Survival Chinese for Travelers: Essential Mandarin Phrases

You can travel in China without speaking Chinese, but ten short Mandarin phrases cover most of the moments where a phone is too slow: saying hello and thank you, asking a price, saying no to a seller, finding the toilet, and asking for help. This page gives you those ten first, then short phrase tables for taxis and directions, paying, ordering food, the hotel, numbers and emergencies. Every phrase comes in Chinese characters, pinyin (the official spelling of Chinese sounds in Latin letters) and plain English, with a note on when to use it.

One habit makes all of it work better: when your pronunciation doesn't land, turn your phone around and show the Chinese characters. People read the characters instantly, even when they can't follow your accent.

The 10 phrases that cover most of a trip

If you learn nothing else, learn these. They come up every day, and each one is short enough to remember after a few tries.

Three backup lines are worth adding once the ten feel easy. 我不会说中文 (wǒ bú huì shuō Zhōngwén) means "I don't speak Chinese". 你会说英语吗？ (nǐ huì shuō Yīngyǔ ma?) asks "Do you speak English?". 请写下来 (qǐng xiě xiàlai) means "Please write it down", which helps with prices and addresses because you can then type or photograph what they wrote.

Pinyin and tones in 30 seconds

Mandarin (普通话, Pǔtōnghuà, the standard Chinese spoken across the mainland) uses tones: the same syllable means different things depending on how your voice moves. Pinyin shows the tone with a mark over the vowel, and a syllable with no mark (like the second "xie" in xièxie) is said short and light. A few letters don't sound like English: q is close to "ch" in "cheese", x is a soft "sh", zh is like the "j" in "judge", and c is the "ts" in "cats".

One sound change is worth knowing: when two 3rd tones come in a row, the first is said as a 2nd tone, so nǐ hǎo sounds like ní hǎo. Don't let tones stop you from speaking. In a shop or a taxi the situation does most of the work, and people will usually understand a short phrase even with the tones slightly off.

Phrases by situation: taxis, paying, food and the hotel

Taxis and asking directions

The most reliable way to reach a place is not a phrase at all. Copy the destination's name and address in Chinese characters from your map app, and show the screen to the driver or to the person you ask. Pinyin place names mean little to most drivers, and English names often mean nothing. Our map apps guide shows how to find and copy the Chinese address.

If you book a car through DiDi, you often won't need to speak at all: the app's messages between passenger and driver are translated between Chinese and English. Our DiDi guide covers setup and pickup.

Paying

Most payments in China are made by scanning a QR code with Alipay (支付宝, Zhīfùbǎo) or WeChat Pay. The one word to know is 扫 (sǎo, "to scan"), because the cashier will often ask who scans whom.

Bargaining belongs in markets and small stalls, not in malls or chain stores with price tags. For how the payment apps work with a foreign card, see how payments work in China.

Ordering food

Pointing at a picture or at someone else's dish works in most places. These lines handle the rest.

Food is where a phrase list runs out fastest. Our guide to ordering food with zero Chinese covers QR-code menus, dish names and spice levels in depth, and the vegetarian and vegan guide has stricter phrases for meat-free eating. For a serious allergy, carry the sentence written in Chinese rather than relying on speech.

At the hotel

Keep your passport with you when you arrive at any hotel. What hotels need from foreign guests, and which hotels can take them, is covered in our guide to booking hotels and registration rules. Ask the front desk for a hotel card with the address in Chinese: it is the easiest thing to show a taxi driver at the end of the day.

Numbers and hand gestures

Numbers come up with prices, room numbers and quantities. Learn 1 to 10 and you can build the rest: 11 is 十一 (shíyī, "ten-one"), 20 is 二十 (èrshí, "two-ten"), 35 is 三十五 (sānshíwǔ). In speech, prices are counted in 块 (kuài), the everyday word for yuan, so a seller might say 二十块 (èrshí kuài) for twenty.

Use 两 (liǎng) instead of 二 when you are counting things: 两个 (liǎng ge) is "two of them", and 两张 (liǎng zhāng) is "two tickets". 100 is 一百 (yìbǎi).

The one-hand system for 6 to 10 is common across China, and sellers in loud markets often show you a price this way. Shapes vary a little between regions, especially for 7, 9 and 10, so if a gesture looks unfamiliar, ask the seller to type the number on a phone or calculator. Typing is also the safest way to avoid mixing up 四 (sì, four) and 十 (shí, ten), which sound close to a new ear.

Emergency phrases and numbers

China has one number each for police, ambulance and fire. All three work nationwide, 24 hours a day, from any phone without an area code, and the calls are free.

A free call to 120 does not mean a free ambulance: you normally pay for the ambulance and the hospital afterwards. Foreign-language help on these lines depends on the city. Shanghai's emergency lines are a good example: 110 there handles eight foreign languages including English, and 119 and 120 there offer English. In other cities, don't count on an English-speaking operator: if someone nearby speaks Chinese, ask them to make the call while you stay on the line.

Whoever takes the call will first need to know where you are. Keep your hotel's Chinese address saved on your phone, and when you're out, read the nearest shop name, street sign or metro exit number. Our emergency contacts guide lists every number in one place, including traffic accidents and non-emergency hotlines, and finding English-speaking hospitals covers where to go once you need a doctor.

When a translation app is faster

Phrases are for quick, predictable moments. A translation app is faster for anything longer or anything written. A simple rule of thumb:

• Menus, signs and labels: use the camera. Apple's Translate app translates text through the camera in real time, with menus and road signs as the official examples. Inside WeChat, tap "+", then "Scan", then "Translate", and photograph the text.
• A real conversation: use voice. Explaining an allergy, a problem in your room or a refund goes much faster in a conversation mode (for example, Apple Translate's Conversation mode), where each person speaks and the app shows both sides as speech bubbles.
• Addresses and names: show the screen. Don't try to pronounce a street name. Show the characters.
• Talking to a driver: use the ride app's chat. DiDi's in-app messages already translate between Chinese and English.

Set up offline translation before you fly. Google services cannot be reached directly in China, and you may land without data. Apple Translate can download languages and then translate entirely on the iPhone without a connection. Google Translate offers downloadable offline language packs too, and Microsoft Translator offers offline packs on Android. Download Chinese (Mandarin, mainland China) at home, then turn on airplane mode and test it once.

Amap (高德地图, Gāodé Dìtú), a Chinese map app with an English version, also has a visitor service with bilingual phrase cards for talking to drivers, hotel staff and passers-by, and its main features work without logging in. Chinese-made apps such as Baidu Translate (百度翻译, Bǎidù Fānyì) and Tencent Translator (腾讯翻译君, Téngxùn Fānyìjūn) also translate photos of menus and signs as well as spoken conversation. Which translator works best for menus, voice and offline use is compared side by side in our translation apps comparison.

Quick recap

Learn the ten core phrases first, especially nǐ hǎo, xièxie and duōshao qián. Save your hotel's address in Chinese characters, download Chinese for offline use in a translation app before you fly, and keep 110, 120 and 119 in mind. Use the camera for menus and signs, voice for real conversations, and show the screen for addresses. Before you go, read our guide to cultural etiquette and taboos, which covers the manners that go along with these phrases.

Last updated: October 2026