They are often the most comfortable way to get around - fares usually come to between RMB20 and RMB40 for rides within the city. Few drivers speak English, so it will help to have your destination written in Chinese. The only kind of hassle you’re likely to suffer is from drivers who take you on unnecessarily long detours, but ifyou sit in the front seat and hold a map on your lap they will usually be persuaded to behave themselves. However, very late at night, conventions change - meters are often switched off and you may have to negotiate the fare, or at least tell the driver “da biao”, meaning turn on the meter.
Starting fares between 11pm and 5am are about thirty percent higher than at other times.
To cross the Huangpu River over to the Pudong, the cheapest way is to take the very frequent double-decker ferry from the central part of the Bund, next to the prominent riverside Diamond Restaurant.
There are 50,000 taxies running in Shanghai City. They are reasonably cheap and easy to 
flag down, but try to avoid the peak hours of 7 to 9 am and 5 to 7 pm. The start price is RMB 10 for 3 km and RMB 2 for following each 1 km. At night (23:00-5:00) the start price is RMB 13 for 3 km and RMB 2.6 for following each 1 km, once exceeding 10 kilometers’ journey, it would be RMB 3.9 for each kilometer, and the bargain is permitted, also, you could take the taxi to travel in a group
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Getting a taxi on a Friday afternoon is a bit like cut-throat competition. This is especially so in downtown Shanghai because of the high demand for taxis.
Sometimes, taxi drivers are very talkative or humorous. They are eager to share the news and views of great interest with you and show you what kind of people they are through their stories with mixed feelings. They even talk about the most personal elements of their lives. Some of them have no education at all, as most of them are in their mid-late 40’s and missed out on school due to the Cultural Revolution. They are laid-off workers or farmers from the suburbs (many are from Chongming County), and desperately need to make money. After a brief period of training, they become taxi drivers. It usually takes several years for a new driver to become familiar with the roads of Shanghai. That is why you should know exactly where you want to go .
In Shanghai, a taxi usually has two drivers sharing the work. Usually a taxi driver has to work 24 hours a day (they can not earn enough in eight hours a day), then he rests a whole day. They eat at open-air food stands in back alleys. Around the middle of the night they will stop their cars in residential areas or around nightlife hangouts. A passenger will wake up a driver who is taking a nap to ask for a lift. But it is dangerous, for both passenger and driver, for the driver to go on the roads when he or she is sleepy. These taxi drivers are usually exhausted after a whole day’s work. Their vision becomes blurred and their minds wander and they tend to cause traffic accidents. Recently, the rising price of gasoline not only affects their income but also their working mood. To save fuel, some drivers have been switching off air-conditioners despite rising temperatures. However, raising taxi fares in Shanghai is anticipated
A taxi can be a small world, with its dedicated culture. I often noticed funny stickers in Shanghai taxis. One piece said that you might have to pay more than the original fare if you cannot answer these 3 questions well:
“Where do you want to go?”
“Can I use this route?”
“Do you use card or cash?”
It sounds amazing that local residents can now hail a taxi by a short message service (SMS) via their mobile phones. They input their name, location, destination and starting time, and indicate the traffic details nearby, and send the message to a given short telephone number. The control center will relay them with a message to confirm the booking and then send a taxi to the required place within 10 minutes.