[restalis]

"I'm completely carless in Beijing where ... taxis are ubiquitous."

I don't know about you, but I had a bad experience when I've needed to use a taxi in Beijing! Taxis are ubiquitous, yes, but they won't take you if your destination is not far enough for them, and most of them don't use taxing machines (because you know, there are plenty of tourists around), and prefer just to wait for someone willing to pay ten times the rate that they actually should bill. And there's more - you can't call a taxi in order to come to pick you up even from hotels (which is ridiculous), and most of the places where you might have some certainty that you'll land in a taxi are taxi-stops (often posted near bus-stops), and you also may have to stay in line for one!

[seanmcdirmid]

There's an app for that.

Didi kuai che for taxis.

Didi Zhuan che if you want something more like Uber.

The latter allows you to pay electronically from your union pay account, the meter is GPS (just like Uber), so you'll never get ripped off. Beijing taxis drivers are pretty honest as China goes, of course, that is just in the city, out in tourist ghettos it can be much worse.

[restalis]

Thanks, I'll keep in mind, although I don't know how much will change for those like me (I was in a tourist-related activity having to crawl in tourist ghettos). I hope my next experience with Beijing taxis will be better.

[seanmcdirmid]

In any case, the apps aren't very useful if you don't speak chinese (a problem for some visitors). They do make life tolerable in Beijing for those of us who live here.