About 100,000 Beijing cab drivers put on their new uniforms – yellow shirt, striped tie and blue trousers on Friday – as the city entered the one week countdown to the Olympics.

"We were even asked to wear black leather shoes while working," said a cab driver who did not give his name, "If the drivers are found not in uniforms in their cabs, they will be fined."

But it is better not to wear the uniforms on private occasions such as drinking with friends because people will suspect that you would drive after drinking, he said.

Many drivers fixed little national flags or flags with the Olympic emblem on their cabs. Some put on special signs which read "loving-heart team" or the "team of Communist Party members" along side with their license plates.

To make cab drivers more "articulate", the municipal government even prepared a multiple-language dictionary for them. It contained the 20 most-used sentences in seven foreign languages.

Believing cabs will be a window for foreign visitors to know Beijing, the municipal government has set up new rules to improve taxi service. Drivers who refuse passengers, take indirect routes to run up the meter, refuse to use the meter at all, or keep dirty cabs on the road, will be penalized according to the rules.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2008)