China - Taxi Rides

We had two interesting Taxi rides while we were in Shanghai. The car taxis there are everywhere....like you'd see in New York City. They are smallish cars, and one person can ride up front, and it is a law that only three can ride in the back. So four all together...wouldn't you know that there are five of us!! Some taxi drivers would let five squeeze in, especially if you gave them a few extra RMB. We left one area, and there was the young Chinese couple we are with, Libby, me and my Dad. We wait in a long line for a taxi. We finally get in one and squeeze in. The taxi driver starts yelling at us in Chinese. Are Chinese friend responds back. We can't tell exactly what's going on, but it appears that he doesn't want to take five of us. Our Chinese friend kept trying to explain that one of us was a child and shouldn't count. And the taxi driver took off....so I thought it was resolved. But he pulled up to a police officer in the middle of a busy road. More rapid Chinese is spoken back and forth. The policeman looks us all over. Then nods his head. The taxi driver screams at us and we all get out of the taxi in the middle of the busy road. Apparently he'd insisted that the law said only four. When we wouldn't get out he'd driven to a Policeman. The Policeman had told the driver that he didn't care do what he wanted...and he threw us out! So we had to find another cab!!

Most of the cab rides were very reasonable. They charged 8-14 RMB for most places we wanted to go...which is about $1 - $2 in American. My Dad, Frank and I went in search of a trumpet for him. We were told that there were many music shops on Jinx Ling Road. So we had a cab drop us off and walked down the road a ways. We found a great trumpet for Frank. By the time we were done it started to rain. We tried to wave down a taxi, but no one would stop. Finally this guy on a three wheeled ancient motorbike pulls up. It has a little covered seat on the back of it. He indicates we should get in. Frank sits up front with the driver and Papaw and I sit in back facing backwards. It kept us dry. We came across a large group of people cross the street in a cross walk, and this guy just plowed through the middle of them without slowing down. When we got to the hotel, my Dad asked him how much it cost. The man said "50". My Dad goes "Oh, no way too much....15". The old man says "No, raining...50!!!" So we paid him 50. It was worth it to stay dry. LOL.