The World’s #1 Ride-Sharing App: Know How Did i Can Help You in China!

There is one thing that almost all Mandarin Chinese language students here in China have in common: we don’t have our own personal cars. Owing a car in China and being licensed to drive is a complicated and expensive process. Plus, the public transportation such as trains, buses, and even bicycle-sharing is great!

For the most part, you won’t need a car when you’re in China. However, there are times that it would be faster or more convenient to hop in the back of a car than wait for a bus. For those trips to the grocery store or airport, my fellow students and I now prefer to use a car-sharing and taxi ordering app rather than hailing a taxi on the street. It’s more reliable, honest, safe and convenient for us to use our phones rather than take a chance with a random taxi driver. There is one app that we all use. It’s now considered to be the most-used ride-sharing app in the world: "滴滴出行 (Dīdī chūxíng) Didi Chuxing". Didi Chuxing is an application where taxis, private cars and designated drivers can be hired via smartphone. Didi carries 20 million rides per day, or seven billion rides per year. There are over 450 million registered users in China. These numbers are far higher than any other car service app in the world!

Foreign travelers, students and workers alike should all be using the Didi app when traveling in China. It’s simple and affordable. In today’s lesson, I will help you get the app set up and some useful Mandarin Chinese expressions that will benefit your communication with the driver.

There Are 4 Steps That You Need to Know and Go Through When Using the Didi App:

Step 1: This part is easy; "安装 (Ānzhuāng) install" the Didi app onto your mobile device!

You just need to search for this app in your App store and download it to your phone.

Step 2: "注册 (Zhùcè) Sign up" and create your account.

For this, you will need a phone number. You may want to read my previous article on buying a SIM card in China.

Once you’ve got your phone number set up: Open the ...Read More

The phrase "一口气 (yìkǒuqì)" is one I use a lot when I’m talking to friends and family about people I admire. Do you like to watch sports? Have you seen any athletes who can finish a competition in one go without stopping? Wanna know how to talk about their effort with your Chinese friends? If so, you may want to learn this word:

一口气 (yìkǒuqì)
一 (yī): one.
口 (kǒu): mouth.
一口 (yì kǒu): a mouthful; a bite.
气 (qì): breath, air.

"一口气 (yìkǒuqì)" literally means "one breath."

Example:
Judy shēn xī le yìkǒuqì.
Judy 深 吸 了 一口气。
Judy took a deep breath.

Later, people also use "一口气 (yìkǒuqì)" to express "at one go/without a break." I often use it when I’m referring to the outstanding athletes who can finish the competitions without a break, for example:

Usain Bolt holds both the 100m and 200m world records. He can run the 100m in 9.58 seconds and the 200m in 19.19 seconds.
The way we would say this in Chinese is ...Read More

Quiz:

1. 他 1 吹灭 2 了蜡烛 3 。

Question:
Looking at the sentence above and the corresponding numbers, which numbered location is the correct place to insert the phrase "一口气"?

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
See Answer