Getting around Chinese cities: metro, taxi and apps

A buying trip is a series of journeys: hotel to market, market to market, market to dinner with a supplier. Chinese cities make those journeys easy once you know the two tools that matter, the metro and ride-hailing, and how to pay for both with your phone.

This is general guidance. Specific lines, apps and payment options change, so confirm the current setup when you arrive, and set up your apps and connectivity before you fly.

The metro: fast, cheap, and signed in English

Cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen have extensive, modern metro systems. Trains are frequent, fares are low, and crucially for a visitor, station names and signs are shown in both Chinese and English. For moving between wholesale districts at rush hour, the metro beats a taxi stuck in traffic every time.

You do not need a paper ticket. In most major systems you can generate a transit QR code inside your mobile-payment app and scan it at the gate, or in some cases tap a contactless bank card. Learn this on your first ride and the city opens up.

Didi: ride-hailing without the language barrier

For door-to-door trips, especially with bags of samples, ride-hailing through Didi is the buyer's friend. It removes the fare haggling and the language barrier: you set your pickup and destination on the map, the price is agreed in the app, and many versions offer an English interface and message translation so you can communicate with the driver. It also leaves a record of every trip, which is useful when you are reimbursing yourself later.

Paying for transport

Both the metro and Didi are paid through the same mobile-payment apps you use for everything else on the ground. Set up a working payment method before you travel and test it, so your first ride is not your first attempt to make the app work.

• Metro: a transit QR in the payment app, or a contactless card where supported.
• Didi: linked to the same app, paid automatically at the end of the ride.
• Taxis: many accept a phone payment too, though a metered street taxi is your fallback.

Keep your hotel address saved in Chinese on your phone. At the end of a long day, showing a driver the characters is faster and surer than any pronunciation attempt.

Navigating without Mandarin

A China-capable maps app is the third tool. Familiar Western map apps work poorly inside the country, so use one that covers Chinese streets and transit properly. Combined with a translation app for signs and addresses, you can find any market hall, any factory gate, any restaurant a supplier names.

A getting-around checklist

1. Mobile-payment app set up and tested for transport, before you fly.
2. Didi or an equivalent ride app installed and signed in.
3. A China-capable maps app, with your hotel and key markets saved.
4. Hotel name and address saved in Chinese characters.
5. A translation app for the addresses drivers cannot read off your screen.

Move around efficiently and you fit more suppliers into each day, which is the whole economics of flying in. When you have found the right ones, the payments that follow are simple: make a request to settle them in RMB on Alipay from Naira, no Chinese account required.