My wife and I spent nearly two weeks in Beijing in March, and we've been to China at least a dozen times. We've never had any problems with taxis, other than some drivers in Beijing didn't know where our destinations were. I should note that my wife is Chinese and speaks Mandarin. However, my experience with cabs was the same whether I went with her, or took them alone, including cabs to and from the airport.

This is exactly what I warned about a few posts earlier in this thread. My guess is that the receipt was correct in terms of time and date but that it had already been running when you got into the cab so the bill was inflated.

Always visually confirm that the meter has been reset. Of course, this is good advice wherever and whenever you get into a taxi.

Taxi to the St. Regis
 

We will be staying ther for 5 nights in August. Can anyone tell me if there is a Kisosk outside of customs that you can approach for help with a taxi. I know both the St. Regis and Westin in Shanghai have kiosks and they take you out to the curb an put you in a taxi to their hotels and give the drivers instructions. Is the same available at PEK?

Yes and no. When you exit the terminal, you'll see a line for taxis with a uniformed person managing the process. Ignore the touts inside the terminal, as well as the drivers who approach you as you cross over to the taxi line. When it's your turn (my experiience was that it was a very short wait for a cab), the uniformed person will hand you a little booklet that explains taxi laws in a variety of languages, including English, and direct you to a cab. It is a very, very good idea to have the name and address of the hotel written in Chinese characters as very few Beijing taxi drivers speak English. If you're staying at a more obscure hotel, it's probably a good idea to have the telephone number and cross streets -- I've found that Beijing taxi drivers are not as knowledgable about their city as I'm used to in other places (including in China).

imre, the wait has been 20+ minutes at 5p +/- 1 hour. as such, i've used touts 3 times in the last month (had never done so before) and all worked out well. however, a colleague -who is less pushy than myself- had a bad experience on my advice two weeks ago; basically, they threw an extra guy in his car, went to wudaokou, AND tried to extort him for more money when he got to his destination. fortunately, he called me in the midst of all this and i had the police meet him at the hotel; total fare = zero.

as scary as all that may seem, i remain confident that it's possible to play the touts and win as long as you aren't clueless (i can't even venture to imagine how i would have reacted when the second passenger was onloaded, let alone the wudaokou detour). bottom line, i will continue to use those guys during rush hour, in spite of the fact that many are not good people.

you've already hads tons of advice, but i'll add just two thoughts:

1. the airport taxi situation is confusing at best. so for the first time, plan to get picked up in advance and sit there in the arrivals (post customs) area, and don't talk to anyone and don't move until the person arrives with something with your name on it, period. next time at the airport, you'll be fine with a taxi.

2. metered taxis are just not a problem. i've taken them innumerable times and never had an issue (other than honestly getting lost looking for my obscure destinations a time or two). even if you think you've got some mandarin, get where you are going written down, and hand it to the driver. if the meter isn't on in 1 block, just point to it.

I was in Beijing last October for 3 weeks. I took metered cabs at least 2 dozen times, sometimes late in the evening. I didn't encouter any problem.

There were a couple of times the drivers had no idea of the places I wanted to go; but I didn't completely blame them. I previously visited Beijing in 1995, 1996 1998 and 2001. Each time, I was surprised to see how much the city had changed. The transformation is truly amazing.

I visited Bangkok and Beijing on the same trip 10 years ago. Then, I would say Bangkok was a more modern city; now I don't think it is even close (To be fair, I think Bangkok may have a better airport).

I have just returned from a few days in Beijing. I had arranged to be collected from the airport by my hotel (renaissance beijing) asthis was included in the rate. The pickup and subsequent drop off at the end of my stay worked perfectly. In my case they waited for me outside customs. I did notice that for some hotels (the kerry center?) they were picking up people inside the customs hall which I found unusual but I'm sure was useful to their clients.

I also used taxis throughtout my stay and had no 'meter' problems. On my last night the taxi driver found the complex where my restaurant was located but not the actual building itself. With some help from the local security guard we found th restauarant. Other than that they were all perfect experiences. I speak no Chinese (well excpet for hello and thank you !) so relied on the small cards that my hotel gave me. In addition my hotel would write the name and address of my destination on the card to hand to the doorman who liaised with the taxi driver. Systems worked well with the exception noted above. Have a great stay, Beijing is a fascinating place.

p.s thx to Phlwookie, Moondog, AZ and Sabrina for their pre trip advice