Frenchman Cheated by Beijing Taxi: 153km, 39 minutes, 491 RMB
by Linde on Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Photo not of those involved.
From NetEase:
Frenchman says he was cheated by a Beijing taxi: 153 kilometers in 39 minutes
Yesterday morning, Weibo user “薇勥憇” uploaded a picture of a receipt from a Beijing taxi, and said, “A Frenchman on business in Beijing from Hong Kong was cheated by a taxi driver who picked him up at the T3 Terminal. A 30 kilometer trip was charged as 153 kilometers for 451 yuan.” This Weibo post was forwarded over 5500 times within 8 hours, and aroused the anger of many users.
This Nanfang Daily reporter noticed, this cab’s receipt time was from “21:22-22:01”, with 1 minute and 51 seconds of waiting time, which implies the cab traveled 153.8 kilometers in 39 minutes.
Yang Yu of CCTV commented on this microblog post saying, “When calculated, the speed reached as high as 230kph. If you had him go patrol the Diaoyu Islands at this speed, he could make the Japanese heads spin; If you had him go drive a taxi in America at this speed, he could collect all of that QE3 [Quantitative Easing 3] newly printed American money back.”
Netizen “前进_” said: “To drive 153 kilometers in half an hour, this man would have an average speed of 249 kph, which is only 9 kilometers less than the national record of 258 kph, and 30 kilometers faster than the speed required for an airplane to take off at 220 kph. Does he really want to fly?”
Shortly afterwards, this reporter called the number on the receipt and found that the number did not exist. The reporter called the Beijing Municipal Traffic Commission to inquire about the situation and learned that the receipt was receipt’s invoice number and password were real. It was from the Jinshishun Taxi Company.
The microblog post that “薇勥憇” posted afterward said Jinshishun Taxi Company refused to help find the taxi driver involved, and even claimed that their company’s receipts are often stolen.
According to the recollection of the person originally involved, while he was at the Beijing Airport’s T3 terminal waiting for a taxi, the dispatcher used English to ask him if he knew how much money the taxi fare should be. He said, “I don’t know, about 100?” The dispatcher said, “At least 300 to 500,” and then brought him to a specific taxi, and “whispered in the driver’s ear for a long time.”
