UIBE, 28ºC, hazy
Across most of Europe and in America, if you hail a taxi, the driver must take you to where you ask. Not in China. Last Friday, five taxis no less refused to take three of us to the 798. When we left the 798, two taxi drivers were smoking a cigarette, and turned us away while they enjoyed their little break.
I certainly find it surprising that a taxi driver might choose to turn down business. But taxi fares in Beijing are not based on a combination of distance and time, but fares solely take into account distance. So if you want to travel to the other side of Beijing during rush hour, it is probably not worth the time of the driver to sit in traffic for more than an hour to do a journey that would take 20 minutes in light traffic. That being said, I only ever expected French taxi drivers to go on strike!
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