How to Use DiDi in China: App, Payment and Pickup Points
DiDi is the app you will open more often than any other in China. It is also the one where the wrong download costs you your first hour on the ground.
Uber left China in 2016, selling its local business to Didi. Ten years on, there is no alternative that a visitor can install and use. Every short-video clip of a traveler ordering a car in Shanghai makes it look like a forty-second job. It is, once three things are already sorted: the right app, a payment method that clears, and a pickup pin that points at a place where a car can actually stop. Miss one and you stand on a kerb watching a map spin.
This guide covers those three things in the order you will meet them, plus the airport ritual, the fare structure, and what to do when the driver calls and you understand nothing.
The two apps called DiDi
Search the app stores and you will find two DiDi apps. Only one works in mainland China.
The one you want is called “DiDi China: Ride Hailing” (滴滴出行). Its store listing says it covers rides in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, and it spells out the four features that matter to a visitor: an English interface, login with a global mobile number, support for international bank cards, and 24/7 English customer service inside the app.
The other one is “DiDi Rider: Affordable rides”, the international version used in Australia, Japan and Latin America. It installs cleanly. It opens. It shows a map. Then it cannot find you a ride, because it does not operate in mainland China. The error is quiet, which is why so many people conclude that DiDi simply does not work for visitors. It does. They downloaded the wrong half of the same company.
Install it before you fly. Google Play is blocked in China, so an Android phone arriving without the app has no easy way to get it. On iOS the App Store generally loads, but do not count on a smooth download over hotel WiFi on your first night. Registration also needs an SMS code, and that is far easier to receive at home on your own network.
There is a third route that skips the second app entirely. Alipay carries a DiDi mini-program under Transport, then Taxi, and it opens with your Alipay account already logged in and your card already attached. If you have set up Alipay before your trip, this is the fastest path from the arrivals hall to a moving car. WeChat has the same thing under Me, then Services, then Ride Hailing.
Registering with your home number
Open the app, choose English if it has not detected your phone’s language, and enter your number with the country code. The code arrives by SMS. If your home SIM will not roam, or you plan to travel on an eSIM only, complete the sign-up at home before departure. Our guide to eSIMs, VPNs and the apps you need covers the connectivity side in detail.
Turn on the English interface under Me, then Settings, then Language. Some builds label it Multi-language. It changes menus, ride classes and the support chat. It does not change what drivers see, so your destination and messages still pass through translation.
You do not need a Chinese bank account, and you do not need a Chinese phone number. That claim circulates constantly and it is wrong for most visitors, though a small number of cards still fail verification. If yours does, the Alipay mini-program is the workaround, because the card verification happened in Alipay rather than in DiDi.
Payment: card, Alipay, and the cash exception
Adding a card takes about a minute. Go to Me, then Wallet, then Payment Methods, and enter a Visa or Mastercard. Switch on auto-deduct. Without it you will be asked to confirm payment at the end of every ride, usually while standing in the rain with the driver watching.
Then call your bank. Cards that block foreign recurring charges are the single most common reason a first ride fails at the payment step, and the fix takes one phone call before you leave home.
Express and Premier rides are charged inside the app. Do not offer cash. The platform will bill you anyway, and you will have paid twice. The exception is the Taxi category: that dispatches a real metered taxi, the meter belongs to the taxi company rather than to DiDi, and drivers normally accept cash. Ask before you get in. Nobody tips in China, and no driver will expect one.
Picking a ride class
Four classes cover almost every trip a visitor takes.
| Class | Chinese name | What it is | When to pick it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express | 快车 | Private car, the default | Cheapest reliable option, 90% of trips |
| Taxi | 出租车 | Metered city taxi | You want to pay cash, or the queue at the rank is short |
| Premier | 专车 | Larger, newer car, professional driver | Airport runs with luggage, late nights |
| Luxe | 豪华车 | Executive car | Only if someone else is paying |
Express is the workhorse. Cars are ordinary sedans and SUVs, often electric, and the fare is shown as an estimate before you confirm. Premier costs roughly twice as much and buys you a tidier car and a driver who is more likely to wait patiently at a confusing pickup point. Luxe is a corporate product that a tourist almost never needs.
For the Taxi class, remember that the meter wins. If the app estimate says ¥45 and the meter says ¥52, you pay ¥52.
Ordering: the pin is the whole game
The flow is short. The trap is in step two.
Set your destination. Search works in English for hotels, malls and stations in the big cities, but the coverage is uneven once you leave them. The reliable method is to have your hotel’s Chinese name and address saved as a screenshot from your booking confirmation, then search the Chinese text or drop the pin manually. Ask the front desk to write the address on a card as backup.
Check the pickup pin before you book. The app proposes a point based on your GPS, and on a wide avenue it will happily choose the wrong side, a bus lane, or the middle of a junction. Zoom in and drag the pin to somewhere a car can legally stop: a mall entrance, a hotel driveway, a marked bay. This one adjustment prevents most of the “where are you” calls that follow.
Confirm and wait for a match. You will see the car model, the colour and the plate. Chinese plates are blue for petrol cars and green for electric ones, which helps when three white SUVs pull up at once. Match the last four characters, not just the city prefix.
Get in the back. The driver may ask for the last four digits of your phone number to confirm the right passenger, which is normal. Your number appears to the driver as a masked relay, so a Chinese number calling you is expected rather than suspicious. The in-app chat translates between English and Chinese, and it is more reliable than speaking slowly. Use it to say which side of the road you are on.
Airports: the pickup is not at the kerb
This is where first-time visitors lose twenty minutes. Chinese airports generally do not let ride-hailing cars stop at the arrivals kerb. The taxi rank is outside the terminal; ride-hailing is somewhere else, usually inside a parking building, with its own lanes and its own queue.
Follow the signs. The characters to look for are 网约车, and newer terminals add Ride-Hailing or E-Hailing in English. From arrivals, count on a five to ten minute walk, longer with luggage. The app gives you a terminal-specific pickup point, and that point is the only thing worth trusting. Airports move these zones with little notice: Beijing Daxing shifted its ride-hailing area in September 2026, and the English signage on the ground lagged behind. Official airport pages contradict each other on the exact level and zone letter, so do not memorise a bay number from a blog post. Read the app, then follow the signs.
At Beijing Capital and Shanghai Pudong, the alternative is the official taxi queue, which is metered, takes cash and needs no app at all. It is often the faster choice at 11pm with two suitcases. Our Shanghai arrival guide compares the DiDi fare with the Maglev and the metro line by line, and the Beijing first-timer guide does the same for the airport express.
One more airport habit: order the car after you have collected your bags and cleared customs, not while the plane is taxiing. Drivers are dispatched immediately, waiting time is charged, and a driver who cannot find you will cancel.
What a ride costs
Prices below were checked in October 2026. China is cheap for ride-hailing by European or American standards, and the gap is largest on short trips.
An Express flag fall runs ¥10 to ¥15. The distance charge is roughly ¥1.6 to ¥2.5 per kilometre. A thirty-minute cross-town trip in Beijing lands at ¥35 to ¥55, which is about the price of two metro tickets and a coffee in most Western cities.
Surge pricing applies on weekday mornings from 7 to 9 and evenings from 17 to 20, typically around 1.5 times the base fare. Rain multiplies it further. Tolls on airport expressways are added to the in-app total automatically for Express rides, so a ¥120 airport run may show ¥135 at the end without anything shady happening.
A metered taxi on the same route charges about the same. A hotel car costs two to three times more and buys you a driver holding a sign.
Cancelling, waiting, and the fee nobody expects
Cancelling within two minutes of a driver accepting is free. After that the charge is usually ¥3, and ¥4 to ¥5 in some cities. That window applies to on-demand rides. Reserved rides and airport bookings follow different rules that changed in 2025, so do not assume the two-minute rule carries over.
Drivers get a short free waiting period at the pickup point, often five minutes, then a per-minute charge begins. Be at the pin before the car arrives, not walking toward it.
If a driver asks you to cancel because he does not want the trip, refuse and use the in-app support instead. Cancelling on your side means you pay the fee and lose the record of what happened. If the driver cancels, you are not charged.
When it goes wrong
Lost property is the most common problem and the easiest to fix. Open the trip in your history, choose Lost Item, and the app connects you to the driver through masked numbers. Do it within the same day; drivers hand items to the platform after that.
Overcharging and detours are handled in the app. Report the trip, describe what happened, and the fare is adjusted. DiDi’s support is staffed in English around the clock, which is unusual among Chinese apps and worth remembering when something goes sideways at midnight.
On safety: verify the plate before you open the door, use Share Trip to send your route to someone, and note the SOS button in the app. Many cars record audio or video inside. That is standard in China, not a warning sign.
At arrivals, ignore anyone inside the terminal offering a taxi. The official rank is outside and marked; a man with a clipboard is not it. The old meter scams are rare now that DiDi has taken most of the market, but unlicensed cars still circle the exits of both Beijing airports.
Alternatives worth knowing
The metro beats DiDi in rush hour on any route that runs along a line, and it costs a fraction of the fare. In Beijing and Shanghai the airport lines are fast and signed in English. For intercity legs, high-speed rail is almost always better than a long drive.
The official taxi rank needs no phone, no card and no registration. Point at the Chinese address on your screen and pay the meter in cash.
Outside the big cities, coverage thins. In small towns and at some scenic areas there may be no car within ten minutes, and drivers may cancel when they see the destination. There, ask your hotel to arrange a car for the day. It costs more, it is booked in advance, and it removes the guesswork entirely.
Frequently asked questions
Does Uber work in China?
No. Uber sold its China business to DiDi in 2016 and has not operated there since. Your Uber account, saved cards and credits do not transfer. DiDi is the app that replaced it, and it covers more than 400 cities in mainland China.
Do I need a Chinese phone number to use DiDi?
No. The DiDi China app accepts international mobile numbers, and the verification code arrives by SMS, so make sure you can receive messages on your home number before you fly or while roaming. If you would rather skip the sign-up, the DiDi mini-program inside Alipay uses your Alipay account and needs no separate registration.
Can I pay a DiDi with a foreign credit card?
Yes. The official DiDi China listing states that international bank cards are accepted, and Visa and Mastercard work in most cases. Add the card under Me, then Wallet, then Payment Methods, and switch on auto-deduct so the fare is charged when the ride ends.
Can I pay the DiDi driver in cash?
Only for the Taxi category. Express, Premier and Luxe rides are billed through the app, and handing over cash can leave you paying twice. If you book a metered taxi through DiDi, the meter belongs to the taxi company and drivers normally take cash, but ask before you get in.
Where do I meet my DiDi at the airport?
Not at the arrivals kerb. Chinese airports route ride-hailing cars to designated zones, usually inside a parking building. Follow the signs marked with the characters 网约车 or the words Ride-Hailing, and use the exact pickup point the app gives you for your terminal, because airports move these zones without much notice.
What if the driver cannot find me or does not speak English?
Use the in-app chat. It translates between English and Chinese automatically, which is faster and clearer than speaking. Drivers usually call instead of typing, so answering an unknown Chinese number is normal. If you are still stuck, move to the pickup pin you set and send a photo of the nearest shop sign or landmark.
