Updated 2026-07-31
Taxis in China are cheap by international standards — a cross-town trip in Chengdu or Xi'an often costs less than a coffee in London — and Didi has made hailing one almost frictionless, even without Chinese. The main challenges are not cost but communication: telling a driver where you want to go when you cannot pronounce it, and knowing when you are being taken for a longer ride than necessary. Both are solvable.
This is the single most useful tip on this page. The standalone Didi app requires a Chinese phone number and a fairly involved registration. The Didi mini-app inside Alipay requires none of that — if you already have Alipay set up with a bound card, you can hail a car immediately, in English, and it charges your card automatically at the end of the ride.
To find it: open Alipay, search for Didi or look under Transport in the services grid. Set the language to English in the mini-app if it does not pick it up automatically. WeChat has an equivalent mini-app, though the Alipay version tends to have better English.
The ride types worth knowing: Express (快车) is the standard private car and what you want in almost all cases. Taxi (出租车) hails a licensed metered cab through the app, useful if no Express drivers are nearby. Premier or Select is a more comfortable car at maybe 50 percent more. Ignore the carpool option unless you have plenty of time.
Most drivers speak no English, and Chinese place names are difficult to convey by pronunciation alone — tonal differences mean an approximate attempt often produces a genuinely different location. But this is entirely solvable, and once you know the trick it is a non-issue.
Fares vary by city but are low throughout. Beijing and Shanghai are the most expensive, with a flagfall around 13 to 14 yuan; second-tier cities like Xi'an, Chengdu and Qingdao start at 9 to 11 yuan. Per-kilometre rates run roughly 2.5 to 3.2 yuan.
In practice: a fifteen-minute cross-town trip runs 20 to 35 yuan, an airport transfer 80 to 150 yuan depending on the city, and a one-hour drive to a suburban attraction 100 to 180 yuan. There is a night surcharge of roughly 20 percent after 11pm in most cities, and a low-speed waiting charge in traffic.
Didi shows an estimated fare before you confirm, and the final charge is normally within a few yuan of it. Any large discrepancy is worth querying in the app, which has a straightforward dispute process. Street taxis should always run the meter — see the next section.
Chinese taxis are, on the whole, honest — the licensed metered system works and drivers are tracked. Problems cluster in predictable places: airport and railway station exits, major tourist attractions, and late at night outside nightlife districts. Knowing the pattern removes almost all the risk.
This is where most first-day friction happens, and it is worth planning in advance rather than improvising after a long flight.
Didi works at all major airports, but pickup points can be confusing — large airports designate a specific level or lane for ride-hailing, sometimes on a different floor from arrivals, and the app instruction may only be in Chinese. If you are tired and it is your first time, the official taxi rank is the lower-stress option and costs about the same.
Better still, check whether the airport has a rail link. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Qingdao and Hangzhou all have metro or express rail from the terminal into the city, at 5 to 50 yuan and often faster than a taxi in traffic. Shanghai Pudong's maglev reaches 300 km/h and takes eight minutes to Longyang Road.
For a pre-booked private transfer, arrange it through your hotel. It costs more than a taxi but a driver waits with your name on a sign, which after a fourteen-hour flight is worth something. Book it when you book the room, not on arrival.
Chinese cities have genuinely excellent metro systems, and there are situations where a taxi is simply the wrong choice. Recognising them will save you both money and time.
Overseas app stores are full of copycat clones with the same name. Every link below has been checked against the official developer.
⚠️ Get “DiDi China: Ride Hailing” (id 554499054) — NOT “DiDi Rider”, which is for Latin America. Easiest route: use the DiDi mini-program inside Alipay, no signup needed.
⚠️ Developer must read “Alipay (Hangzhou) Technology”. Foreign cards work via the built-in Tour Pass / TourCard.
⚠️ “AMap Global” has a full English interface — the version most usable for visitors.
⚠️ Install and download the offline Chinese pack BEFORE you fly — it needs a VPN inside China, but offline mode works without one.
No. Uber sold its China operations to Didi in 2016 and does not operate in the mainland. The Uber app will not find drivers. Didi is the equivalent and is available through Alipay without a separate account. Note that Uber does operate in Hong Kong, China, which is a separate market.
Street taxis do accept cash, though drivers often have little change, so carry 10s and 20s rather than a 100. Didi charges your bound card automatically with no cash involved. If you plan to use street taxis, keeping around 100 yuan in small notes for the trip is sensible.
The back, on the passenger side, is standard for a single traveller and what drivers expect. The front passenger seat is normal too and gives a better view. Seatbelts in the back are often tucked away or non-functional in older taxis, which is worth knowing — check for one and use it if it exists.
Not on a foreign licence. China does not recognise the International Driving Permit, and driving legally requires a temporary or full Chinese licence, which involves a test. For a short trip it is not practical, and it is not necessary — with high-speed rail between cities, metro within them and cheap Didi for everything else, self-driving adds cost and stress without adding much.
Generally yes — China's cities are among the safest in the world for street crime and taxi journeys at night are unremarkable. Sensible precautions still apply: use Didi rather than an unmarked car so the trip is logged, share your ride status with someone via the app's share function, sit in the back, and avoid unlicensed vehicles offering rides outside bars and clubs.
City guides where everything above applies on the ground.
Specific sights where the advice above turns into concrete steps.
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Our team of China travel researchers combines on-the-ground contributor insights, official government sources, and traveler community feedback to create the most detailed English-language China guides available. Every guide is fact-checked against primary sources (NIA, 12367, official attraction websites, Railway 12306) before publication.