For a city of 25 million, Beijing still retains a sense of traditional Chinese elements and historical attractions that tourists love.
Things like climbing the steep stairs at the Bell Tower, Exploring Tiananmen Square, strolling through traditional hutongs, and eating local foods are just some of the great experiences Beijing offers, a city with such a rich history.
Beijing is a sprawling metropolis where traffic clogs the roads all day and seemingly all night. Getting around Beijing can be somewhat of a nightmare for most people. If you’ve ever been stuck in Bali traffic, imagine Beijing as worse, with five times the number of people. When Bec and I were in Beijing with our kids and my sister in her late 60s, using the Beijing Metro wasn’t an option.
Using Didi ride-sharing app in Beijing for tourists
This left us with only one real choice: using taxis or ride-shares from our hotel, Sunworld. The local ride-sharing app in China, called Didi, does a great job, much like Uber and Grab in other parts of the world. You download the app, put in your details, including a payment option, and you are ready to go sightseeing in Beijing.
- If you’re using Alipay for payments in China, Didi comes preloaded within the Alipay app. All your Didi ride fees are automatically charged to your Alipay account.
Now, you can start organising transport in Beijing to tourist attractions. Put in your pick-up and drop-off point and wait for someone to accept the job. The prices are excellent, and you can choose from basic to luxury cars, and even 6-seater vans.
We had five of us, so the vans were perfect. They had leather-upholstered, armchair-like seats in the back. You wouldn’t see this in Australia, that’s for sure. You never knew what car was coming for you. Sometimes it was a Buick van, and other times it was a Chinese-made Zeekr van.
The problem in Beijing with Didi is the traffic. It can easily take 30 minutes to travel just a few kilometres to any main attractions, such as the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, or the National Museum of China.
If you catch Didi 2-3 times a day, expect to spend up to 2 hours stuck in traffic. We travelled to Beijing Capital Airport, a 23-kilometre trip that took nearly 90 minutes at 9 p.m. Traffic is a snarling, winding beast in China’s capital, that seems relentless at times.
If you don’t know Beijing well, which is true for many tourists, it’s hard to pick the right drop-off spot. For instance, we wanted to go to Tiananmen Square, and Didi offered several options.
We didn’t recognise any locations listed, so we chose Didi’s top recommendation. This location was on a street corner only a few hundred metres away(you cannot get dropped off on the square itself).
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After being dropped off, the police informed us that the street was closed, and we’d have to walk around 1 kilometre in another direction to reach the square.
So, while Didi is convenient and user-friendly, there are still challenges of using Didi ride-share in Beijing if you’re not familiar with exactly where you want to go. Didi can take up time you could be spending sightseeing.
Key points about DiDi
- DiDi is like Uber but for China – it’s safe, convenient, and widely used in Beijing.
- You’ll need a Chinese phone number to register (get a local SIM card)
- Download the DiDi app before your trip – it has an English version
- Link your credit card or use WeChat Pay/Alipay for payments
- Drivers may not speak English, Use the in-app translation feature for communication
- Prices are reasonable, often cheaper than taxis
In reality, there’s no better option, and Didi is still the best choice if you don’t want to use public transport in Beijing. Just be prepared for your days in Beijing to be taken up by the time it takes to travel to and from places that require transportation.
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