DiDi, taxi, or airport transfer for your first ride in China
A first-day overview of getting from a major Chinese airport to your hotel, with practical backup plans if your phone or payment app is not ready.
Your first ride in China usually happens before everything else is fully set up: jet lag, no local SIM yet, a freshly installed payment app, and a hotel address you have only seen in English.
Decide before you land
Pre-decide whether you will use DiDi, an official airport taxi line, an airport rail link, or a pre-booked transfer. Save route screenshots and the Chinese-character version of your hotel address so a driver can read it directly.
Prepare backups
- A small amount of RMB cash.
- A printed hotel address in Chinese characters.
- A written backup phone number for the hotel.
- Your booking confirmation saved offline.
Major arrival airports include PEK, PKX, PVG, SHA, CAN, SZX, TFU, and HGH. Verify current official taxi and transit information directly with the airport's official page before traveling — pickup points, signage, and routes can change.
At every major Chinese airport, only use the official taxi line, a verified DiDi ride, or a pre-booked transfer with a name sign. Do not accept rides from people approaching you in the arrivals hall.
Some Chinese government, airport, and app-provider pages may behave differently depending on your browser, country, VPN, DNS, company network, or PDF preview app. If a link does not open, copy the visible URL, scan the QR code, turn off VPN, or try another browser/network.
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Official sources & references
- DiDi official siteapphttps://www.didiglobal.com/
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DayOne China is an independent travel-prep guide. It is not affiliated with the Chinese government, payment platforms, transport companies, airports, hotels, telecom operators, railway companies, or app providers. Always verify critical information with official sources before travel.