Saga of President Xi Jinping's Beijing taxi trip reaches a dead end

The initial report in the pro-Beijing Ta Kung Pao - which devoted a prominent full page to the story, as well as a webpage with interactive graphics - described the trip as weifu sifang, a term used to describe Chinese emperors' secret excursions to experience public life.

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Taxi driver Guo Lixin shows off a note supposedly written by Xi Jinping. Photo: Screenshot via Ta Kung Pao

Published: 12:21pm, 18 Apr 2013Updated: 4:13am, 29 Aug 2013

A Hong Kong newspaper report that President Xi Jinping took a taxi ride across Beijing became the hottest topic on the mainland after it was verified by Xinhua - only to be denied later by the state-run news agency.

The full-page report of President Xi's taxi journey in Ta Kung Pao.

The initial report in the pro-Beijing Ta Kung Pao - which devoted a prominent full page to the story, as well as a webpage with interactive graphics - described the trip as weifu sifang, a term used to describe Chinese emperors' secret excursions to experience public life.

It caused a buzz across mainland social media and a Xinhua microblog said it had verified the report with traffic authorities.

But hours later, another Xinhua microblog said the story had proved to be "fake news".

Ta Kung Pao removed the story from its website and issued a statement expressing regret. It said: "There is major fake news that should not be in the paper because of our work errors. We sincerely apologise to readers." The newspaper gave a vivid account of how Beijing taxi driver Guo Lixin stumbled across Xi and his assistant on March 1, when he took them to the Diaoyutai Hotel during the evening rush hour.

It quoted Guo as saying that at first he could not identify Xi, who was sitting next to him, and asked the passenger: "Has anyone ever told you that you look like general secretary Xi?"

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