Taxis are the preferred choice for moving around, and are fairly inexpensive. Taxis charge standard rates per km. There are three types of taxis in Beijing ;

• The very cheap ones cost 1.20 Yuan per km. These are generally in pretty poor condition and often not clean at all. Check they have a working seatbelt before you go for it.

• The next band of taxis cost 1.60 Yuan per km. These are usually slightly nicer, often with seatbelts.

• The third band are luxurious executive cars and cost 2.00 Yuan per km., which is still very reasonable for a western budget.

Before taxi drives away make sure that the meter of the taxi is switched on, as many taxi drivers will try to cheat by not using the meter.

Since most taxi drivers cannot communicate in English it is advisable to have the name of your destination being written in Chinese on a small piece of paper. Besides the destination also bring along the address of your hotel or home, so that you always can return.

Some of the more tourist places have some fake taxis, they even have meters aboard. To determine whether a taxi is a fake one you have to look at the car's license plate. An official taxi's license plate starts with “B”, the fake ones have different letters (E / F / G or J).