It’s very much a seller’s market for taxi drivers in Beijing these days — a dearth of vehicles, epic traffic jams and the cold weather have made catching a cab a free-for-all on the streets.

The problem has reached such epic proportions that now the Ministry of Transportation has been obliged to step in. China Daily reports on new rules aimed at preventing cabbies from arbitrarily refusing to pick up passengers:

For the full story on the new taxi regulations see agendabeijing.com.

Here, at this unassuming restaurant near the Lama Temple (141, Yonghegong Lu). Every evening, a queue of uniformed Beijing cabbies lines up to fill their bellies with the restaurant's signature dish, luzhu huoshao (卤煮火烧), a warming witches cauldron of cheap offal cuts, bread, tofu and lots more besides. This lucky dip peasant meal, with a history dating back to the Qing Dynasty, is riding a new wave of popularity of late, along with other austere local eats like madofu.

According to a report from the Bureau of Transportation of Beijing, there are 67,000 registered taxis in Beijing and over 200,000 registered taxi drivers. There is no shortage of people to drive the 67,000 cabs … so where are they all?

Starting tomorrow don’t be surprised when the price of your ride is a kuai more than expected, or for people that haven’t figured out the current one kuai petrol surcharge, make it two.

According to Jinghua.com, the surcharge tacked on to the meter fare will increase from one to two kuai starting tomorrow.

We are all aware of the daily insanity of 4.8 million Beijing drivers hitting the streets with nothing but blind ignorance of their mirrors, indicators and brakes, whilst pedestrians blindfold themselves and play chicken with trucks. Most of us manage to pull through the madness each day relatively unscathed, but as the Shanghaiist points out, BTV's daily Traffic Lights program graphically reveals that many Beijingers aren't that lucky. Twice a day, the program compiles a collection of Beijing's traffic greatest 'hits,' playing out the carnage in real time, slow motion, and rewind.