the driver kept mentioning that the St Regis was the most expensive hotel in Beijing. When we got back to the hotel, he demanded for extra money with the excuse that he was caught for speeding . Fortunately the bell boy was there and asked him to take what was agreed and screamed at him to leave ^ .

The next morning, he was outside the St Regis again waiting for his next victim !