Getting around 100

100 phrases

Taxis10 打表吗 - "are you using the meter?" - is the question that protects you, and asking it as you get in is normal rather than rude. 请开发票 asks for the official receipt, which you want if the trip is on expenses or if anything is left behind. 走高速吧 chooses the expressway: faster, with a toll.
Metro and buses10 Subway lines are numbered and you name the number: 坐几号线, which line do I take. 在哪里换乘 asks where to change, and 坐几站 asks how many stops - counting stops rather than minutes is how Chinese cities measure a journey. 末班车几点 is the question to ask before you need the answer.
Trains10 高铁 is the high-speed rail, and it has reorganised Chinese travel so thoroughly that for many routes it has replaced flying. The vocabulary that matters is architectural: 站台 is the platform, 车厢 the carriage, and 请出示车票 - show your ticket - is heard at every one of the several checkpoints a Chinese station has.
At the airport10 办登机 is checking in, 登机口 the gate, 转机 the connection. The one worth rehearsing is 行李超重了 - the bag is overweight - because it is said to you rather than by you, and understanding it immediately is the difference between repacking calmly and repacking in a queue.
Tickets10 单程还是往返 - one way or return - is the first question at any counter. 能改签吗 asks whether the ticket can be changed, which is worth knowing before you need it because Chinese rail tickets usually can, for a fee. 请出示二维码 has replaced the paper ticket almost everywhere.
Getting on and off10 借过 - "let me pass" - is the two-syllable phrase that gets you through a packed carriage, and it works where 对不起 would be puzzling. 让一下 does the same job slightly more bluntly. 请往里走 is what the announcement asks of you: move down inside the car rather than clustering at the door.
Traffic10 堵车 - traffic jam - is a compound of "block" and "car" and is used as a verb: 路上堵车, the road is jammed. 高峰期 is rush hour, literally "peak period". 早点出发 is the advice you will be given and should take, because in a Chinese city the difference between leaving at eight and eight-fifteen is not fifteen minutes.
Driving10 我没有驾照 - I don't have a licence - matters because a foreign licence is not valid in mainland China and an international permit does not help either. The rest is passenger-seat vocabulary: 系好安全带, 慢一点开, 前面右转. 加满油 - fill it up - is what you say at the pump.
Cycling and walking10 我扫个共享单车 - "I'll scan a shared bike" - is a sentence that did not exist a decade ago and is now ordinary. Shared bikes are unlocked by QR code and left anywhere, which is why 车锁上了 - it's locked - is the complaint you will make. 顺路一起走 offers to walk together because you are going the same way.
When it goes wrong10 我坐过站了 - I missed my stop - and 我上错车了 - I got on the wrong one - are worth saying out loud until they come without thinking, because you will need them under mild panic. 东西忘在车上了 covers anything left behind; taxi receipts exist precisely so that this sentence can be followed by a phone call.

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