Taxi Service needs major improvement

I just arrived in Hangzhou from Suzhou by train today at 6pm. I am very dissapointed with the taxis in Hangzhou, below are my reasons.

1. We queued at the taxi stand for 10 minutes (not complaining) to get a taxi to our hotel which is in the city. Once we were at the head of the queue, we made our way to the many taxis passing by and picking up local customers. Unfortunately, none of the taxis were interested in taking foreigners. Imagine 4 foreigners in the middle of 2 moving taxi lanes trying to get one of the taxis to even stop for us. Before even looking at our maps, they just waved their hand refusing to take us up. And around us, the people queueing far behind us were picking up taxis like mad. We were there for a good 5-10minutes before a taxi offered us RMB50 to bring us to our hotel which is a 15 minute walking distance from the station (we didn't know it then). Out of exasperation, we took the cab.

2. Same problem again later at around 8pm. We were trying to get a taxi to send us to the west lake which people said was very beautiful by night, but even after 20 minutes with numerous taxis going by (and some stopping to look at our map), none were interested to send us. We abandoned our night trip for fear of no taxi to send us back to the hotel from west lake or even pying RMB200 for that trip.

I like Hangzhou, the place is beautiful and clean. The people are nice. But the taxis...... a nightmare.

Good luck to us tomorrow.