Avoiding scams and fakes in Beijing
These drivers can scam tourists big time if a fare hasn't been negotiated beforehand
All official taxis have license plates beginning with the letter "B", as in "京B". "Black cabs" may look like taxis but their license plates will start with letters other than B. It's nearly impossible to hail a black cab on the streets; they generally hang out around tourist sights like the Great Wall and the Summer Palace or around subway stops. Black cabs will charge you a higher fee for the journey, unless you are a good bargainer, know where you are going, and know what the right fare should be. Sometimes they drop foreign tourists in wrong places. In some extreme cases, the driver may even take them to the countryside and rob them. If you find you hired a fake taxi and are overcharged, don't argue if you are alone, pay the driver and remember the car's license plate number, then call police later.
To avoid being taken advantage of, it is a good idea to know the rough direction, cost, and distance of your destination. You can easily find this out from asking locals before calling a cab. Verify these values with the taxicab driver to show them that you are in the know, and are probably too much trouble to cheat. Keep track of the direction of travel with a compass and/or the sun. If the cab goes in the wrong direction for a long distance, verify the location with the taxi driver. For scamming drivers, that is usually enough for them to go back on the right track (without ever acknowledging that they were trying to cheat you). Honest drivers will explain why they are going that way. In addition, sometimes a cab driver might tell you an extravagant price to get somewhere and tell you the meter is broken.
There are several "makeshift taxis" running around Beijing including a seat fixed up to the back of an electric scooter. These guys will scam you big time if you don't negotiate a clear fare beforehand. Upon arriving your destination, for a 2 minute ride, the driver will demand 300 yuan and will be very belligerent if you don't pay it.
Keep in mind that central Beijing can be off limits at certain times, forcing cabs to reroute. And some roads forbid left turns (with big road signs) either at certain hours or all the time, so the driver might make a detour.
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A note on maps
Beijing (and many other Chinese cities) is changing at such a phenomenal pace that it isn't at all unusual for maps to be out of date by the time they are printed. Most maps will have a few errors where old roads have been bulldozed or replaced by new roads on a different alignment. Whole areas may be gone - replaced by new districts or dual-carriageways. Subway stations and other facilities that were expected to come online by the time the map was to be printed may have been built elsewhere or scrapped and not exist at all!
If you find yourself utterly lost or unable to find your desired destination despite following a map perfectly, bear in mind that you may not have taken a wrong turn - it is entirely possible that your destination or chosen route doesn't exist any more. It's a good idea to take more than one map if possible, and if you are lost compare the two to see if one shows a different layout. Also, always pick up the latest version of a bilingual paper tourist map, for sale at most tourist shops and subways stations, to complement your more expensive map/guidebook.
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The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Beijing
