reasons that I love black taxis

Today we took a train to Shanghai so we could pick up Michael's dad tomorrow... and my ohh my was it an interesting adventure.



In order to get to the train station in Hangzhou, we usually take a bus, which takes about an hour.. and only costs you 2 RMB (or less) but since we had so many suitcases (that's our crap), we decided to take a taxi... We tried to put our things into one taxi and the guy wouldn't let us, so I headed off to the train station and Mike waited for another cab. As we were driving my cab driver said, "If you give me 10 RMB, I'll get both of you there." I told him that would be good, but Mike already had his cab. Money down the drain (only 20 RMB more).

We get on the train, which we have taken to Shanghai twice and there is no English (WHY?!)over the loudspeaker to tell us when we arrive. Keep in mind that we are tired, grumpy and sick of hauling all of the luggage that we have. We aren't paying attention, and we get off when the train stops. After bargaining a black taxi down to 80 RMB, we load our things in his van and his friends tell us we got off at the wrong station. Why didn't the people who check our tickets tell us this?! Now that they actually know where we want to go, they are asking 400 RMB. Forget it. We go back into the train station...

Remember, refunds are seldom given in China. Once again we pay for being stupid. 30 RMB to go to Shanghai from Jinxing (where we got off.).

We arrive in Shanghai, and have to bargain another black taxi to take us to our hotel that Michael's dad reserved. The hotel is near the airport, but the guy wants 300 RMB because it's far away. We ask him for a real price and finally settle for 260, which is less than a taxi.

We ended up having to pay the toll, and the driver asked for money to go back (even the driver didn't know it was sooo far), but Mike said he didn't have any money other than US dollars. Mike gave him ten US dollars and got some RMB back.

After all of this, I do still love black taxis. Why?

1. You always know how much you will pay before you get to your destination.

2. Chances are, the drivers are more lively because they don't get too many customers.. they will talk to you (or try) just because they have probably had a worse day than you.

3. They let you put your suitcases on the seats. Enough said.