1. Most Beijing taxis are Elantras. 4 people works okay enough unless 2 or more are big. I have never used XL in Beijing, but have in Shanghai. Wait times are a bit longer because the supply is limited, but they do show up eventually

2. Cashless is nice, but as you suggested, carrying cash is essential in China, albeit less and less so

3. Why would you trust an uber driver any more than a taxi driver? Whenever I want to get somewhere quickly, I always choose taxis because, odds are, taxi drivers are more knowledgeable about traffic patterns than Uber drivers (many of whom have less than 2 months experience).

I have taken a ton of taxis over the last 10 years and dishonest drivers are extremely rare in Beijing.
Once a driver took me to the wrong part of town. Honest mistake as it was a new hotel and once at destination, he asked me to pay whatever I wanted.
Another one took me far from my destination. My mistake, poor prononciation. He eventually got me there, had stopped the meter and said that it was free of charge. i still paid him the usual fare.
Where I have "bad" drivers" was outside popular tourist attractions. They were waiting for suckers. I always fly them on the street.

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 :)

I've only had to track down past taxis a handful of times, once because a (Chinese) friend was gouched coming into town from PEK, and the rest of the times because either myself or a friend left valuables behind. Believe it or not, recovery odds are pretty high. In Beijing, you generally either need a receipt or closed circuit video footage (cameras are everywhere) to pull this off because all of the taxis look the same. In Shanghai, in addition to the above, simply remembering the color of the taxi (this tells you the taxi company you need to call) and the drop off time/location is often sufficient.

In any event, it should go without saying that leaving valuables behind is best avoided, and that you should keep your receipts just in case your cell phone has a mind of its own.:D

With respect to circuitous routes, Beijing is idiot proof geography wise, and you can follow along with the map on your phone. If the driver does opt for a unique routing (e.g. 5th or 6th Ring to/from PEK), it's probably due to traffic issues, but if it starts to get too unique, simply speak up or point to your phone.

I don't use Uber but those who do may be interested in this: http://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/...di-acquisition

Well, in Beijing at least there's a lot wrong with taxis, such as not picking up foreigners, trying not to use the meter (sometimes), general indifference to actually providing service. Yes, most of them do their job as they should, but it's not always consistent.

so, update...
Upon arriving to Beijing, the uber app automatically switched to the china version (same app but different start screen, all in english), my original account did not work, but creating a new one was possible, and thats when the good news ended.
upon registration, payment had 4 options, alipay, baidu pay, international CC and unionpay(iirc).. Unfortunately neither my european Amex, MC or Visa were accepted as international CC and i wasnt able to get ali pay or baidu running....
Thus making Uber unusable for me in Beijing :(

Uber China, which is a separate company from Uber, is no longer usable with foreign credit cards.:mad: I wonder why Uber China even has an international CC option when they don't accept it. :confused:

If you accept the latest Uber update, the app will no longer work in China at all. As has been suggested in the Shanghai Uber thread, didi linked to Wechat Wallet is the best option for now.

Helpful guide by moondog.^^

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ride-...ebit-card.html

this is actually not accurate, i had the latest uber app, and it is same app, just switches between INT and CN version, a INT account wont work on on CN and viceversa.. I just landed in europe and the app switched back to the INT version

The old app is no longer supported.

That is correct, you can no longer use Uber in China using the current app you have that was downloaded from Google Play store or Apple store.

There is a separate Uber China app available for download that was created by the China company but it's useless if you can't read Chinese and don't have the china payment like alipay etc... CCs are not accepted.

English version and international CCs could be supported in the future, no timeline on this unfortunately.