DiDi has an English mode, and the driver does not

DiDi is how you get a car. Street taxis exist and are harder work, mostly because explaining where you want to go, out loud, to somebody who does not share a language with you, is a worse experience than typing it.

Set it up at home

Registration needs an SMS code, and the airport exit at midnight is a spectacularly bad place to learn that. Add a card at the same time. The card form is, inevitably, one of the screens that stays in Chinese.

The English mode is genuinely good, up to a point

Destination search, car classes, fare, trip progress, receipts. All translated, all fine. This is why the app gets recommended so warmly, and the recommendation is not wrong.

Then the driver messages you

And it is in Chinese, and it is time sensitive, and if you do not answer it there is a reasonable chance the ride gets canceled.

They are almost always short and practical. Which exit they are at. That they cannot stop where you dropped the pin. That they are two minutes away. That they are, in fact, the black car you are currently walking past.

The other one that catches people is airport and mall pickup points, which are named in Chinese and are the difference between the door you are standing at and a fifteen minute walk around a terminal.

So the useful thing is reading the screen quickly

Not copying the message somewhere else and coming back. Reading it where it is, with the reply box still under your thumb, in the ninety seconds before the driver decides you are not coming.

Questions people ask

Does DiDi have an English version?

Yes, and it covers booking well. Driver messages, pickup point names and notices still arrive in Chinese.

Can I use DiDi with a foreign credit card?

Yes, through Alipay or WeChat Pay, and increasingly by adding the card directly. Set it up before your first ride.

What happens if I do not reply to the driver?

Often the ride is canceled. Driver messages are time sensitive, usually about exactly where to meet.

More from the blog

• Why your map pin is on the wrong side of the river
• There are two QR codes and the gate only likes one of them
• The ten minutes that decide how your first day goes