Step 1: If you don't know where you're going, talk to some folks on the street before you flag down the cab. Ask them about the general direction in which you should head.

Step 2: If you notice the taxi driver clearly not going in that direction, just act a little surprised and ask them why they took this particular street (you don't even have to understand their response). This gives them the idea you know the correct route to your destination, even if you really don't.

So basically, this strategy is just to trick them into thinking you know where you're going. Never give a taxi driver a reason to think you're not familiar with the route, even if you really have no idea. --don't ask how much it should cost to get somewhere. --don't ask how far is it to your destination. --etc.

Oh, you have to react!

Tell them where to go, don't be shy. It's ok

Also, be very alert at all times (no reading books or magazines or sending smses).

Well there have been many times when I ask the driver to stop somewhere and he sloooooowly applies the brakes and drops me off 50 yards down the road....and of course the meter has clicked that one more kuai. Happens too often to be a coincidence.

How many times have you looked at the Identification card on the dash and relaized it was a different person behind the wheel? Why? If you had a problem how would you track down the driver?

I put my parents (who speak no Chinese) in a taxi and sent them to Lido Hotel from my apartment next to IKEA. Ok, that's like less than a 3 km ride. The driver said OK, he know where it was. I even gave him directions "Make a left here, go up two streets and make a right. Three blocks on your right." Not to mention it is a landmark that every other driver seems to know.

An hour later my parents arrive in Lido with a 40 kuai cab ride. I'd like to call it ignorance, blame it on my poor Chinese, or some other excuse for the driver...but it was just plain thievery. Plain and simple.

Sometimes I get great drivers who love to talk, have clean cabs, don't smoke and drive safely. But watch yourself...there are plenty of creeps out there too. Just ask a Chinese girl to take a cab ride home alone at 2am when she's had too much to drink. They are scared for a reason.

You know you have lived in China too long when a "nice and honest" taxi driver is a pleasant surprise. I hate going to other parts of China where I don't have any idea of where I am going. I immediately tense up in the taxi and am prepared to get ripped off

I have been a number of years and although I dont take taxis too much anymore, I find the drivers are pretty reliable about taking you to the right place on the correct route. My Chinese is very limited but I know the city well and other than perhaps my first year in Beijing where I had one instance with one of the black cabs, my experience has been good.
Other cities, a different story, often times you have to negotiate the price at first, even if they have meters, and some like in Nanjing will pay a toll, lets say 20 yuan and then when its time for payment, up that toll to 30, thinking you are too dumb to know better. Beijing cabbies are generally good, and when they refuse to take you for some reason, do make an effort to start to write down their taxi card number, and its amazing how quickly they will change their mind about taking you.

Make a show of writing down the cab's number as soon as you get in.

Don't be overly friendly, just be curt and business like.

Remain very alert.

If you are sure you have been ripped off, don't pay. Whip out your mobile phone, if they relent, you know you're right. If they are prepared to let you call them in, maybe you're wrong.

Never pass out in a cab. It's not cool.

Ladies, pack mace or a taser.

Your all crazy i have never been ripped off by a taxi driver I know the city really well and have never had a problem. I think a lot of you are just paranoid because you don't know the roads here.

Hmmm, well, I'm not so sure about that.

Back home every taxi driver has to take this exam about knowing the streeets and all that, and it is almost a general knowlegde that taxi drivers know the city best.

Here it happened to me few times that the guy didn't know where Dongzhimen is, I mean, that should be basic.

But of course, there are prick taxi drivers back home too, only I haven't really ever had a real bad experience with them, but I heard dsome other people did.

Anyway, you are right about money, it's not the money that matters, it's my time that he's wasting.

Many of the taxi drivers are complete morons. I've also had drivers tell me they don't know where dongzhimen is. Hellooooo........Anybody home?

It doesn't take much for a taxi driver to actually look at a map of Beijing every once in a while so he can do his job....Is that too much to ask?

The only problem i've had several times is taxi drivers who refuse to take me where I'm going. They tend to pull up by the oriental plaza and pretend to be going on a break, but if someone comes by going in the direction they want to go, then they will suddenly not be on break anymore. I think part of the problem is the bad traffic, because they don't want to go somewhere where they will just be sitting in traffic for half an hour. I'm not sure if threatening to complain would work or not for those types.

well, the problem is that they DO know where I'm going, but are just unwilling to go in that direction (like they say they're only headed east when I want to go west), and usually with a crowd of people waiting for taxis there will be someone going the way they want to go, so they will take that person.

I discussed this thread with a native Beijingren. She said the same thing described by jakeller23 has happened to her many times. So it's not only happening to laowai. The bottom line is that taxi drivers make peanuts for long hours of work, and they are going to make some trade-offs to try to increase their income. If your destination is a place where the driver can't easily find a customer, he's going to be more reluctant about going there. It's annoying as hell, but it's hard to blame them.

there's one more thing to have in mind, as it happened a few times to me.

always make sure you've got change, a few 1 and 5 notes of chairman mao. sometimes you give them a 20 and they'll just say they don't have any change.

usually they know you're in a hurry and can't be bothered to try and get change for a 17rmb faire.

oooooh
i like beijing taxi drivers
i missed the time when i was riding in a stinky xiali with a half drunk driver providing me with some insight regarding

- my life and the course of events that led me in their cab on this exact day / my professional career, why, where, when, how much ?

- the breeding of pigeons (belgium is famous for pigeons, taxi drivers like pigeons)

- my love life
(the last and most recent one was just so cute and nice with me, he knew the guy, gave me a circumstancial analysis of the situation and told me "sister, u got only one thing to do, u got to let him know what s in your heart, otherwise, mei banfa, aiyah" at 8 in the morning when ur aforementioned heart is all blue and sad, it makes u feel good)

- or when we start comparing the merits of our countries
(and when u play belgium / china, u got quite some remarks to make)

- football world cup was a blast, every night, i was goin on endless discussions about the merits of italy and france and even these japanese with their funky haircuts, and the decay of the red devils (my derelictent national team)

- the taxi driver who could say hello in so many languages, awful pronunciation but, man, he knew his stuff and he was so proud, and i was so shocked to hear some french coming from the front seat i thought there was a hidden passager

- the one who was so happy to tell me his daughter was working for the same company as me, that was a beaming dad

- the xylophonic "todododo dododo do do do! wufa qinqi" (approximative pinyin) the traffic bulletin

- the same old guy who s on radio 24/7/365 with his creaky voice to narrate i don t know what
and i wonder when he sleeps or when he ll run short of sth else to add, it goes way beyond "The Archers", it s one of the biggest broadcasted monuments ever produced

- the driver more drunk than i was
(when i had left my scooter at the bar to go home safe) who took the cement border of the bridge pillar at 40 and just laughed, i m sure his suspension and his exhaust pipe and his car frame didn t

- the one who explained to me with details the exact amount of respectively beer and baijiu (by number of bottles and crates) he could drink and still be able to drive

- the smells, sometimes hard to cope with but it gives an identity to your ride (and it s disappearing)

they re the socio-professional category i ve the most extended contacts with
i know more about some taxi drivers after 20 mins than some of my colleagues in 3 years, it s like entering their home, their own space

and my chinese is uber crap !

most of all,
they re cheap AND they re useful
if not perfect

they don t know beijing ?
sometimes, but they don t have a test to pass
not their fault, ask the authorities

and EVERYWHERE, u ll find some taxi drivers who will try to cheat

really outweighs my bad experiences and the few kuai i ve been ripped off

Haha! Did you guys try to get discounts on SH taxis late at night?