Beijing Taxi Drivers
It seems that Beijing taxi drivers take a lot of criticism, some of it undoubtedly deserved, but 99.9% of all of the hundreds of taxi rides that I have had in traveling in Beijing over the past 8 years have been fine, and some of them even exceptional. Yesterday was one of those taxi rides - I took a short ride with a Beijing taxi driver from my home to Chaoyang Lu. The driver had the option of taking a longer route, but he chose the shortest way, and the final fare was 11 yuan. Seeing that I had only 100 yuan bills and a ten yuan bill, he happily accepted ten and told me not to worry about the other 1 yuan. I have had taxi rides where the driver will continue to inch forward until he gets the meter to record one additional yuan (those are the taxi drivers that give all of the rest a bad name), so it was great to have this friendly taxi driver accept a kuai less for the ride. I was happy to see that he also picked up 3 passengers right as I got out of his taxi. So here’s to the friendly taxi drivers of Beijing - they are out there, so don’t let the few bad ones give them all a bad reputation!
Tags: Beijing taxi drivers