My wingman and I are in Hong Kong for 3 days now and we have been frustrated a couple of times:

First, we arrived last sunday from Bangkok, around 8pm. At HKG airport, we picked up our luggage, then we tried to catch the ferry to Macau. Were told can't do that. They said instead, take the A10 bus to the ShunTak bldg. We bought the bus tickets and waited close to 20 min for the bus. When I asked the driver which stop is the ferry at, he said this is the wrong bus and asked us to take A11 instead. Not wanting to wait another 20 min, we took the A10 anyhow, got off at one of of the stops and took a cab. Luckily, we were not too far from the ferry terminal. It was the lady at the airport information booth who told us to take the A10, go figure.

But my bigger complaint is about the taxi drivers. Yesterday, we had just gotten back from Victoria peak and got into a cab. We told the driver to take us to the Metro park hotel in Wanchai. He simply said sorry i don't go there and asked us to take another cab. Luckily, the next cab took us to the hotel.

This afternoon, i was going to visit a hotel girl in TST. I grabbed a taxi outside my hotel. Same story, the driver told me togo to the MTR station and catch a cab there. I walked there but could not see any taxi stand. Ended up taking the MTR. Luckily, i made it to the hotel on time, despite not knowing exactly where i was going.

So, now the purpose of this post? I would like to understand how to navigate the taxi situation in Hong Kong. How am i supposed to know which taxi to take, or is it just a case of greed, where the taxi driver wants to maximize his income and minimize his hassle.

I am putting my info together and i plan to write a review about every girl i've seen, in a few days. Thanks!

if you are catching a cab between shift changes. they might do a fare along the way but they have to pass the cab off to the next driver and wont go the opposite direction if the time is close. simple..

i know this is why..i just dont remember when the shift changes happen during tehday, maybe the locals can better help this.

Some won't cross the harbour either. You can make a U motion with your hand, like a plane swooping down and climbing again, to indicate you want to go under the harbour via a tunnel, and they'll say yay or nay.

HK taxis are pretty good most of the time - actually excellent, if you've travelled in Seoul, or Sydney, or some other places

But some of them end up in an area they don't know.  NT taxi's don't know HK Island, and vice versa.  

They're actually not entitled to refuse a fare unless they already put a sign up showing they're changing shift or off duty, so if you are in a pinch you can simply sit in the back and insist ... but don't be surprised if they get badly lost on the way ... bottom line is take their licence number (the driver's as well as the vehicle) and make a report.  
It rarely comes to that though

and ... again ... if you're choosing to play hardball make sure you play by the rules yourself, especially to put on a seatbelt.  He's entitled to throw you out wherever you happen to be (and also charge the fare so far) if you don't wear one.

I think hk taxis are very good usually. But they are organised by area. Some will only go to destinations requiring crossing the harbour, and some to nearby places. If you're unlucky, you'll always find the wrong one. They gather at different places usually.

You are just very unlucky!
Cross Harbour have special lanes for that, you need to go there as all the taxis are not obliged to do the cross harbour
Wolfy is right; there are time shifts. Sometimes they will refuse someone as you are taking them away from their place for the shift. I think its 3 or 4pm, but I dont take the taxi around this time.
Otherwise; you have everything. Great guys willing to have a good chat to weird people sometimes very aggressive.

I would add Rio to that list. When i am in Rio, i have to draw a map for the driver. I was there last year and i could not belive that they still don't use GPS navigators in their car. They use these devices in many European cities.

At any rate, thanks a lot to all who responded to my enquiry. I now understand the taxi situation better and i think i can handle that in the future. I love this place. I am having a ball!

When you get off the plane and just before you go through immigration, there's a wall full of pamphlets for tourists, one of these pamphlets explains how taxis works in HK ... you should read it ...

I have no comments on you getting advised on to the wrong bus but if you feel aggrieved then you should complain to the airport authorities

As for taxis in HK :
the law is if you board a RED colour taxi, the taxi driver is obligated to take you to the exact destination you specify otherwise he is breaking the law ... the exceptions to this are if the 'for hire' meter on the dashboard is covered or if the taxi is in a queue designated for cross harbour taxis.

I hope this helps

now, the more important question ... which HG did you visit and how was she ?

I thought the colour of taxis designated their area.

Green - New Territories
Red - Central/KLN
Blue - Island

Either way Taxis in HK are excellent as with the rest of HK transport.

Green - NT
Red - all of HK except Lantau island
Blue - Lantau island

related subject:

how aboutaxi in Macau?  I once had the same issue flagging cabs in Macau too. One after another they kept on refusing me .  The ferry terminal never seems to be a problem.  Any commentary?  tks in advance

You dont really need to take a taxi in macau, the ferry port always has bus going to the hotels. Andsome times hotels have buses that go to other casino. That what i do every time i go over to macau.

As for the taxi, some dont want to go to certian area, i think eiher the taxi drinker doesnt want to head that way. Orthe driver may be heading to another direction. But in macau i did ask a taxi driver why it maybe hard. He just said it depends on the driver. He said he drives everywhere while some just doesnt drive in certian area of macau.

Also, i found out, in both Macau and Hong Kong, that the staff at the hotel lobby are excellent at getting you the right taxi. They usually ask me in English where i want to go and relay that to the driver. I usually give them a tip of $10 or $20.

Generally, i had fewer problems in Macau than Hong Kong. Except that one time, the driver took me to the wrong place. He was very apologetic once he realized the mistake. I think it may have been due to English communication. Try to have a card or any written form to avoid this type of miscommunication.

Usually I have no problems with taxis in Hong Kong, especially when you compare them to that of New York!!!
Now those are horrible, refusing you on a whim!

Here is Hong Kong, they will usually take your fare, beside some exceptions and here are some tips:

1) Wrong Region (red, green, blue) as mentioned earlier, then its really not that fault

2) During shift times
- You have to put yourself in their shoes..... sometimes they have to pay a late fee if they miss their shift time
- and most needs to refill on gas before the shift change
- the most typical shift time is around 3:00-4:00 pm, so if you trying to have a long haul trip (esp. cross harbor) don't be surprise if they don't take you
- during those times I am more understanding, other than that, if they refuse to take you across harbor, not because of shifts, but just don't want to make the trip back across the harbor, or because of tunnel traffic, go ahead you have the right to play play hard ball, like many bros have mentioned "they are obligated" according to law to take you, but for me I rarely force the issue, unless I have in a hurry

3) Cross-harbor taxis:
- also it helps to know where you can get cross harbor taxis, since they are all red, you might not notice the difference between Hong Kong and Kowloon taxi (they are both red and legally can travel anywhere.....)
- take the advice of some of the bros here, with the hand gestures, esp. you see a taxi with the "off-duty sign", if its not shift time usually they are trying to wait for a cross-harbor fair, approach those taxis and make the hand gesture, works most of the time
- and if you cross the harbor a lot (like me..... everyday) it helps to know where the official cross-harbor taxi stands are, and also the "unofficial" ones (where its not a taxi stand but cross-harbor taxis just hang around there)
* lastly if you really need to cross the harbor during shift time, and the taxi refuse you, you can consider asking them to take you to the nearest cross-harbor taxi stand.... sometimes it ends up faster that way (as any other Taxi you hail will be trying to make it for shift change on their side of the harbor, during that time any other taxi you encounter will probably refuse you too) and you save return tunnel fare by taking a taxi at a cross-harbor taxi stand
** sometimes you are lucky even during shift time where you get a taxi that will take you cross harbor, sometimes they think they can make it in time for the shift, or sometimes they have abnormal shift times (e.g. 5-6 instead 3-4), but this is really down to your luck

4) Be polite:
- taxi drivers are people too, be polite, add please or thank you (don't me thrifty with your words, they are free)
- my experience with driver both in Hong Kong and New York (notorious attitude), if you are nice to them, they are nice to you, simple
- or even start a little light-hearted conversation, they love talking..... locals, talk about new, travelers talk about places to see, some love to "represent" hong kong (pride) other love practicing their english, after a couple of sentence and no responsefine... let it be, maybe the driver is not a talker
- i've even experience cases where they are really rude SOB's (can tell when they yell at other drivers/pedestrians, on the phone) but when you speak to them with manners, they respond with manners
-- cases where I get free rides (taxi driver didn't have change), rounded DOWN the fare (taxi driver didn't bother looking for coins) or just rounded down (like $62ish to $60) just for my convenience to not search for coins, its always free to be polite

Last advice, some bros mentioned the legal obligation.... you can try to push the issue. But you'll end up with an unpleasant ride, and if you are new in the area, the driver might take you for rounds........

Hope these advice helps, from my long time experience with dealing with HK and NYC taxi drivers.

Cheers!

If NYC taxi refuses you, go report their asses!! simple!!  That will light a fire up their asses!

Of course I avoid NYC taxi like std.!

I visited Hong Kong last year for the first time and found their transit and taxi's to be first class!!!  Such ease to get around the city and short wait times makes me hard pressed to say anything negative about it.  I did have a few taxi's say no to a fare, either from not understanding where I wanted to go or possibly due to shift change... not a big deal though as it was usually less than a 30 second wait to try another cab which would take me to where I needed to go.  Can't wait to head back in a few days!!!