Normal taxis exist and you can get them called in by your hotel or whatnot but from the few experiences of using them, they require payment in cash or alipay and some of them refuse cash becoming extremely confused why you can't alipay for the taxi.
They're also way less convenient. Try calling for a taxi when you don't even know how to recognize a taxi advertisement, never mind finding a taxi company where the staff speak English in a non-major city. In Shanghai it's not hard, but try something off the beaten path and you'll seriously struggle. In fact, outside of Shanghai I struggled to find anywhere which would accept payment with anything other than cash or Alipay/Wechat (sometimes you weren't even able to use cash).
I was in China for business reasons, I needed to get around. Jumping through hoops was the name of the game.
They're also way less convenient. Try calling for a taxi when you don't even know how to recognize a taxi advertisement, never mind finding a taxi company where the staff speak English in a non-major city. In Shanghai it's not hard, but try something off the beaten path and you'll seriously struggle. In fact, outside of Shanghai I struggled to find anywhere which would accept payment with anything other than cash or Alipay/Wechat (sometimes you weren't even able to use cash).
I was in China for business reasons, I needed to get around. Jumping through hoops was the name of the game.