Taxis are everywhere in Shanghai. No matter what time of day, you can easily hail one on almost any main street in the city. Taking taxis is generally very convenient and affordable, provided you can communicate your destination in Chinese and you don't hit a terrible traffic jam.
Taxi fare for every km is marked on the window pane, every km is RMB2.0. The initial fee is RMB10 for the first 3 kms.
From 11:00pm to 5:00am the fare is RMB3 for each kilometer and the initial fee is RMB13.0 for the first 3 kms.
*Remember to ask for a receipt before you get out of the car and keep it for possible complaint or claim. If you leave something in a taxi and have a receipt you have a much higher chance of recovering it than otherwise.
(One lucky taxi driver is running around with my laptop, mp3 player, camera. -- Lawrence)
There are a number of different taxi companies - you can recognize the different ones by looking at the color of the taxi light on top of the cab, or by the color of the taxi's.
Da Zhong Taxi's are supposed to have the best drivers, but my experience is that they try to cheat foreigners more than the other ones. They take long routes or go via the roads with most traffic.
Conversely Ba Shi taxi, and Jin Jiang taxi's seems to be the best - the drivers are friendly, and they don't seem to try to rip you off as much. I've had great conversations with Ba Shi taxi drivers in my crappy Shanghainese/ Mandarin!
In more than eight years of being a passenger in Shanghai I've only had 2 really bad experiences in Shanghai, both were in Da Zhong taxi's. I had to call the police on the taxi driver for one of those times. I've had quite a few normal war stories, but those are best left for another article...
The best way to check for a driver's experience level is to glance at the prominent taxi license displayed on the dashboard of all taxis. The license consists of a laminated picture of the driver above a 6-digit number. The lower the number, the longer the driver has been on the road, as the licenses are issued sequentially. Below the number, you will sometimes see stars. If the driver is a new one, no star below the number. If the driver has more than 3 years experience, there are two stars on it. Three stars means that the driver has passed a simple English test, so he can speak kind of English. Five stars means the driver speaks fluent English. Actually, they are extremely rare, but they are not a myth.
Tips:
- prepare a written address in Chinese characters
- collect name cards or business cards in Shanghai
- collect the business cards of your favorite place such as restaurants, hotels, stores...
For Complaints: 6323 2150
For different taxi companies, see http://www.shanghaiguide.com/phonebook/phonesearch.php3?section=20
