In the interest of keeping the negativity on this blog down to a minimum (lest you get the idea that life here is non-stop whining -- far from it!)...
*** I've thankfully have never gotten really scammed by taxis in China (knock on wood)... in my time here, and my previous short-term trips here, the worst I've encountered are taxi drivers that are clueless... but I've never been victimized by a dishonest one.
But today, I found a driver that actually went out of his way to help... I was taking my usual route to work along Yan'an Lu to Huashan Lu to Changshu Lu, when the driver missed the chance to swerve into the left-turn lane, thus missing a turn. With rush-hour SH traffic being what it was, to take a U-turn or to turn at the next road would add at least 10 minutes to the commute time.
Then, without me first complaining, my driver profusely apologized and turned off the meter in the middle of the journey! This actually resulted me saving about 1-2 kuai from my usual fare. =)
Yes, there is still good out there... and to the driver from 前卫 taxi company, driving the taxi with license 沪BM9260 from 9:35 to 9:49 today -- props to you, comrade!
*** It had to happen sometime or later, bu Mac OS X has been finally been cracked to run on generic PC hardware! Yep, you know what *I'll* be doing this weekend as a little project... ;)
Comments (4)
i remember that knocked my socks off the first time it happened to me, too (flipping the meter early). but then later i learned that it's because they risk losing a month of salary if you ever decided to lodge a complaint for bad behavior. shanghai has by far the best incentive system for service in place. if you want to get ripped off, just go to any other major city (including beijing). so far, in my experience, nanjing has been THE worst... :(
Posted by graceyc | August 12, 2005 9:38 PM
Posted on August 12, 2005 21:38
yo yo! hey it's funny that you write about this topic... it's actually something that tests my patience sometimes... out here it's sort of a hit or miss, but generally, the nicer the taxi car, the more money the driver will tend to ask for. i think i misplaced your snail mail so if you can email me that it would be great. =)
Posted by collinlee | August 13, 2005 1:12 AM
Posted on August 13, 2005 01:12
oooo....you gotta tell me if you get osx86 to work. plus the functionality of the apps. slap that puppy on my dell and get rid of that buggy ass MS.
Posted by hanlee88 | August 13, 2005 2:23 AM
Posted on August 13, 2005 02:23
That has happened numerous times in Shanghai while in a cab...there are a lot of honest taxi drivers out there...but I have also experienced not so good ones as well.
Posted by AndreaZ | August 13, 2005 3:37 AM
Posted on August 13, 2005 03:37