I'm posting this evening in order to advise you guys that the drivers are getting dumber by the day. Since my knowledge of Beijing geography is better than 99% of them, I tend to get by well enough.

However, after two dreadful experiences on Saturday (which managed to take the wind out of my sails), I feel compelled to advise you guys to "get smart".

On the bright side, taxis in China are still absurdly cheap. But, when you balance this benefit against the fact that higher paying jobs are increasingly on offer to competent folks, it is pretty easy to understand why the guys that continue to drive taxis: 1) aren't especially intelligent on the whole; and 2) tend to come from the stix.

The short of it is that Beijing is an easy city for a person of average intelligence to pin down (even before touching ground the first time). Sure, the old "show them the address" advice still works, but if you actually care about your time, you might want to consider being a bit more proactive.

Switching gears, the "aircon" issue is huge during early/late summer. While it's polite to ask, the best course of action is often to take matters into your own hands.

In closing, there is no need to fear taxis; I'm posting only to give you guys a head's up.

Yep.

Note to self/others: let's ask SD1K to merge all of the BJ drivers threads. Doing so would make me so happy (I receive around 50 emails per year wrt this topic, to which I always gladly respond, but if we could keep the relevant data in one place, all would be better served).

Having gotten that preamble out of the way, here's another driver who I chanced upon yesterday that deserves props within our community:

Mr. Zhou (Guang)
13011097572

He drives a fairly new (2010+) Passat, which I found to be a step up from a Sonota and no worse than an A6. I asked him (in Chinese) if he spoke English and he replied (in Chinese), "a little." His current Mutianyu rate is y700. I asked him if he'd consider y500, and he laughed at me.

Honestly, I think you guys stress too much about the English issue. In short, apart from your hotel concierges, there are at least 10 people here that speak Chinese and know more about BJ/SH geography than the average driver. Assuming we like you (since the dawn of this forum, only a handful of folks have scored spots on the "dislike list"), we'll give you our cell phone numbers, and you'll have nothing to worry about.

I am not sure I agree w u about the English thing, because of the combination of two factors: (1) these cities have grown so fast that many drivers get lost very easily even if they have a Chinese written taxi card prepared by your concierge and (2) the intelligence and education of many taxi drivers does not seem very high. I have often been left off at the wrong building/address, one time over a mile away on the same street. It all works out in the end, if you don't mind getting lost, walking around the street like an idiot trying to find a half English person who can redirect you; and you are ok being late.

At certain peak times, it can also be difficult to get a taxi.

On the other hand, the problems occur in a minority of occasions, and the private cars cost more (about 2x) than the public taxis, although both are pretty cheap in a global sense.

They're not smart, but you are, and I'm willing to bet that your driver who speaks perfect English will find a better job within the course of a year.

If you simply take a few minutes to get your bearings and know how to say, "right, left, straight, stop", you'll be fine.

[QUOTE=nologic;16419558]I am not sure I agree w u about the English thing, because of the combination of two factors: (1) these cities have grown so fast that many drivers get lost very easily even if they have a Chinese written taxi card prepared by your concierge and (2) the intelligence and education of many taxi drivers does not seem very high. I have often been left off at the wrong building/address, one time over a mile away on the same street. It all works out in the end, if you don't mind getting lost, walking around the street like an idiot trying to find a half English person who can redirect you; and you are ok being late.

QUOTE]

Every traveler with a critical destination (business meeting, theater venue, etc.) needs to write down the phone number of someone (secretary, customer service, etc.) at that destination, not just the address in Chinese. All cab drivers have mobile phones, and in case of confusion can pull over and call the number, to get guided in by a fellow native Chinese speaker. Or take your own phone with local SIM, dial the destination yourself and hand phone to driver.

Another useful strategy that works for many situations is to locate the closest big landmark or famous building to your actual destination as a proxy, and have driver head for that.

If you are going somewhere for the first time, allow extra time. Once you are a repeat traveler heading to a familiar destination, you can easily do the "right left straight stop" thing.

You have to remember that Chinese cities are so big and so quick to grow, that drivers who may be familiar with districts on the west side of town can be clueless when trying to find their way around the east side. Particularly newer licensees. I think this is more of the problem rather than an intelligence issue.

This is more important in BJ than SH (the addresses down there are somewhat useful than they are here), and most other Chinese cities.

That having been said, the drill is actually quite easy, as long as you can get over the fact that your driver is not a genius. I was up in Shunyi today (past the airport) and our driver was a complete dolt. But, by simply noting the position of the sun, I was able to direct him towards home.

Try pointing to where you want to go on a map, of course written in Chinese.

NOT!

Is his rate of y700 to pick up at hotel, drive to Mutianyu, wait and bring back? That seems reasonable for a day's driving.

Does he do airport pickups/ dropoffs? Would he be less than a taxi for that?

For someone who won't have a cell phone while traveling in China, would the concierge at hotels be able to call him for me to make arrangements? My cell phone won't work in China as I don't have any kind of international plan; I'm with T-Mobile and do not have a smart phone, just a basic talk cell phone.

Yeah, but y500 has been our benchmark for the past few years; you can probably still fetch that if you don't mind riding a crappy car. The y350 figure that a certain poster tosses around is pure fantasy.

Don't care about the type of car. There will be only 2 of us, and no luggage for day trips to the Wall or Ming Tombs, another place I was thinking about going to see.

Good info. How long does it take? I remember it being 90 minutes - has to be worse now, right?

I can't remember what the rate for Mutianyu (driver had an A6, spoke no English - more on that in a minute) in 'Nov '05 - think it was 350 or 400. So 700 doesn't seem that bad given the time and exchange rate change.

My hotel set up the trip so I didn't think the language would be an issue; and I knew I wouldn't need/want a guide at the Wall to slow me down. But on the way back, I had to go to the restroom 'real bad'. Took a few minutes to get the request understood, but we both had a laugh about it.

Since the RMB has appreciated against the USD (and most other currencies), 700 today is more like 850 in 2005. Nonetheless, even though 700 is a bit on the expensive side, the number pencils when you add up all of the fixed costs the driver incurs. I would offer 400 or 500 and hope to settle on 600.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...6&ie=UTF8&z=10

90 minutes sounds about right. Remember the congestion usually only affects the inner city areas. Once you're out on the expressway you'll be there in the blink of an eye. The traffic conditions around Mutianyu should be OK except perhaps during weekends.

beijing 10 to the Wall
 

I'll be going next week with 9 other people (4 in one hotel, 6 in another 2 miles away) staying in Chaoyang, wanting to go to the Wall/Mutianyu. One of my traveling partners got a quote of 2900RMB for a van/english speaker from his hotel concierge. That's been made clear to me in this thread that its too high.

But for 10 people, what is a good fare (and/or a good phone #/email address) to get us there and back?