Taxi scam in Beijing Airport

I've been to China 3 times. Before my first visit, I 've read a lot about information about possible scams in Beijing. There are many of the most. The most famous is a woman approaching tourists in a center of Beijing, trying to make a conversion about the city and inviting you to a cafe with overpriced tea. Be careful with random people approaching you in Beijing or Shanghai. Fortunately, other cities in China doesn't have this problem.

Flight to Beijing

I and my friend had a flight from Moscow to Chengdu with a stopover in Beijing. It was a 3 hour stop so I didn't expect it to be a problem. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed for 1.5 hours. When the plane arrived in Beijing it was only one hour before the next flight.

It took about 15-20 minutes to get via the border. After crossing the border only 45 minutes left to the flight and we still need to check in and go via security check to the Chengdu flight.

The scam

We were in a rush. It is not that simple to find a way from international to the local terminal in PEK airport. It is needed to change the floor and actually, there are quite far.

And there was her, the scammer woman. She was on a stair on a way to the local terminal. She spoke good English and looked like an airport employee. She asked us do we need to go to the terminal and how much time do we have. She noticed that we are in rush, so it was easy to trick us. She told us that by feet it is 20 minutes walk and to get there faster we need.... a taxi.

Now it seems an absurd to me. But at the moment We were in a rush and didn't think clearly about. After 10 minutes in the taxi, it came to me that it is a scam and he will ask for big money. And it happened. He asked 400RMB(60$) for a short ride.

I had only 100USD with me. And I was too afraid to lose my flight, so I paid. Taxi spend the same 20 minutes searching the way to the terminal. And lucky for us when we came for check-in 35minutes left and it was ok. we got check-in and then run to security check.

Conclusion

It ended OK. We got to Chengdu, but spend extra 60USD.

Always be thoughtful in big Chinese cities to avoid scams. In every situation, it is important not to lose mind in a rush in any situation. And of course, learn more about airport terminals when you have a short stopover.