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Beijing tries to tame wild taxis

Chinese newspapers have noted that the quality of all kinds of service at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will make a lasting impression on the world, and that means doing more than "putting forward a bunch of beautiful young ladies in skin-tight cheongsam, wearing programmed smiles to greet guests at hotel entrances, as we often see in China." It also means not undoing years of urban reengineering in one harried cab ride. But reeducating China`s cabbies may prove as challenging as building the Great Wall.

The number of cars in Beijing has doubled in the past five years or so, meaning that taking to the streets can feel like going to war. Right-on-red morphs into right-whenever-I-feel-like-it. Horsepower rules. Pity the poor pedestrian who believes he has the right of way.

Even more challenging is figuring out where to go. Beijing is changing daily as it undergoes a massive face-lift. Only half the candidates here pass the licensing test on the first try. Geography is often the culprit.