How to hail a Didi in China
Hailing a cab where Uber and Lyft don’t exist
In China, it’s actually pretty easy to find a taxi without using an app. But if you can't speak Chinese, it can be hard to communicate your destination to the driver, and difficult to tell them to switch on their meters so you aren’t charged an exorbitant fare.
That's why so many people use ride-hailing services like Didi.
Didi Chuxing taking competition with nemesis Uber abroad
Like most ride-hailing apps, it shows you the estimated fare before you kick off your journey. And ideally, you won’t have to talk to your driver at all: Your pickup location and destination are already indicated in the app.
Best of all, the app comes in various languages and lets you pay with an international credit card -- uncommon for most ride-hailing services in China. In this installment of the Abacus Survival Guide, we show you how to hail a Didi in China as a visitor.
(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, a shareholder of Didi.)