Taxis – China’s Deep Throats

It is a miserable winter evening in Beijing, wet and freezing, and the taxi matches the mood – a rickety Charade, the floor covered in dust and the seatcover reeking of a hundred bottoms.

We are driving along Wangfujing, Beijing’s main shopping street, past the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

“The mistress of the Beijing party chief works there as sales manager,” the…