How I Got a Free Taxi Ride in China
The story I am about to tell you is the taxi story of a lifetime. Denny (my husband) and I had our friend Joseph visiting us for about a week and a half from the states in Qingdao, China. Our story is us taking him to the airport via a taxi, which doesn’t sound interested but it was epic.
We walked the bumpy side road down to the main traffic road and waited for about 20 minutes for a cab. When we finally got one we quickly crammed our luggage into the cab and rested for the 45minutes to the airport. Denny and I have taken this trek a few times from our home so we knew it’s about 60-80 RMB. We were approaching the outskirts of the airport when Denny suddenly noticed the meter reading 120RMB. When Denny announced this aloud my mind flew the roof, ” What does this guy take us, as fools?” Denny quickly called his Chinese friend who advised us when we got to the airport to flag down a police officer.
Denny, Joseph and I talked about our exit strategy. At this point I was very thankful the taxi driver didn’t speak English. Joseph was riding in the front so I asked him to take a picture of the taxi driver’s ID on the dashboard in front of the passenger. That is when things became even clearer, did we get a psycho maniac’s car? No, not that bad, but he didn’t have a picture or ID on the marker.
Normally there should be a picture and other information like the picture in the beginning of this post.
This taxi driver clearly could take a foreigner to the dry cleaners if they didn’t know better. He further made his case by driving us to the airport’s parking lot versus the drop off area. I told the guys to distract him and talk with the taxi driver while I made a dash to the Chinese men in uniforms.
I ran up to these men in police uniforms who didn’t understand what I was saying. I definitely don’t have Mandarin under my belt for a cab driver taking advantage of me. With urgent eyes, I went up to these men saying “I need help, a cab driver is trying to take advantage of us, please come.” This was pointless. The police officers found a nearby officer who spoke a little English. With his limited English he thought I was asking for a cab.
While I was gone Denny took a picture of the cab driver’s license plate. Joseph told me he saw another Chinese man come up to him and say something to him. Then Denny asked him where was his cab driver’s license; that spooked him so he took off. And guess, what? We got that whole ride to the airport for FREE because we noticed a scam.
What’s your craziest cab driving experience?
From my 11 months living in China I would recommend knowing the following phrases while in a Chinese taxi. (Note: Knowing the crossroads help the taxi driver.)
Stop– Ting
Turn right– You guai
Turn left– Zuo guai
Go straight– Yi zhi zuo
Thank you– Xie xie
Goodbye– Zai jian
10,000 Smiles
The 10,000 Smiles Project is a place to find smiles and joy. Which smile brought you joy today? You can vote on the bottom of this post.
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