Quantcast
GTrusted

GTrusted

Discover Products, Check Compatibility, Share Your Experience

How to Use DiDi to Improve the Taxi Experience in China

Product Review
Reviewed Products

Reviewed Products

While Uber is the dominant shared ride service in many countries around the world, in China everyone uses DiDi which uses a business model that is more adapted to the realities of China. Unlike other cities like New York, Taipei, and Tokyo, taxis are harder to hire in China given the demand for transport is higher than the number of taxis allowed to operate in cities like Shanghai where the government limits the number of vehicles on the road. Even once you do find a taxi, you may still get rejected since the taxi is looking for a longer trip to make more money or going in a direction that is convenient for them.

Unlike Uber, DiDi allows users to call regular taxi's which can then select you based on their interest. You can see which taxi's are close to you but unlike Uber, if you are going a short distance you still might not get a taxi. Generally longer rides will get a quicker response from a taxi but at least there is no negotiation once the taxi picks you up. Another benefit of using the DiDi App for foreigners is that you input your destination through the App rather than trying to communicate with a taxi driver who doesn't understand much English.

Here we use the Huawei P9 to install and use the DiDi App.

  

 

Once you have arrived at the destination, you can then pay using cash. However, you need to make sure the taxi driver acknowledges that he has received payment or else the DiDi App will keep on asking that you pay the driver.

Unfortunately WeChat is not used by DiDi for online payments which instead chooses to use Alipay, UnionPay, and Baidu Wallet.

You can also use DiDi to hire DiDi cars just like the way you can use Uber to hire Uber cars, but we find that most people just hire taxi's which are considered a little more trustworthy and vetted. For foreigners without access to an online payment system, using DiDi cars are not an option anyway since while cash can be used to pay for taxi's, cash can't be used to pay for DiDi cars.

Reviewed Products

Reviewed Products

Related Products
Related Reviews
Latest Reviews