Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Taxi ride from Beijing airport to hotel

Ignore anyone who approaches you in the arrivals hall and follow the (English) signs for taxis: straight out of the front of the building at Terminal 2 or downstairs at Terminal 3. Join the queue, which usually managed by a marshall and usually moves fairly quickly.

Have the characters for your hotel printed and ready (print from website). Tell the marshall the English name, show him the characters, and show them again to the taxi driver. It's also a good idea to add the phone number. If he's at all in doubt he'll simply call for directions (no charge to you--this is standard procedure.)

The meter is started just after the vehicle pulls away. The route is very simple: straight down the Airport Expressway and then south at the Fourth Ring Road exit, and west at the Sihui Bridge. Finally a bit of a wriggle to get round behind China Central Mall. You can find the route by using... Google maps, which will also show you the relationship of the hotel to sites you want to visit.

The cost, depending on traffic and time of day, will be around ¥100. You pay what's on the meter, plus the ¥10 expressway fee for which you'll be given a receipt. If the petrol price is currently above a certain level there'll be a ¥1 supplement for which you'll also be given a receipt if this is requested. No tip. Incidentally, always take the receipt printed by the meter--should you leave something in a cab this gives you a pretty good chance of getting it back, by having hotel reception call the number on the receipt and read the trip details out to the taxi company.

Peter N-H