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PANDA CONCIERGEChina
PANDA CONCIERGEChina

Transport

Getting around the city

How to get around a Chinese metropolis without losing time or overpaying on every trip.

5 min readUpdated: 26 August 2026
photo: a metro platform at rush hour, a train arriving

The metro

The metro covers most journeys and is almost always faster than a taxi during working hours. Signs and announcements are duplicated in English.

You get through on a QR code in Alipay or on a transport card. Single tickets from the machine work, but the queue for it eats the time you saved.

Taxis

You hail a car through an app: the route and the price are fixed in advance and the driver needs no spoken address.

At rush hour a trip across the centre easily takes twice as long as the metro on the same route.

Driving yourself

A foreign licence is not valid in China: you need a local one, and it is not obtained in a day.

It is more practical to take a car with a driver — that removes both the licence question and the parking, which in the centre is a problem of its own.

Self-drive hire makes sense on long trips out of town, not for getting around the city.

Worth knowing

An international driving permit is not recognised in China. You may not drive on it — that is not a formality but an offence for which the car is impounded.

Checked: 26 August 2026

Editor: The PANDA editorial team

What you can hand to PANDA

A personal driverA car with a driver who knows the city, waits between stops and needs no route explained in Chinese.from ¥600 / dayCar rentalWe'll find the rental firm, check the insurance and deposit terms, help with a Chinese licence and handle the rental with no surprises on the return report.from ¥900Transfer and airport meet-and-greetThe driver tracks the flight, waits if you're late and helps with luggage and a SIM. Paid in advance through Panda.from ¥350 / trip

Sources

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