Without any advance warning, we’ve discovered that the taxi surcharge is going up from RMB 2 to RMB 3 starting today. This comes just days after we reported on the suggestion from officials that people should start sharing taxis whenever possible.

For better or worse, China’s always been pretty lax about seat belt usage. But now, with several lethal accidents occurring at the end of 2011 and start of 2012, the central government is launching campaigns to get China buckling up. Will it actually work?

Would you share a taxi with a stranger?

You might need to soon, because cab-sharing seems to be the closest Beijing transport authorities can get to a "policy" that would solve the ever-increasing problem of finding a taxi in Beijing.

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.