I guess I've been really lucky. Four years living in Kunming, taking taxis almost every day, never (knowingly!) cheated. I've found Kunming taxi drivers to be amongst the most pleasant and helpful in China. Never tried to use one whilst bleeding though, to be fair!

Taxi drivers all over the world seem to belong to a similar breed. The relatively honest few are usually very new to the business and have yet to be completely corrupted. However, there are still some veteran taxi drivers who remain ethical and honest, but finding one is like the needle in a hay stack or has the same probability as winning a lottery. And in that regard, I am lucky enough to have won the lottery at least once in my life so far!

As I recalled, 20 some odd years ago, NYC taxi drivers at Kennedy Airport (JFK) routinely over-charged passengers up to 10 times the metered fare by pre-negotiating a fare before allowing the "non-suspecting" passenger board the taxi (Particularly targeting the Japanese and those with the "East Asian" look because Japanese were perceived to be the affluent travelers during that time). Soon after, the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission's (TLC) instituted a fixed fare for the trip from JFK to Manhattan. The current taxi service from JFK to Manhattan fixed fare is US$50.00 (Plus the "expected by practice, pending on the service & the passengers' generosity, but not required by law" tip of 10 to 15% vs. the 15 to 20% expected at restaurants by the waiters) for the average 25-mile or about 40Km trip. At every airport taxi boarding stand, a dispatcher hands the passenger a card with the taxi's "medallion number" (ID) and instructions for reporting abuse and dishonest conduct to the TLC. This practice also prevents the driver from refusing the fare/destination. This fixed fare system has literally stopped all of the fare abuses and the use of tampered meters by dishonest taxi drivers from JFK to Manhattan.

"Black cars", as they are called in NYC, are licensed and fully insured fleet of dark color vehicles (Hence, the nickname "black cars"). Black cars are either wholly owned or serving as individual subcontractor to a privately owned car service company. Black car service and the drivers, like the medallion taxis, are also regulated by the NYC TLC. Black car fares are not metered and therefore not subjected to meter tampering. Upon receiving a call from a potential passenger, the black car company dispatcher, based on distance and other details from point A to point B, will quote the fare amount along with the black car number and time the car will arrive for the pick up. The caller can either accept the quote and agree to the pick up, or reject it and call a different car service. Black cars will also provide long distance service that regular taxis cannot due to complex regulations. Therefore, black cars are safe and reliable, unless you run into one soliciting you and you allow it to pick you up on the street, in which case, both the driver and you are violating the law. Black cars can only pick up passengers by pre-arranged appointments. NYC has a third type of somewhat illegitimate car service called "gypsy cabs". As the name implies, that's another story all by itself.

Getting into a soliciting "black taxi" in China may be extremely risky. In recent years, I have witnessed TV news reports of black taxi passengers being driven to a certain city's "no-man's-land", except for the driver's accomplices, then forced to strip, hand-over all valuables (including the cell phone, of course) and finally being left in the dust by the perpetrating gang.

Proven successful methods against fare abuse such as fixed fares for applicable routes, mandating the manufacture, installation and inspection of "tamper-proofed" taxi meters, and erect visible, easy to understand multi-lingual signage/charts at major locations of a city to show different public transportation choices and typical respective fare charges between frequently traveled destinations are examples that can greatly discourage the use of dishonest tactics by unethical taxi drivers throughout the world.

@ baiyuxiang: i've been taking more and more 'black cabs' recently and have had little trouble. just make sure you agree to the price beforehand, which probably involves a bit of haggling, and then pay before you get going. you are happy with the price and they have their money and no conceivable reason to take the scenic route. it's not ideal to use these people, but in a pinch, it works.

Today a taxi driver spent time tracking me down to return a telephone I'd carelessly left on the passenger seat. He must have lost a minimum of one fare during that time but despite this he refused to accept any financial reward. This is not the first time I've experienced such honesty in Kunming.

"So shines a good deed in a weary world."

There are always exceptions to the rule.

@Nnoble. A couple of months ago my wife forgot her purse with a new cell, keys to our house, her wallet, ID card and everything. When we came back home we called the taxi central and they relayed the message to their taxis over the radio (few taxis actually turn them on) and luckily our driver heard it. Turns out he had been driving around our area for 15 minutes trying to locate us, and 2 minutes after that we found him. Replacing keys, cell, documents and cash would probably have run us 3-4000. He refused to take the 200 kuai we offered him for the help.

I've been in KM a little under a year now (about ten months) and I do like it. In fact I love it. I can count on one hand the amount of bad China days. However, the ones that I do have a caused by the public transport system.

I remember seeing a post on GKM a while ago about how the cabbies are no longer allowed to change shifts between 7 to 9am and from 5 to 7:30pm. Has this actually happened? I still have cabbies refuse to pick me up between those hours because they're changing shifts.

It's got to the stage now (and I admit this is a dick thing to do) but I just get in the cab even if they wave me off and refuse to move until they take me to my destination. I make a point to tell them that they are for hire and therefore have to take me. I have had a few cabbies that laugh eventually and they do tend to go 'fair enough I'll take you, you crazy laowai!'

Like I said it may be considered a dick thing to do but if they want to decide where/when to take me places then they should become bus drivers!

Unofficial "taxis", which are basically private cars with drivers willing to take you where you need to go for a few Yuan are quite useful during rush hour when real taxis are either full or refuse to take you because they're about to change shifts. You should always use caution, but for now I don't see any reason to worry about being robbed or ripped off (just agree on the price beforehand)...since anyone rich enough to afford a car is not going to try to rob a few extra Yuan from you...in that respect China is a lot safer than say the USA, where I would almost never consider getting a ride with a stranger, even in an emergency.

In terms of cabs, I catch them almost daily (usually I couldn't be bothered with buses, even if they are frequent; besides the taxis here are so cheap anyway) and can honestly say I've never had any problems; the drivers were honest and I didn't even get ripped off when I first arrived late last year, not knowing any Chinese.

Private "taxis" is more expensive then regular cabs though, even the scooters wont drive under 20 kuai...