Hongkonger

  Taxi is certainly one of the most convenient transportation in Hong Kong but there are lots of things to pay attention to, especially for “foreigners”. 

Here comes a list of things you should pay attention to:

• Learn how to say your home’s street name in Cantonese:  Given most taxi drivers understand English street names, if you happen to get on a taxi that doesn’t understand where you want to go, you’ll probably end up in the middle of no where.  That happened to my friends many times.  Another smart way is to ask a Chinese friend to sms you the street name in Chinese and show the driver.

• Beware of dangerous taxi drivers:  Do note that unless you are injured, there is no way you can file a complaint against dangerous taxi drivers.  That happened to me once - it felt like I was on a roller coaster, but my complaint was not accepted.  Quite ridiculous honestly - so the only thing you can do is to get off the taxi and get another one.

• Don’t wait for exact change:  It’s a norm that if the taxi fare is HKD52.4, the taxi driver would take it as HKD53.  They are not gonna give you the dims and nickles.

• Pay attention to the driver’s ID:  The driver’s ID is placed on the left hand side at the front - take some time to memorize the name and the license plate number.  In case you left something in the car, you’d know how to trace it.  But the safest bet is to check the passenger seats before getting off, I once left my cell phone in the taxi - the taxi driver didn’t pick it but but the next passenger found and kept it for himself.

• Know the boundaries:  Just because the taxis’ are red, doesn’t mean they know their way ALL AROUND the city.  Kowloon taxis’ don’t know the roads on Hong Kong Island, and vice versa.  So get on the taxi and ask if they go on the other side of the city first.

• 4.00pm - 5.00pm is a critical time:  Taxi’s change shifts around late afternoon and it’s would make cab hunting very difficult.  The best bet is to opt for MTR since it’s gonna be high traffic hours too.

• Save tunnel fee: There is a tunnel fee every time when you travel between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.  To save tunnel fee, you can ask the taxi driver to drop you off in Admiralty MTR station(Hong Kong Island side) or at the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station (Kowloon side) and just subway to the other side.  It would even save you lots of time from stucking in the traffic in peak hours!