By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
New York City has yellow cabs and London has black cabs. Now, Seoul will have ``Haechi'' cabs from May.
The Seoul Metropolitan government introduced the new taxi brand of Seoul in a bid to make the new taxis a new icon of the capital.
The Haechi taxi is a combination of Seoul's symbols ― Haechi, the Seoul color and the Seoul font. Haechi is a symbolic icon of Seoul, a lion-like horned creature that appears in Korean myths as a guardian against fire and disasters. The new taxis have drawings of Haechi on the doors and the lamp on the roof to emphasize the safety and trustworthiness of the transportation service.
Seoul has designated 10 representative colors of the city last year. The basic color of the Haechi cab is white with orange trim.
``Seoul will upgrade the taxi business from just a transportation business to an icon of the city and city brand service,'' said Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. ``Haechi cabs will beautify the scenery of the city and be the new symbol of Seoul.'' The color of white symbolizes the Han River and orange the earth.
The newly designed taxis will be produced from May. The city expects to replace 10,000 taxis a year and it will take a maximum of nine years to substitute all 72,000 cabs in Seoul.
However, the new taxis also mean a rise in taxi fares. Taxi businesses have requested a price hike of at least 30 percent, but the city tentatively decided on around 10 percent because of the economic crisis. The exact amount of the raise will be decided after discussions.