Woman Pays RMB 12,000 for Taxi Ride from Hangzhou to Beijing

原创 Charles L. theBeijinger

Despite the rise of ride-sharing companies, taxis remain indispensable to many Beijingers for their value and ease. But, as much as you may lament their never-ending fuel surcharge increases, it seems like some people are willing to pay top dollar for their fares.

That's the case for one Beijing woman who agreed to pay a Hangzhou taxi driver RMB 12,000 (USD 1,889) to drive her from Hangzhou Railway Station to her Chaoyang residence in Beijing despite the vociferous objections of her family, reported The Paper.

The woman, named Xiao Jun (a pseudonym), agreed on a set price with the taxi driver before setting out on the 1,272 kilometer (814 mile) journey that is estimated to have lasted between 11 and 15 hours.

Upon reaching their destination, Xiao Jun paid the agreed upon price before turning the car around for the journey back. However, the driver discovered after his return that Xiao Jun's family lodged a complaint against him, griping that the fare should have only been between RMB 6,000 and RMB 7,000, at best.

To further complicate the issue, Xiao Jun's family alleges that their daughter suffers from a split personality, and as such isn't responsible for her actions due to her mental illness, making it one of the rare times that a Chinese family has publicly offered this kind of information on the socially taboo subject.

By any stretch of the imagination, RMB 12,000 is a hefty price to pay for traveling between Hangzhou and Beijing. Airline tickets between the two cities range between RMB 400 and RMB 2,200 while train tickets max out at RMB 2,000; traveling by bus is cheaper still, usually costing somewhere around RMB 400.

Now that both Xiao Jun and the taxi driver have both gotten what they wanted, it seems like the only thing left to do is to make a rom-com flick about the entire experience or, if we were to include the family's mental illness allegation, a drama with suspense elements to it. As a script that writes itself, the movie (of either genre) will obviously feature Fine Young Cannibal's 1989 hit, "She Drives Me Crazy."

Further complimenting this star vehicle for China's next top celebrity endorsers will be this soundtrack:

"White Line Fever" by Merle Haggard
"Life in the Fast Lane" by the Eagles (contains the lyrics "..sure to make you lose your mind")
"All I Want" by The Offspring as first heard on what will be the obvious video game tie-in, Crazy Taxi by Sega

Images: Weibo.com, MiriamReed.com