Free-for-all in suburbia needs some attention

Several unlicensed taxi drivers shouted out at the top of their voices in front of the Longze station: "Five yuan to Huilongguan station." Both stations are on Line 13, a metro line that serves the northern suburbs of Beijing.

Why would people pay extra money and spend time to get from one station to another if they are eventually going to take the subway anyway?

But, when one has to endure 20 minutes of shoveling and squeezing to finish the 50-meter path to the metro station entrance at Longze, it's not so irrational for commuters to be goaded into digging into their pockets for the alternative.