Taxis

     The most convenient way to get around Beijing is by taxi. There are tens of thousands of them running aruond the city at all times of the day. There are basically four different price categories;1.00 yuan per kilometer. 1.20 yuan/km, 1.60 yuan/km and 2.00 yuan/km, hwo-ever, recently the taxi industry has gone through a price restructuring,and the 1.00 yuan/km taxis will soon be done away with. Except for the "miandi,"or "bread taxi," (the 1.00 yuan/km kind) so-called because they look like little loaves of bread,the fares all start at 10 yuan and start increasing after 5 km, so if you are going only a short distance, the price is the same no matter whih type of taxi you take. The miandis start at 10 yuan and increase after 10 km. The miandis cause heavy pollution to the air and they will be discarded by september. If you can speak or are learning Chinese , hatting with cabbies is a great way to pick up Beijing slang. If you can't speak Chinese, it is best to bring along the address in Chinese of the place you want to go, as most drivers'Engling is limited to "hello"and "ok". There are also lots of drivers running around in private cars who accept money for rides. However , it is inadvisabe to take these cars, because they are a) illegal and b)not always trustworthy, but sometimes if there are notaxis available, this is the only option. They abide by the same price scale as miandi's.