How to use DiDi in China

What the national rules actually say

Two documents govern the ride itself, and a third settles the passport question. All three are worth reading precisely, because each is routinely quoted as something it does not say.

• The ride-hailing ruleThe Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Ride-hailing Operations (网络预约出租汽车经营服务管理暂行办法), first issued in 2016 and revised for the second time on 30 November 2022, is the national framework. Three of its articles matter to a passenger. Article 3 puts fares at market rates unless a city government decides to set a guidance price. Article 19 requires the platform to run a service evaluation and a passenger complaint-handling system, and to show the driver's name, photograph, mobile number and rating together with the vehicle plate. Article 20 requires the platform to price reasonably, mark prices clearly (明码标价) and give the passenger a taxi invoice. Article 25 forbids abandoning a passenger mid-journey, taking a deliberate detour, charging improperly, or retaliating against anyone who complains. Article 29 tells the regulator to publish each platform's basic information, service-quality assessment and complaint-handling record.
• The 2022 revisionThe decision that made the second revision, dated 30 November 2022, changed only the fines for operating without a licence — raising the penalty on a platform to 10,000 to 30,000 yuan — and deleted one penalty item. It touched nothing about how a passenger is charged, how a cancellation is handled, how a complaint is processed, or what document a passenger must hold. Claims that a 2022 rule changed the way ride-hailing works for passengers have no basis in the amendment.
• The passport question, settled by omissionA joint notice from the Ministry of Public Security, the National Immigration Administration, the Ministry of Transport and four other bodies on real-name management for foreigners using domestic transport, re-published by the Wuzhou transport bureau on 15 December 2023, lists exactly which modes are covered: all civil aviation passenger flights, railway passenger trains, road passenger lines of class 2 and above, and inter-provincial water passenger transport over 60 kilometres. Foreigners on those services use their passport, seaman's book or permanent residence card. Urban taxis and app-based ride-hailing do not appear in that list, and the ride-hailing rule itself imposes no identity duty on passengers. No national rule, in other words, requires a foreigner to present a passport to take a city ride.

One thing these documents do not do is set a price. The national rule deliberately leaves that to the market and to the city, which is why every figure you may have read about DiDi fares in English is, at best, a traveller's observation rather than a rule.

Three official ways to book

All three were named together by the Ministry of Commerce in its guide for foreign business visitors. The English text is the ministry's own, so it can be quoted rather than translated.

• Didi-Greater China, the app"Download Didi-Greater China APP, which supports foreigners to use foreign mobile phone numbers and international credit cards to register, and book online ride-hailing services once registered. Open Didi-Greater China APP, confirm the pickup location and the destination, select the preferred services (Express, Taxi, Premier, Luxe), and book a ride-hailing service." Note the app's name in that sentence: Didi-Greater China, not the domestic DiDi Chuxing build, and the four tiers, because they are the vocabulary on the booking screen.
• Alipay"Foreign travelers can open Alipay, click on 'Transport', select 'Taxi', and enter both the pickup location and the destination to book a ride-hailing service." This is the wallet route, and it exists inside an app you may already have set up for payments — see the payment guides below.
• WeChat"Foreign travelers can open WeChat, click on 'Me', select 'Services', scroll down and click on 'Mobility' or 'Ride Hailing', and enter both the pickup location and the destination to book a ride-hailing service." The wording covers both labels because the entry has been renamed across versions.
• Trip.com, for one job onlyThe same guide adds that foreign travellers "can also use Trip.com to make an appointment for airport shuttle service", and the booking step says to pay "directly with an international bank card". That is a pre-booked airport transfer rather than on-demand ride-hailing, and it is the only outside platform this guide's sources name.

What is confirmed, and by whom

This is the part of the subject that is genuinely well documented, and it is worth knowing which government said what, because the claims below are not one source repeated. Each line was published by a different body on a different date.

• Registration with a foreign number and an international cardThe Ministry of Commerce guide, 24 April 2024, quoted above. The same text was still being republished by a municipal human resources bureau on 11 July 2025, which answers the obvious worry that the 2024 wording had gone stale.
• An English version of the appFour separate publication offices. The People's Bank of China's Beijing branch announced on 23 June 2026 that a DiDi English-version app had gone live on a visitor payment scheme supporting overseas bank cards, and the Beijing local financial regulator carried the same item on 18 June 2026. Earlier, the Beijing municipal government's English site wrote on 16 October 2024 that "DiDi have also launched the English version of their applications that support major international credit cards", and the Guangzhou culture and tourism bureau told inbound visitors on 18 April 2025 that they could ride using the English version and bind a card under Me, then Wallet.
• Switching the app itself to EnglishThe Shanghai government's English guide, dated 6 February 2024 and updated 21 July 2026, gives the exact path: "我的 (Me)" then "设置 (Settings)" then "通用 (General)" then "Language 语言" then "English" then "Confirm". This is a different claim from the one above — one says an English build exists, this one says the language can be changed inside the app.
• Where the money comes from at the end of a rideThe same Shanghai page: the driver's details appear when your order is accepted, you can call or send messages "that automatically translate to English to the driver", you can cancel, and "the fare will automatically deduct from your WeChat Pay account when the trip is completed. You can also use DiDi on Alipay and the fare will be automatically deducted from your Alipay account." Read that next to the ministry's sentence about registering with an international card and a subtlety appears: the card is a registration credential, while the ride is settled from a wallet.

Not one of those sources, however, says the app is fully English. The Shanghai page establishes the language setting and auto-translated messages; it does not claim complete translation of every screen, and we have found nothing that does.

Setting it up, step by step

Assembled from the Shanghai, Guangzhou and Ministry of Commerce instructions above, in the order you will meet them. Each step names the page it came from.

• RegisterInstall Didi-Greater China and register with your foreign mobile number and an international card, which the commerce ministry states is supported. If a verification message does not arrive, that is the one step with no published workaround — see the section on what we could not verify.
• Switch to English我的 (Me) → 设置 (Settings) → 通用 (General) → Language 语言 → English → Confirm. Worth doing before your first booking, because the tier names and the payment screen are where it matters most.
• Bind a payment cardThe Guangzhou bureau describes binding a card under 我的 (Me) → 钱包 (Wallet) and then paying fares from that card. Do this before you need a car rather than at the kerb.
• BookConfirm the pickup point and the destination, then pick the tier: Express, Taxi, Premier or Luxe. The ministry's list is the official naming of those four; Taxi means a metered cab rather than a private car.
• Watch the driver's details appearWhen someone accepts, their information appears on screen, and you can call, message or cancel from there. The messaging translates each way.
• Board by the plate, then give the last four digitsThe Shanghai guide's final step is the check worth keeping: "confirm the license plate number is the same as on the platform", get in, then "verify the last four digits of your mobile phone with the driver". The driver is checking that the booking is yours, and you are checking that the car is the one you ordered.
• Pay automaticallyThe fare is deducted from WeChat Pay or Alipay when the trip completes. Nothing in that step asks you to hand over anything at the end of the ride.

Do you need your passport to ride?

This is the question English-language advice most often gets wrong, so it is worth stating what the sources do and do not say.

The real-name notice for foreigners on domestic transport, re-published by the Wuzhou transport bureau on 15 December 2023, lists the services that require a foreign passenger to travel under a passport, seaman's book or permanent residence card: scheduled civil aviation flights, railway passenger trains, road passenger lines of class 2 and above, and inter-provincial water passenger transport of more than 60 kilometres. A city taxi or a ride-hailing car is none of those. The national ride-hailing rule is silent on passenger documents too, even though it obliges the platform to keep records of user registration and identity authentication — a duty on the platform, not a document you must carry in the car.

What that supports is a narrow and useful sentence: no national rule requires a foreigner to show a passport to take a city ride. What it does not support is the mirror claim that a passport is never involved, because registration is a separate matter and the app decides what it asks for at sign-up. If a page or a driver does ask to see your document, nothing here prevents it; we simply have no official text that requires it, and no official text that forbids it.

Fares, invoices and the numbers nobody publishes

The national rule settles the shape of pricing without settling any amount, and the difference matters when you are reading a fare estimate in a foreign currency.

• Who sets the priceArticle 3 puts ride-hailing at market rates, except where a city government decides on a guidance price. That is why two cities can differ, and why no national figure exists to quote.
• What the platform must do about itPrice reasonably, mark the price clearly, and hand over a taxi invoice on request (Article 20). Fares, and the receipt that goes with them, are the two things the rule does put in writing — so a platform that will not show you a price before you book is the exception the rule was written against.
• What conduct is forbiddenArticle 25 names the failures a passenger actually encounters: abandoning you mid-trip, taking a deliberate detour, charging improperly, and retaliating against you for complaining. All four are rule breaches, not merely bad service.
• The one cancellation clause we found, and why it does not applyDiDi's own passenger agreement for Australia and New Zealand, last updated 8 November 2023, says a "cancellation fee may be payable by you when Services are cancelled" and requires fare disputes to be filed within twenty-one days. It is a DiDi document, which is why it is here, but it is the contract for a different region. We found no dated mainland rider agreement to quote, and the mainland terms pages are rendered in a way that cannot be retrieved as text. Do not carry the 21-day figure to China.

The pattern is consistent across this whole subject: the regulator publishes duties and procedures, and the operator publishes a fee schedule that is not retrievable. We have deliberately left the numbers out rather than repeat a traveller's estimate.

Who to call

There is one national number for transport complaints, and its rule is unusually specific about time. The Measures for the Administration of the 12328 Transport Service Supervision Telephone, issued as 交运发〔2014〕249号 and in force since 1 January 2015, created a single nationwide line. Its Article 2 covers complaints, enquiries and suggestions across highways, waterways, road transport — including urban passenger transport, which is where taxis and ride-hailing sit — maritime search and rescue, and marine affairs. Article 11 promises 24-hour staffing and automated service. Article 19 sets deadlines by type: five working days for an enquiry, ten for a suggestion, and thirty working days for a complaint, extendable once by up to another thirty with a manager's approval. Article 35 states that the service itself carries no information charge, though your call costs whatever your phone charges for a call.

Two cautions. The measures date from 2014, before ride-hailing was regulated, so the text says "road transport, including urban passenger transport" and never uses the word for ride-hailing; the honest statement is that 12328 covers road transport including urban passenger transport, with a thirty-working-day deadline for complaints. And the deadline is a duty on the handling body, not a promise about your money.

For the older, metered trade the same system keeps a second door. The Beijing municipal government's payment plan of 22 March 2024 requires the 95128 telephone booking service to be improved and the cash option for passengers on that service to be protected, and a State Council briefing report of 2 March 2024 records the Ministry of Transport promoting both the 95128 telephone line and a one-tap hailing function inside ride-hailing apps, alongside bilingual announcements at transport hubs. If a phone cannot be unlocked or an app will not co-operate, 95128 is a published number for the alternative.

What we could not verify

These are the things readers most want to know about DiDi, and the reason each one is absent from the sections above. If any of them acquires a dated first-party source, we will update the page and name it.

• Any fare figure, start price, per-kilometre rate or surge multiplier. The national rule sets market pricing and clear price marking; no official source gives a number.
• Whether a cancellation is charged at all in mainland China, at what point it starts, and how much. The rule is silent, the government guides never mention it, and the only cancellation clause we found belongs to DiDi's Australia and New Zealand agreement.
• The terms of international card acceptance: which card networks are taken, whether a foreign-card surcharge applies, and who sets the exchange rate. Official text stops at "international credit cards" and "overseas bank cards".
• Whether an overseas phone number still registers today. The most recent official confirmation is a reprinted commerce ministry guide from 11 July 2025; there is no dated mainland registration page we could reach.
• Whether a DiDi ride can be paid in cash. The cash protection in the Beijing plan attaches to the 95128 telephone and metered taxi service, and the commerce and Shanghai guides describe wallet or card settlement only. No source says cash works in the app, and none says it does not.
• Where a car may pick you up at any named airport or railway station. Airport ride-hailing zone changes circulate only in news reports, which are not first-party sources for a rule.
• Whether the English interface covers the whole app. One official page confirms a language setting and translated messaging; nothing claims full translation.
• Any mainland DiDi rider agreement with a printed date, which would settle cancellation and dispute terms. The accessible regional versions are not the mainland contract.
• The invoicing process for a foreign passenger. Article 20 requires a taxi invoice on request; nothing describes how a foreign visitor obtains one.
• Round-the-clock English in-app support and live driver-rider translation as service commitments. These details appear almost verbatim across news outlets but in no first-party text we could retrieve.

Common questions

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