How do you get a taxi?
Short answer
Through an app. Beijing's own guidance says waving at the kerb is so obsolete it barely works — DiDi, with an English interface, is how rides happen.
The street hail is gone
The city's visitor guidance puts it more bluntly than most locals would: you no longer stand at the roadside waving, and finding a ride that way would be extremely difficult. The kerbside taxi queue survives mainly at stations and airports, where dedicated ranks still feed cars.
Everywhere else the ride is summoned. DiDi is the dominant platform, runs around the clock, and carries an English interface — the whole flow from destination entry to payment happens inside it.
Language, handled in the app
Most drivers speak only Chinese, and the app is built around that fact. Destinations can be typed in English or Chinese, and a message function sends pre-set phrases that are translated automatically between the two languages.
For the moments outside the app — a hotel doorman, a paper address — the older advice still holds: carry the destination written in Chinese and show it.
Paying, and what not to worry about
A ride booked in the app settles in the app; you step out without a payment ritual at the seat. Cash in a street taxi still exists, but the metered app ride is the version of the transaction everything here is built around.
Certification is part of the system — drivers are trained and registered, and the platform's safety function can connect straight to the police in an emergency. The lesson for a visitor is less about caution and more about setup: install and register the app before you need your first ride.
Good to know
- Install and register DiDi before you need your first ride
- Drivers rarely speak English — the app's auto-translated messages fill the gap
- Kerbside ranks survive mainly at stations and airports
Raise a hand at any vacant taxi, or queue at a station rank. A red sign in the windscreen means it is free.
Insist on the meter — switching it off for a fixed price is illegal, and 1584 is the government hotline for reporting it. Tuk-tuks have no meter, so that price is negotiated before you get in.
By brand, not by chance: the tourism board names the reputable metered firms — Mai Linh in green, Vinasun in white, Taxi Group in Hanoi — and the apps work if you have a local SIM.
Apps do most of the work. Street hailing works, but a driver may pass on a destination they do not fancy.
Flag a yellow cab on the street — the meter does the rest. There is even an English-language hotline, 0800-055-850, that orders one for you.