By the way my Chinese gf has trouble with taxi drivers all the time.

Sometimes, they refuse to take her where she wants to go all the way because of their change over times. She refuses to pay and walks out.

And it is illegal for them to say no when we get in and shut the door. She says she will call the company when they refuse. They, of course then agree to take her.

It is in fact illegal for them to smoke. Especially with waigors inside. They can fart though and spit.

It's not racism. Many taxi drivers are sh*t in most countries. Just harden up and learn their laws.

They have an ID number. Pretend to take that into your phone and next thing, by magic, all will be ok.

I used to wait for a taxi in the mornings on a very slow-moving, chocka street and had the same experience of them stopping for Chinese but not for me. So I started asking about that. They would say they feared they couldn't communicate with the foreigner and so would drive past. This is an interesting rationalisation for what is downright racism but it also speaks to the deeper all-pervasive racism that non-Chinese are ignorant barbarians. An illustration for this: you and your Chinese friends are sharing a taxi to your various different homes. Yours is the first. The taxi driver is lost. However good your Chinese, the driver won’t think of asking you the way. Instead, he will ask your friends, and failing that, he will call out to random strangers on the street. They – at least – are Chinese. Do an experiment: keep track of how often you are talked down to as though you were a half-wit or 3-year-old or lectured on subjects in a didactic fashion by a person who clearly hasn't the faintest idea of what they are talking about and yet feels the pathological need to be thought of as an authority. There's a term for that: inferiority complex. The irony! That's what ticks a lot of people off, Cyrusbobo and my Chinese wife please take note.

Japan:

1) Me, walking into a nightclub in Tokyo. Conversation in Japanese:
Bouncer: You can't come in.
Me: Why not?
Bouncer: You're a foreigner.
Me: That's racism.
Bouncer: Yes, that's right.

2) Me, walking into a hotel.
Front Desk person: Welcome! ("Irasshaimase!" Sees that I'm a foreigner:) Oh, no welcome! Foreigners are no good! ("Gaijin dame!")

3) Me, standing on a street corner waiting to cross. Old man comes up to me, goes off his head yelling crap about "get the hell out of my country!"
Luckily I'd been working for the yakuza so spoke to him like a gangster- this phrase is useful if you wanna learn it: "Gan tobashten jya ne yo!"
The guy almost crapped his pants.

Lots of other stuff....

Correct, in parts.
A few years back I was back home on business with 2 Chinese women both of whom spoke English, one of whom was near fluent having lived in Canada most of her life.
Yet on almost every occasion when we were met by hotel service staff, restaurant staff taxi drivers or the like, they ignored my friends and addressed their questions to me, including the very offensive, "Where are they from? What do they do?"
Before I left for Asia I had several Korean friends and if we went anywhere the local people would speak to them as if they were 6 year olds, if they spoke at all.
I guess this is human nature, we ALL feel more comfortable with our own kind.

It's true Japanese try to immerse themselves into new cultures... when living abroad. The ones who stay in Japan are pretty stuck in their ways though, and consider something to be wrong with fellow Japanese who emmigrate.

Oh, and Japanese are more popular/accepted in NZ because they- for the most part- are polite, don't spit, don't get into trouble with triads/gambling/extortion/murder and don't always have traffic accidents.
That's an easy preference.

current beijing taxi drivers are all from rural areas of beijing.
they suck big time. i hate them all.

Is this a surf term??

On a related(?) note, racism and ignorance have a lot in common. Here's a true conversation, on a trip to NZ (I'd just gotten in a taxi at the airport):

Taxi driver: Where've ya just come from?
Me: China.
Taxi driver: Aw, do you eat a lot of sushi over there?
Me: .......

It happens to me quite often, but it depends on the part of town. Usually out west it happens most often. I have even had female cabbies wave me off standing in the rain holding my infant daughter. It is frustrating, but I would prefer to replace the word racism with discrimination. This isn't a color issue, it's a nationalistic issue ... there is the Chinese and then there is everyone else.

Well, here's the thing- if you don't speak the language they might seem like the nicest people, but if you really, really know the language- I was there 12 years- you can read between the lines. And it's not pretty.

Cabs always stop for me, chop f-ing chop.

I think Mr. Zeero was right. who wants to pick up someone who's fugly?

Cabs often skip chinese people to pick me up. perhaps that should make me feel guilty but it doesn't.

I'm wonderful.just goddam fantastic.

s hit on all of you who can't get a cab. losers

really, I'm dead serious.

Interesting.

I've been here for 4 years and when I speak Chinese (not too shabby), they tend to open up. They're are quite amazed that a waiguoren can speak their language.

Yeah I've heard that Japanese tend to feel threatened if gaijin speak good Japanese, but here it's different (though they may alienate you in other ways, such as: 'Oh, you are a foreigner, you don't understand'....).