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Taxi
Taking a taxi is a fast and convenient way to get around
Shanghai. The city, has the best-managed taxi service in
China.
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| An upright vacancy disk
shows the cab is for hire. |
Most cabbies know their way around and expertly negotiate the
city's busy traffic. Taxis are usually readily available, but
hailing one in rush hours is difficult and on rainy days almost
impossible.
Shanghai's taxis are colorful, unlike New York City's, which
are all yellow. Cyan, yellow, white, green, blue, red, dark blue
and dark red are the main colors of the taxis in Shanghai and
the colors denote different taxi companies. Dark blue and dark
red are the colors for the city's hundreds of small and medium
taxi companies.
Real taxis have a logo light on the top of the car. Around
the driver's seat is a transparent shield protect the driver
from robbery and a drive ID card with driver's photo, name and ID number on it. A meter and an illuminated vacancy disk on the
dashboard are also necessities for a cab. Without all these
things, the taxi is probably unlicensed and you should avoid it,
even if the driver solicits you. You have no rights if injured
in an unlicensed taxi.
The vacancy disk will help you know which cab is available.
When the disk is upright and illuminated showing two Chinese
characters -- 空车 -- it means the cab is vacant.
| Don't
try to hail a cab at a crossroads, as taxi drivers cannot
stop their cars within 30 meters from an intersection to
pick up passengers. |
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Taking a taxi is much more expensive than taking a bus, but it is far from a luxury. The minimum fare is 10 yuan (US$1.24), which covers the first 3 kilometers, and then 2 yuan is charged for every additional kilometer. After 10 kilometers, the fare jumps 50 percent - to 3 yuan for every additional kilometer. Being stuck in a traffic jam bumps up the bill. Five minutes of waiting time costs the same as a kilometer.
A 30 percent night surcharge applies from 11pm to 5am.
In Shanghai, pooling a cab with strangers is banned.
| How to
read a taxi receipt? |
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Besides flagging down a cab on the street, you can also book
a car by phone. There is no service fee for phone bookings
except Dazhong company, which charges 4 yuan for each telephone
or online reservation. The taxi hotline is, 96965 and English is
available.
You can also send a short message of your detailed location
to the call center's short message service (SMS) platform to ask
for a taxi. The center will notify you in about 10 minutes
whether a cab is available. China Mobile subscribers should send
messages to 555596965, and China Unicom users to 2196965.
In addition to the 96965 hotline, the four biggest taxi
operators in Shanghai have their own call centers, but no SMS
service.
| Remember
to take the receipt. The slip will contain information on
the taxi, including its plate number and the taxi company.
In case you leave something in the car, the receipt will
give you clues to find it. |
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