Taxi Chinese: 6 Phrases That Get You Across Any City

TL;DR: the 30-second version

“Qù nǎr?” (Where to?) — you hear that the second the car door closes. Most foreigners freeze right there. You do not need a course to answer it: six phrases, one phone screen, ten minutes of practice, and the whole ride runs itself. This is the script we hand every friend who visits.

The short answer

The short answer: taxi Chinese is the smallest slice of the language there is, and the driver does the heavy part. You name a destination, a direction, or a stop — the meter handles the rest. Nobody in the car cares about grammar.

The six phrases that do the work

Learn these as sounds, not characters. Run through them in order and you cover a full ride:

• zhèr (here) — your stop word, always used with a finger pointed out of the window.
• zuǒ zhuǎn / yòu zhuǎn (turn left / turn right) — for when the driver overshoots your gate.
• tíng zhèr (stop here) — the cousin of zhèr, for mid-block drop-offs in the rain.
• duōshao qián (how much money) — optional, since the meter shows it, but it tells the driver you are paying attention.
• fāpiào (receipt) — the one word that gets you the printed slip you need for an expense claim.
• dǎ biǎo (run the meter) — the most useful taxi phrase in the country, kept for the rare driver who quotes a flat price instead of turning the meter on.

That is it. The position words carry everything, because the destination itself never has to leave your mouth.

Show the screen, skip the accent

Here is the trick every long-term foreign resident uses: do not pronounce your destination at all. Pull it up in Amap (Gaode), the Chinese map app, and hold the phone up. Drivers read addresses off a screen far faster than they decode your tones, and a screen cannot be misheard.

Getting the address out of apps you already use: in WeChat, tap the location pin someone sent you, hit “Navigate,” and Amap opens with the route ready. Do that while you wait for the light and you never sit in the front seat again miming a street name.

Money talk, 2026 edition

Meters, not haggling. Flag fall in the big cities runs about ¥13 for the first 3 km in Beijing, ¥14 in Shanghai, ¥10 in Shenzhen — call it “roughly 10 to 14 yuan for the first three kilometers” and you are never far off. After 23:00 most cities add a night surcharge, usually ¥1–2 per ride, and the per-kilometer rate ticks upward to about ¥2.3–2.6.

A fare like ¥13.60 rounds to ¥14, in the driver’s favor. That is normal rounding, not a scam. Watch the meter, pay it, move on.

Payment is cash, WeChat, or Alipay — cards are not on the menu. The payment QR code lives on a sticker behind the driver’s headrest; scan it on arrival.

When the driver wants to chat

You will get cóng nǎ lái de (where are you from), and maybe wàiguó rén (foreigner). One sentence ends it: say your country — Měiguó for the US, Yīngguó for the UK, Déguó for Germany — then smile. Drivers ask, get the answer, and move on. If you want out of the talk, looking at your phone is the universal “checking the map” signal, and nobody gets offended.

The ten-minute practice plan

• Minutes 0–3: say the six phrases out loud, twice each, and point at things while you say zhèr.
• Minutes 3–7: open Amap, pick a random address in any Chinese city, and read the pinyin of the street name aloud once.
• Minutes 7–10: replay a ride in your head — meter on, small talk, stop, fāpiào, pay. Run it twice.

Do it the night before your flight. Tones that are perfect are not the goal; getting there is.

Quick answers

Q: Do I need to learn tones before I take a taxi? A: No. Pointing at your phone screen and saying zhèr works no matter how flat your tones are.

Q: What if my destination has no obvious landmark? A: Show the nearest metro station, hotel, or convenience-store chain — drivers know those far better than a building number.

Q: Is it normal for the driver to round the fare up? A: Yes. There is no small change for fares like ¥13.60, so rounding to the nearest yuan is standard practice. Not a scam.

Q: What if the driver quotes a flat price instead of using the meter? A: Say dǎ biǎo (run the meter). Licensed taxis switch to meter mode without fuss — it is the polite way of insisting.

Editorial review: EasternReset Team · Snapshot: 2026-09. Found an error? Email us.