"Insist on the meter" is sound advice and this site gives it repeatedly. What it never says is where the obligation comes from, and the answer is more useful than the advice, because the same provision covers three other things that go wrong in a Chinese cab — and hands you the one piece of paper that makes the trip traceable afterwards.
The rule#
Street taxis in China are governed by the Provisions on the Administration of Cruising Taxi Operation Services, a Ministry of Transport regulation issued as Order No. 16 of 2014 and amended twice, most recently on 11 August 2021.
Article 23 lists what a driver must do. Two of its items are the ones a visitor meets.
按规定使用计程计价设备，执行收费标准并主动出具有效车费票据
Use the metering equipment as prescribed, apply the published tariff, and proactively issue a valid fare receipt.
不得拒载、议价、途中甩客、故意绕道行驶
Not refuse a hire, not haggle over the price, not drop passengers mid-journey, and not deliberately take a detour — while taking a reasonable route to the destination the passenger has named.
Four things, not one#
The advice on this site compresses all of that into the meter. Unpacked, it is four separate protections.
- Refusing a hire. Defined in the regulation as a driver who, while cruising empty and available, declines to take you once they know where you are going. It is not a matter of the driver's discretion.
- Haggling. A quoted flat fare is not merely worse value than the meter. Negotiating the fare at all is on the prohibited list, which is why the driver who names a price at an airport rank is not offering you a deal to consider.
- The detour. Also defined: driving other than by a reasonable route. Legitimate additions — a motorway toll, for instance — are not detours and appear on the meter or the receipt.
- The drop. Being put out short of your destination because a better fare appeared is its own listed breach.
The receipt is the part nobody uses#
Here is the item worth changing your behaviour for.
The receipt is not something you request. The driver is required to issue it to you actively, and the fare-charging equipment is what produces it.
That matters because of what this site says elsewhere about leaving something behind: that a flagged-down metered cab you cannot identify leaves you with nothing to trace. That is true only if you threw the receipt away. Chinese public-security guidance on a bag left in a car lists the routes in order — call the taxi company, call the transport hotline, use the payment record or the receipt to reach the driver, and call 110 if none of that works. With the receipt, an anonymous taxi stops being anonymous, which is exactly what the lost-property route needs as its starting point.
The regulation goes further in the same direction. Article 24 requires a driver who finds property left by a passenger to try to return it promptly, and where the owner cannot be found, to hand it in to the taxi company or the relevant authority rather than keep it. The duty to give your phone back is the driver's, not a favour.
The number to call#
The complaint route has a national number that almost no English guidance carries: 12328, the transport service supervision hotline run by the Ministry of Transport, staffed around the clock and covering road transport including taxis.
Use it for the things this page is about — a refused hire, a refused meter, a detour, a fare that did not match the equipment — and for a bag left in a cab. It is a different line from the emergency and complaint numbers already worth saving, and it is the one that reaches the department that licenses the driver.
What this does not change#
The practical calculus is unchanged, and mostly points the same way it always did.
- Ride-hailing avoids the argument entirely. The fare is agreed before the car moves and the trip sits in an app, which is a stronger position than being right about a regulation in a language you do not speak.
- Use the official rank. Anyone approaching you inside a terminal is not operating under this regulation at all, because they are not a licensed cruising taxi.
- Show the address in Chinese characters. No rule fixes a driver who cannot read your destination — the mechanics of getting around covers what to have on your phone before you get in.
- Say 打表 (dǎ biǎo, use the meter). It is the single most useful phrase in a Chinese cab and it signals immediately that you know how this works.
- Keep the receipt until you are unpacked. It costs nothing and it is the only thing standing between a forgotten bag and a shrug.
Frequently asked questions#
Is it illegal for a Chinese taxi driver to refuse the meter?#
Yes. The Ministry of Transport regulation governing cruising taxis requires the driver to use the metering equipment, apply the published tariff and issue a valid fare receipt. The same article separately prohibits haggling over the fare, so a negotiated flat price is outside the rules whatever the number is.
Can a Chinese taxi driver refuse to take me?#
Not while cruising and available. The regulation defines refusing a hire as declining service after learning the destination, and lists it among the prohibited acts. In practice a shift change or a genuinely unreachable destination is a different situation from a refusal.
Do Chinese taxis give receipts?#
They are required to, and to do it without being asked. The receipt comes from the fare equipment and carries the vehicle and operator details, which is what makes an otherwise untraceable street taxi identifiable later.
What if I leave something in a Chinese taxi?#
The driver is required to try to return it, and if the owner cannot be found, to hand it to the taxi company or the authorities rather than keep it. Your part is the receipt, which identifies the vehicle. Without it a flagged-down cab is genuinely hard to trace.
Is DiDi better than a street taxi in China?#
For a foreign visitor, usually yes — the fare is set in advance, the destination is entered as text rather than spoken, and the trip is recorded in an app that also solves the lost-property problem. Street taxis remain useful where no car is available and are perfectly fine once the meter is running.