There aren’t many.

My average wait time is just over 19 minutes (n=37). On (regular) occasion I will wait nearly an hour.

There are not a lot of taxis in Ningbo, especially near UNNC campus which is not “in town”.  Of the existing stock, taxi drivers are generally pretty courteous, work with your terrible Chinese, and won’t drive pass foreigners. More than a few of my Chinese friends say the drivers are rude and arrogant compared to their hometowns. So if you’re Chinese you may get a different level of service than us non-Chinese, but at least it’s not Beijing.

For some inexplicable reason all taxis change drivers at the same time during the late afternoon. Which means for about 30 to 60 minutes it is nearly impossible to get a taxi. Why they don’t stagger driver changing schedules, or why they chose the time many people get off work, I don’t know.

There are two taxi hailing apps which many taxis are starting to use. No English option, think of it as an incentive to learn Chinese. These apps make getting a taxi more difficult as now all the taxis you see have already been reserved by someone using the app. They will have a small sign covering their “available” light and will drive right by you, hands waving.

When the new train station was built no taxis came to pick up passengers, it was a disaster. I think the station began offering incentives for taxis to come. Curb churn was not considered, on my next visit there were many taxis but they were all stuck in a huge traffic jam.

Taxis should be to the left. But they were not.

If you go to Ikea, keep in mind that it is in a remote area next to a highway and construction areas. It is impossible to get a taxi, there are roaming packs of Ikea bag welding people fighting over the few taxis that wander into the vicinity.