i have to admit that as a fairly fluent Mandarin speaker I had absolutely no clue what that was supposed to mean until I read the explanation. There is no chance whatsoever that making the noises set out there (and with no explanation of tones even if the vowels and syllables were correct) will result in comprehension, but nor is there any need whatsoever to make coherent sentences. Simply showing the characters for the name of a destination to someone will do the trick.


Unfortunately the quality of the information on the headset is very poor, so you'd be better to take reading materials brought from overseas, and use the map provided with your ticket. There are also English introductions posted at various points with much the same indifferent 'information' as the audio headsets available for free.

If you do, you'll be ensuring the doorman takes a cut which you, of course will be paying. Instead if you think you might want a car for a day have someone at reception help you write out your needs in characters, and just negotiate directly with a driver you like using this and pen and paper/calculator/mobile phone screen to discuss price. The 'daily rate' will depend very much on what you want to do. But note the drivers are only pulling in ¥300 to ¥500 a day, and much of that spend cruising around empty. This is a buyer's market, and you should ignore any 'information' that a flat rate has to be at least ¥500 (some expats say ¥1000). To a destination within a hundred km or so and back you shouldn't be paying more than ¥350. If you're just going round town it's better simply just to hop in cabs as you go, rather than hire one for the day. Note that the meter rate jumps by 50% after 15km in Beijing, so having one take you to a suburban destination and bring you back is also unnecessarily expensive. Just flag down a new cab to return.

And nor is anyone else. And this applies whether you're working on or off the meter. The appropriate price to pay is the one you negotiated, and not a fen more.

Peter N-H
China