365 China Photo: One-A-Day

My colleague Miki and I were dashing to a meeting as usual, so we hailed a taxi outside our building on Jinbao Street. Surprisingly the first cab that turned up was a London Black cab, which Miki thought was great. As she has never been to London, as always wanted to, this was the closest experience yet. Beijing has over 60,000 cabs so you can always easily find almost anywhere in the city. However there are only 30 London Black cabs, which were introduced before the Olympics and Paralympics games in 2008. Mainly to be used by disabled passengers as they have a ramp that allows for wheelchair access. Our meeting was only five minutes away but we spent the time talking to the driver about his taxi. He was very proud to be driving it, especially when he found out I was English. He seemed to know everything about his TX4 taxi, which he said was the most modern and famous taxi. He was also interested to know what it was like to take a taxi ride in London. I told him there was a big difference in the cost as the flagfall (first 3km) in Beijing is only RMB 10 Yuan, whereas it would be more than double, RMB 24 Yuan in London. However the main difference is The Knowledge, the test that you have to pass to become a Black Cab driver. Our driver knew of this and said that the London taxi drivers where the best in the world. I felt proud to be a Londoner so as we got out the taxi I took a picture of Miki. She looked like she could have been a Chelsea Girl getting out of a taxi on the Kings Road, so she felt proud too.