Living in Beijing Series #2: Sorry, no Uber in China (updated)
Sorry, no Uber in China
Hi everyone! Well most people know Uber since it is the king of the ride-hailing services in the west that changes the way how we use a cab or taxi. Note that when I say, 'the west', I usually refer to U.S.A in particular, sorry Uber didn't go well in the U.K.
Well, if you're planning to take a trip to China or the big cities like Beijing or Shanghai. I have news for you, you can't use Uber in China anymore. Uber China is acquired by another another Giant in the market, called Didi Chuxing (didi in short)滴滴出行
What is Didi Chuxing?
Didi Chuxing is basically the Uber in China, but it has more options depending on what you want. You can call for a regular taxi, a kuai che快车 (regular ride), a zuan che专车 (limo version of 快车, better car, 5 star rated driver, price is higher too), or a shunfeng che 顺风车 (ride-along option, might pick up others along the same direction)
Ordering taxi on Didi
Now I'm not going to write details on why Uber doesn't work in China, that is for another topic of discussion. Instead, I'm here to show you how to get around with Didi using your phone.
Didi is an app, but you can skip the download
"Hey Reena, what do you mean? Logically speaking, you need the download the app to be able to use it right?"
But this is not the case with Didi. In my video, I'm going to show you how you could use Didi without hassle, without clicking another downloaded app. All you need is a Chinese phone number, and Wechat. Yes, you can use Didi in Wechat! That is because Didi is integrated with Wechat pay and the Didi app is already in your Wechat wallet.
Amazing right? Considering the fact that you get to save space in your phone!
Steps: Wechat> Me> Wallet> Order Taxi
What Happens After You Booked?
You will receive a call from the driver 15 minutes before the time you booked. The driver can locate you with the GPS of your phone too.
Payment
The payment is deducted automatically from your Wechat balance. So you want to make sure you have money in there. UPDATED INFO : Wechat now allows expats to link overseas credit card.
Expats living in China and residents of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are now allowed to bind and activate WeChat Pay accounts with credit card services provided by MasterCard, Visa, and JCB.
WeChat users without a Chinese bank debit account or a credit card can activate WeChat for mobile payments in China, Tencent said in a statement, adding that users will need to download the mainland-WeChat version to open up services.
source
DIDI is only available on the Mainland Version of Wechat，not the international version You may download the Mainland version here : http://weixin.qq.com/
Below is a very short video that I recorded before leaving for the airport, hope you guys enjoy.
Seems like Uber isn't the only thing you can't get in China... http://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/2132009/china-stamp-out-cryptocurrency-trading-completely-ban
Not sure how this is going to affect your blog @asianetwork.
looks like i need to be mentally prepared for it. Get all the alternative ways ready, thanks for the info Erik =)
Just give me an 专车 with the option to 顺风车 hot chicks on the way!
YES, it does happen! just 顺风 your way on friday evenings =D
We have problems with local taxi and Uber here in South Africa every so often, so they are not all that popular world wide @asianetwork thanks for details on how they work in China.
hey, thanks for dropping by my post too =) really appreciate it.Thanks for info, I did heard Uber has issues even in some european countries. perhaps they are more popular in San Francisco.
Perhaps there will be a better mode of transportation in South Africa someday. For now I guess we still need to drive our cars to go anywhere
not everything is so unambiguous ... Uber takes 25% of profit from
carriers and especially does not care about their condition and autos quality etc
well, 'm pretty sure they take a cut of profit too(not sure how much). Perhaps the conditions for Uber Black is better... DIDI has pretty strict rules for their certain drivers because they have to bear the cost of traffic ticket, So rating matters a lot
This is definitely handy information for me since I have been planning a visit to China for some time. This makes it easy for me to figure out what to do when I'm there.
By the way, I also have Hong Kong on my list of places to visit. Does HK also have Didi?
Most probably yes, I just checked it online. here Uber is available in Hong Kong too.
The last time i went to Hong Kong i didn't use Didi because there are taxis everywhere.
Thanks, and yes indeed, Hong Kong seemed to be full of taxis when I went there last several years ago.
Most of them could speak only Chinese then, although I did not face any issue during my rides in their taxis. Couldn't have any conversations with them as a tourist though.
i think it depends. would be great if they speak english right? maybe the older ones would know since they were colonized by the Brits. One of the reasons i love HK is because almost everything has English wordings with them. I was in Hong Kong 2 years ago, love Victoria Harbour at night and would love to go there again =)
Of course, it is a friendly city with English signages. I plan to check out the Disneyland when I visit, among other things.
Oh, that would be great! 😄
Thanks for the info, what's the cost for a ride on Didi?
depend on how far you travel. Mine was about 150 yuan(about RM100). The drive was about 40 minutes.
oh wow at least you still have a similar service. we almost had it revoked here because of the damn, stupid government.
so when you click order taxi and only if you download wechat from a chinese server( correct me here if i am wrong because i am positive i am :P )
after the order taxi option everything is in chinese? i can't somehow translate it to english?
Wechat usually detects the default language setting of your phone. Mine was automatically english because the default language i set on my phone is in English. well, the 3rd party app in wechat is mostly in Chinese , but in some cases they change to English automatically (But it takes a longer time to load) Tip: I can't say more, It's China. and we learn Chinese by using these apps.. LOL
Wechat>Me>Settings>general>language
thanks a lot for the info!!!
This is really interesting, here in Argentina Uber didn't make it either, there was a big hassle with the old fashioned taxis so it went silent for a while. Thanks for sharing!
Looks like Uber didn't make it in a lot of places, perhaps one day something similar will come up when the society is ready to accept =)
Wechat requires a china-based bank account together with a mobile phone to register for a china-based we chat account.....Those good features..what a shame, are just past me.....
Hi, i just made a couple of updates to the post , latest update as on 28Jan 2018, Didi now allows expats to link credit bind and activate WeChat Pay accounts with credit card services provided by MasterCard, Visa, and JCB.