Taxi app

By:  September 6, 2025 Categories: , 

I get into the taxi, as the driver looks at his phone to see the route.

Driver: “What?! A six-kilometer drive, I only get 13 RMB?!”
He looks over to me in the back seat.

Driver: “How much do you pay? What does it say on the app?”
Me: “16 RMB it says.”

Driver: “Yesterday I did a 23-minute drive, and I only got 13 RMB. What’s the point, how can I earn money? I better stop the app in the morning and take a rest, just do evening and night.”

And he continues: “Last week, I did a ride, the passenger paid 98 RMB, I got 57.6 RMB. The app says they have a rule that it’s a maximum of 20% cut they take, but that’s way more. More like 40%.”

(At the next red light, he sends a voice message about this in a WeChat group he has with other taxi drivers. He’s angry, although not at me. I leave a tip, but ask for his WeChat payment QR code, so 高德地图 cannot take a cut.)

Latest

The Lies We Tell

The Lies We Tell

I left my hometown when I was 19. After nearly two decades in a dozen Dutch cities, Sydney and Shanghai, I’m back. I push Hasse’s stroller and see once again these streets and buildings that are old yet ever new. Everything is closer than I remember it, distances I travelled as a teenager seem now […]
October 27, 2026
Dit is ook China review

Dit is ook China review

‘Dit is ook China’ by Cindy Zhu Huijgen isn’t a perfect book. And yet it’s enjoyable, and when you turn the last page and close it, you’re — rather than feeling relieved — you’re just glad you read it, and you’re glad you’re a person who reads books. Before starting, I was a bit discouraged […]
October 26, 2026
Travel plugs

Travel plugs

In our new house, many appliances still get their power through a travel adapter. Eight years in China was long enough to not only put down roots and settle in, but also for everything we owned to end in a Chinese plug: my MacBook, the coffee machine, the rice cooker, the baby monitor. The appliances […]
September 21, 2026
Twenty-three years

Twenty-three years

In June we moved back to the Netherlands, six suitcases across 8000 kilometres, and after a brief spell at my parents’ place, we moved into our own home. This second move also involved putting down carpet, curtains, buying appliances and furniture — so that our new garage quickly filled with cardboard boxes and other packaging […]
August 29, 2026