A Beijing cabbie's perspective

On a freezing evening last week, I hailed a cab instead of squeezing myself onto a bus crowded with white-collar workers.

The cabbie asked my destination first - the cabs that gathered in the Central Business District in the evening only take passengers to the east, since many of the cabbies live in the villages in east suburb of Beijing and prefer to pick up passengers on their way home.

After giving him the information he wanted, I jumped into his car.