China- what should I be doing differently?

I am currently in China and have in the past month spent 8 days in Beijing, some time in Shanghai, and now in Hangzhou.

This is not my first trip- I have been about 20 times often for business, but I've travelled independently throughout thr country, from Xinjiang to Canton to Guilin to Chengdu and a bunch of other places- i generally enjoy being here and am not intimidated by the place.

However, it dawned on me that there's one thing i find quite frustrating, and that's getting around the cities. I'd love some insights and tips in terms of what i can do differently.

I don't really speak any Chinese, although i know the basics and can read about 100 characters- enough to be able to compare signs to names on a map etc.

Navigating the cities takes just so much time. I find myself just limiting myself and staying in the neighbourhood because it's such a pain in the backside to get around.

There several things that conspire to make my urban travel hard:
- Getting addresses in Chinese to show taxi drivers. Google Maps works for me (I'm roaming) but it's only in English. Apple Maps and Baidu are only in Chinese and therefore useless to me. Often i have a name of a place I want to go to and i need to search for 10minutes to find a Chinese version of the address. The best source appears to be Tripadvisor, which has addresses in Chinese for most places listed. I wodl love a websit tahts imply translates and address from English to Chinese.

• I can't get a taxi. Tonight at least 20 taxis with a green light passed me by without even stopping. (i saw the same happen to Chinese- it's not just because I;m a foreign devil). On one street taxis with green lights were cruising slowly, but none of them would stop. Are they all on call?

• I have Didi on my phone but it's useless. I've tried it about 10 times- not a single one has been successful/ Either no-one accepts my request or they cancel when they're on their way to me.

• Biking is second nature to me but i can't use any of the ubiquitous shared bikes. I'd love to use them, but I can't sign up, not having a Chinese card. I have Alipay, but can't get it to work with my foreign card.

• the metro if efficient but the stations are so far apart. Compared to London or Paris the metro is time consuming as simply getting to and through a station can take up to 20 mins.

I have not been able to find a busmap yet that i can read... yes blame my lack of Chinese but even just a city map with bus lines would be handy. A list of stops in Chinese is all i can find, and that's meaningless to me.

Tonight I walked 6 km back to my hotel- as i mentioned above, no taxis, metro was too far away, couldn't figure out the buses, no access to the bikes. What should I be doing differently?

Other than that, I am having a blast ;-)

thanks

H_B

I feel for you. First of all there is no way to have a translation program for location names, as quite often the Chinese names bear no resemblance to the English name. So even if you have the English name of a place, the Chinese name can be something totally unrelated. As for taxi, with the popularity of taxi apps, locals are just booking their taxis using the app. If you (and most tourists) don't have the taxi app, it can be a real problem. And the same with the bike sharing app. I don't have a solution, just saying I know exactly what you mean.

Re bike share, can someone clarify for Beijing (also other cities like Hangzhou) and for all of us that you can use your subway card (assuming it's charged with a sufficient amount of money)? I heard this somewhere but haven't tried it.

Indeed, getting a taxi seems harder and harder--at least, in Bj.

Do you stay in hotels? If so, concierges might help with names and addresses in Chinese.

Side note: some good hotel tourist maps have popular places listed in Chinese and English. Old school, but it still works for me.

@bittermelon thanks for your empathy. I do have the taxi app (DiDi) but my requests are never accepted or when they are, they are cancelled by the driver before the car arrives.

So all the cabs with green lights that refuse to stop, have they all been booked already using the app?

So all the cabs with green lights that refuse to stop, have they all been booked already using the app?

Most probably.

So all the cabs with green lights that refuse to stop, have they all been booked already using the app?

Depends what time of day it was. Chinese taxi drivers change shifts at some really stupid times (About 8am and 6pm), just when a lot of people are wanting them. In that case; drivers will either not stop at all or refuse to take you where you want to go unless it is somewhere in the vicinity of where they meet to change over.

I almost never get taxis, but love the metro. I usually get a pass that I can just top up so I don't have to wait in queues, just go to one of the booths in most cities to get one, (in Xian you have to go to specific stations). Some cities are easier than others but I quite enjoy walking from the subway, having found lots of interesting things on the way to somewhere, but yes, it can be frustratingly slow because often there are no shortcuts. I found that in many cities the phone route will show up on my iphone map, though it never works in my home city! I also pay attention to bus numbers when walking and have often found a useful connection that way. Sometimes I get the wrong bus but I'm exploring, so no problem. In Hangzhou you can get a boat on the Grand Canal, either by getting bus 198 to the Grand Canal museum, though I found that somewhat confusing, (you'll need to ask the bus driver) or by metro, but I don't rememeber which station. I've generally found the staff at hostels more helpful in finding how to get to places than in hotels. Good luck.

For taxis, I tell them the closest intersection. It worked for me every time.

Unless something is so well known, like for Shanghai's Jingmao Tower in Pudong, I can just say "Jingmao Pudong."

Hangzhou is one of the worst cities in China to try and get around - at least the scenic bits where there are no subway stops and a very confusing bus system. I feel your pain!

Your App problems are Odd - I've just had 3 friends who signed up to MoBike using foreign cards and it was really simple What is it telling you the problem is?

I use Didi also regularly in Shanghai/Hangzhou and also generally very smooth. Are you using a foreign phone number? That might put them off.

... I do have the taxi app (DiDi) but my requests are never accepted or when they are, they are cancelled by the driver before the car arrives.
So all the cabs with green lights that refuse to stop, have they all been booked already using the app?

Regarding taxi, it is a simple theory of supply and demand.

I shall tell some of the things I know about Beijing. Some background factors:
- After 11pm, surcharge of 20% would apply. Therefore, drivers would prefer to pick up fare after 11pm, if near.
- For over 15km, the driver can charge you a return journey of equal distance. I can guarantee that the driver would not drive back an empty cab.
- Drivers, base on their local knowledge and experiences can easily guess the distance of fare. If they think that it is a short distance then they would not stop or refuse even after you have already crawled into the cab. They can always come up with reasons hard to argue with, such as there is a bad traffic jam approaching your destination or faking that they are on the way to change shift (at any random hours).

- when they are on their way to you or to the non foreign devil prospect standing next to you, they probably have more better prospective orders on their screen available for their pick and choose. Some driver would cancel yours and even say: “go and complain if you want”. (I read that it has gotten worse after the merger of Uber and Didi.)

A few things we had tried in some difficult situations:
* go to the direction that’s against the traffics.
* go to a spot where lesser waiting passengers, even if you have to walk several blocks.
* follow an occupied taxi into a residential side street, good chance that the passenger would be dropped off inside a compound.
* some tipsy members of our group raised their long skirts a bit to attract headlights.
* Don’t be afraid to act like Dorothy Michaels in the movie of ‘Tootsies’.

... What should I be doing differently?

Formulate a ready plan-B beforehand.

Buddy, sounds like you got culture shock and the fact that you are checking out throntree forums for advice is a bit baffling as well-why are not you connected on expat forums like expat.com?

Look man, the metro is crowded but that is China. Taxi's are a bugger unless you know where you are going. If you are going to China and you have been here 20 times already...you should have learned SOME Chinese buddy. Its like anywhere in the world, fit in or f... off :p Not trying to be harsh but at some point you need to realize you need to change it up if you are not happy.

Crowds suck-its China
Things don't work-its China
bro-its life, keep your chin up, laugh at the setbacks and just be happy to be on earth and capable of making this awesome routine trip.

Life is good bud.

use the Metro, its the way to go, and it can be faster.

Have hotel write address of where you want to go. Always have a card of the hotel to show taxi where you are staying.

I was just in Beijing and never had issue getting a taxi, almost all the popular plaza and buildings have a drop off and pick up area anyway to control the mayhem.

I lived in China, both Shanghai and Beijing, and traveled all over, never learned a lick of Mandarin.

Hang in there...and remember, most younger college age people speak english. Its not easy all the time, but doable.

Your App problems are Odd - I've just had 3 friends who signed up to MoBike using foreign cards and it was really simple What is it telling you the problem is?

See, this is useful info.

I had done some research and the only info I could find is that it's not possible to use the bikes without a Chinese bank card.

In spit of that I tried the Ofo app myself because Ofo is present in the US as well so I thought they would think internationally... even though the app took a ¥299 deposit from my card, it kept on telling me the service was down.

But thanks to your suggestion I went ahead and downloaded Mobike as well... and hey presto! I did my first bike ride tonight!

Thanks so much for that tip!

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