Originally Posted by
mjadps
I'll be in Xi'an China next week and count on using Uber to get me from the airport to the hotel or vice versa. To get a sense of how easy it is to get a car at the Xian airport, I simulated a ride request. However, the Uber app did not seem to respond to addresses written in English. It kept saying that there is no such place, when I tried to put in the Crowne Plaza hotel as the pick up point and the Xian Airport as destination. What is going on? A friend of mine theorized that I have to put in the address in Chinese characters to be able to use Uber in China. Is it true?
I often type addresses in English or pinyin, and don't encounter many problems. But, assuming you don't speak much Chinese, trying to get an Uber at any airport in China strikes me as a pretty bad idea (i.e. how were you planning on advising the driver to find YOU in a sea of 1000 people?). Going back to the airport is a lot easier because hotel staff can usually help make things happen.