More and more people have the travel bug these days and an increasing number of folks are choosing to visit China. As some of you know, I am married to a Chinese woman and lived in China for five years. Having had this valuable experience, I thought I might share something that might be of import to anyone considering a visit to China. No, I don’t want to suggest great places to visit like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, or the Ming Tombs.

I want to talk about Chinese taxis.

Taxis in China are not for the faint of heart. Taxi drivers around the world are noted for their hair-raising driving, but in China heart-stopping would be a better descriptor. The one thing that contributes the most to this characteristic is the concept common in China that the faster they get you to your destination the better they have done their job.

Any city of size will have a plentiful supply of taxis. To the American visiting China the rates are low. It varies somewhat city by city but usually flag fall starts somewhere in the range of 5-7 RMB. That is if the flag ever falls. Be sure that you establish that the ride will be on the meter or what the price to the destination will be. In some areas, the meter is never used and all prices are negotiated before you get into the taxi. Locals will normally use the busses and taxis are an occasional luxury for them.

In fact, there will normally be an over-supply of taxis.

This over supply means that some drivers resort to trying for the occasional long distance fare instead of fighting over the tiny scraps with everyone else. Around the train and long distance bus stations there are commonly a few taxi drivers hanging out trying to pick up a fare to another city. For instance, in Shenyang, drivers will be harassing you as you go into the train station asking, Beijing? Dalian? Panjin? Anshan?? These fares, should you choose to take them up on it, are highly negotiable. Expect to have to wait in the car for quite a while as the driver will try to find enough people going to the same place to fill the car. Whether this is a good idea or not varies widely.

First of all when I say fill the car, I mean fill the car. It will most likely be a Volkswagen Santana and they will manage to cram in four people and their luggage, shopping bags, etc., which makes for a really tight fit. Next they will try to avoid the toll booths, not just because of the cost, but also because they probably aren’t licensed to be operating outside of their home city and the police sometimes hang around the toll booth areas on fund raising safety checks? Then there is the driving ability of your particular driver. But it can be quicker and they will deliver you to your destination, if they can find it in a strange city.

In fact, one tactic for the tourist is sometimes to just hire a taxi for the day. After much hard negotiation, you settle on a price and you can go where you like when you like. Often the driver helps as a tour guide and can suggest good places to visit. This is normally considered to run from very early morning until evening at which point the driver will demand more money if you want to keep going into the evening. We hired our own taxi on my first trip to Beijing and used it to make the rounds of the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, Forbidden City, etc. I think it was worth the cost for all that sight-seeing. If you hire a taxi be aware that you are expected to feed the driver too whenever you stop to eat and, although small, most of these little guys have the appetite of a starving Grizzly.

As far as actually riding in a taxi goes, I can only say that all the rules of the road go out the window. Any tactic which saves a few seconds of time is employed. It is normally hair-raising and it gets worse from there.

I will share just one of many butt puckering experiences I had in a taxi in China in hopes that it will give any potential tourist an idea of what to expect. Keep in mind, this is the norm, not the exception.

The evening started innocently enough. I took Li downtown for dinner to celebrate the end of a long, grueling semester for both of us. We had a nice dinner at a western restaurant at a five star hotel. Food was good and we went for a nice walk afterwards. Everything went well, until we decided to return to the campus. That’s when we encountered the Chinese version of Mario Andretti, posing as a taxi driver.

We had barely closed the door when I heard a loud slapping sound. As I lurched backward I understood the sound came from his heavy soled shoe hitting the floorboard of the car as he stomped on the accelerator full-throttle. I don’t think he let up except under circumstances of dire necessity until we reached the campus in less than fifteen minutes. Keep in mind that this is usually about a twenty-five minute ride. He switched lanes constantly and, at one point, even went around the steel barricade and covered two blocks in the motorcycle lane. Cycles and scooters were jumping the curb to get out of this maniac’s way. We asked him to slow down but this was to no avail. I swear my blood pressure jumped forty points and my heart took residence somewhere in my upper throat.

At one point he clipped another taxi and took off the rearview mirror. Undaunted, he pressed on with the other taxi in pursuit. I can’t really say which was the most fearsome part of the ride. It either had to be the fifteen to twenty feet we were airborne after going over a nasty hump in the road on an overpass, or, more likely when we came so close to a truck loaded with pigs that I could actually see the fear in their eyes. He barreled through the university gate without so much as a nod to the guard and finally came to a screeching, tire screaming halt in front of our building. With shaking hands I lurched for the door, only to hear he and Li engaged in a heated argument.

He actually was demanding extra money for “getting us home so fast”. Needless to say, we refused. After about five minutes of arguing, he left in another tire screeching lurch.

As I type this I am still terror stricken. I have had many hair raising rides over here, but nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to this one. This guy made Evel Knevil look like a piker.

I hope this column has been of help to any of you who may be contemplating visiting China. I am always glad to share my experiences and hope in some way my advice can prevent you from coming square in harms way.

Maybe in a few weeks, I’ll muster up enough nerve to tell you about Chinese buses.