As I already noted in my post about our first day in Guilin, taxi drivers are quite commercial here. Every time we take a taxi the driver starts to talk with us, and every time he or she (many female drivers here) tries to sell us tickets or wants to drive us to another tourist location.
I am not exactly sure how it works, but in the meantime I have figured out that there is something behind all of this. This morning we drove to the Seven Stars Cave, close to downtown Guilin, when the driver asked us to go to a different window to get a piece of paper for him to show that he took us here. Upon doing that the ride was for free! Yesterday we had a similar experience with a taxi driver that also needed a paper (for points, she told us
I am a Dutch entrepreneur in Shanghai who has lived and worked over 12 years in China. Co-founder of among others Tudou.com and unitedstyles.com, advisor to Spil Games for which I set up and led the Asian operation (2006-2011), and angel investor in Chinese Internet and tech start-ups. Married to Grace, with whom I have a son (Scott) and a daughter (Elaine). These are my personal views and do not necessarily represent the companies I am involved with. You can reach me at marcvanderchijs (at) gmail (dot) com