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I talked with Alex in Hangzhou. He took a taxi Shanghai South Railway Station to Hangzhou. The fair is 280 RMB for four persons, or 70 RMB for one.
How did he make it?
From Shanghai to Hangzhou
It is about 2 hours ride from Shanghai to Hangzhou. The distance is 192 km.
If you take a taxi, and the taxi charges by meter, it should be at least 560 RMB (since it is 3.15 RMB per km after the first 10 km). Many taxi drivers ask for the same amount of fee for the return trip, since they have to go back with an empty car.
So it is not rare that people charges about 1000 RMB to go to Hangzhou.
The Chain of Profit Ecosystem
Alex was approached by someone who claimed to be able to send them to Hangzhou, at only 280 RMB (or 70 RMB per person) using taxi. Frequent travellers said it is OK to do that, so they followed those guys.
They used a taxi to send them from the Shanghai South Railway Station to the entrance of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway, and then drop them off. There, that guy's partner waved to stop taxies with Hangzhou plate, and asked if they are willing to take four people back to Hangzhou at 100 RMB.
Many taxi drivers agreed! Since they send their passenger to Shanghai and they HAVE to get back with an empty car. It does not hurt for them to make more money. So even if it is only 100 RMB, they did the job.
Finally, the 280 RMB was broken into two part - 180 and 100. People in this value chain get what they get.
Warning - don't try it
Repeating the story does not mean I think it a good idea. Don't take it if you have any other choices. It is too risky.
I just feel it is interesting that someone are making money this way.
Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at November 3, 2006 12:06 AM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer
and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20061103_shanghai_to_hangzhou_by_taxi.htm
Genius! :)
I feel sorry for the people that pay 1000. :p
Posted by: Ben on November 3, 2006 12:30 AMI should have to say: I just feel it is interesting that someone are saving money this way. :-)
Posted by: Ding Feng (external link) on November 3, 2006 1:17 AMI did this several times when I was doing a job in Hangzhou. If you go to the bus station in Xujiahui after it closes, you'll find offers like these. You'll have to bargain, though!
Posted by: Micah (external link) on November 3, 2006 8:37 AMI had one similar experience last week coming back from Hangzhou to Shanghai. We're at the East Bus Station trying to get back around 6 PM. Unfortunately the earliest bus available was 8 PM so we had to wait for 2 hours. Then we're approached by someone saying that he could find us a cab with SH license plate for 70RMB per person -- sounds like a good deal so we took the chance. Later when we're all set and ready to go, the taxi driver told us his sad story...
The taxi driver took some passengers from SH to HZ earlier of the day and was trying to find someone back to SH instead of an empty car. So he went to the East Bus Station, where all passengers going to SH would be, and found some passengers by himself. Just when he was about to leave happily, some local people blocked his way and forced into his car to grab the passengers out. They're doing this because they're "in charge" of this area and all private deals like this MUST go through them. They forced the driver to park the car in their place and made him agree to pay "service fee" of 100RMB and 10RMB per passenger before he could leave. In return those local people would stand around potential passengers (like us) and trying to lurk them to accept private deals.
So at the end, we paid 280RMB in total to the driver and get back to SH in two hours, the gangsters got 140RMB from the driver happily, and the poor driver got less than 50RMB after paying the "service fee" to the gangsters and highway usage fees to the government...
An interesting value chain, isn't it?
Posted by: gogobu (external link) on November 3, 2006 12:03 PMThe same thing happened to me when I was in Shenzhen. I needed to get from Shenzhen to Zhuhai. At the Shenzhen airport I negotiated with a taxi driver and he ended taking me to an area just outside of Shenzhen where a bunch of Zhuhai taxi drivers were waiting. They split the money somehow (I didn't see how much) and we got a ride over to Zhuhai.
This isn't for people that have just arrived in China as it was a bit scary. I actually didn't know that this was going to happen as the original taxi driver just did it! I guess it was partially my fault since I negotiated with the taxi drivers and chose the one with the lowest rate.
When we arrived at the border town (more like a very dirty parking lot on the side of the highway) the Zhuhai taxi drivers all came running up to us and started screaming... it was quite intimidating as my Chinese speaking ability is half assed. Anyway, in China, you have to pretend you know what is going on if you don't want to get tricked. I guess I presented myself well enough and just went with the flow. At the end, we arrived safely in Zhuhai.
If I knew it was so troublesome, I would have just flown directly to Zhuhai. The problem was with 4 people, we were able to save about 500 rmb more per person doing the flight down to Shenzhen and taking a taxi over.
Posted by: shockr on November 3, 2006 2:41 PMIt will be very insteresting from shanghai to hangzhou by taxi, though its not a good ideal. I always come here to see your blog,but I havent comment before,for my writing english is not very good.
Also welcome to my blog:http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1487405955
Posted by: waterson (external link) on November 3, 2006 9:11 PMseems my guess is somewhat accurate :-)
Posted by: Jack (external link) on November 3, 2006 11:21 PMAs my know, in China, the taxi driver can not run business outside the place where his car plate was issued.If a Shanghai taxi driver pick up passengers out of Shanghai,once he was caught by traffic authority,he will be fined,and the passengers will be asked to get off.
Posted by: lideting on November 7, 2006 2:40 PM