We had a near miss with kidnapping we think. I was studying abroad in China, and me and four female friends were leaving a nightclub at around 2AM and looking for a cab. There's strict laws that won't let the cabs take more than 4 people, but being drunk and arrogant Americans we insisted on finding a cab that would take all 5 of us even though splitting two cabs wouldn't have even been that pricey.

We find a cab that accepts all of us, tell it to take us back to our dorm, and I pass out the back seat. Suddenly, my friend is shaking me awake and the cab is pulled over. I wake up to her saying, "We're getting out of the cab, NOW." I turn around and the trunk of the cab is open and the driver is rummaging around in it. He pulls out a large roll of duck tape, and I scramble out of the cab in a panic.

Most of us don't speak Chinese, so our one friend who does really well is arguing with the driver. He claims that he pulled over because if the police saw him with 5 passengers he'd get in trouble, so he was going to duck tape over his license plate. He begs us to get back in the cab, but we all refuse. We're on the side of a highway with no other cars. He keeps saying, "We're only 5 minutes away from your dorm! Just get back in the car and we'll be there in 5 minutes."

Finally another cab comes around and we almost cry with joy. By this time it's 3AM and we're all pretty shook up. The cab pulls over, but refuses to take us because he says it's too far... He says, "Going down this highway, there's no good way to get to that university. It'd take at least 40 minutes." and so he leaves us.

We walk up to where the highway forked in our heels and going out clothes and there we find someone who agrees to take us, going down the other side of the fork. It still takes 30 minutes to get to the dorm.

So, maybe this dude really was going to just duck tape over his license plate, but I feel like something a lot worse was about to happen.