Transportation in Chinese: Complete List of 73 + Vehicles in Mandarin

Most Common Transportation in Chinese

Here’s a quick rundown of the 9 most common means of transportation in Mandarin Chinese to give you a foundation. The Pinyin version has been provided alongside the Chinese characters to help you pronounce the words. We’ve also included the corresponding measure word for each vehicle.

These words are the basics of any transportation vocabulary lesson. They are used every day and everywhere.

Before we add more words to this list, here are some technicalities to help you understand how and where to use these core transportation words in Chinese.

1. Bike in Chinese: 自行车 (zìxíngchē)

Some vehicles have different names depending on the region you find them. 

自行车 (zìxíngchē), 单车 (dānchē), and 脚踏车 (jiǎotàchē) – all of these three words mean bike in Chinese and are easily understood.

In Mainland China, a bike is generally referred to as 自行车 (zìxíngchē) – literally “self-moving vehicle”.

People in Taiwan and Cantonese-speaking regions prefer to name it 单车  (dānchē) -“narrow vehicle”.

脚踏车 (jiǎotàchē) – “foot pedal vehicle” is a slightly old-fashioned word for bike in standard Mandarin, but is the most common option in the version of Mandarin spoken in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, which includes Shanghai. (Read more on the language of Shanghai).

2. Motorcycle in Chinese: 摩托车 (mótuōchē)

摩托车 (mótuōchē) is what we call motorcycles in Mainland China, and 机车 (jīchē) is a motorcycle in Taiwan. Actually, 机车 (jīchē) in Chinese Mandarin means locomotive.

The word 摩托 (mótuō), you’ve guessed it, comes from the English word “motor”. 摩托 (mótuō) can also be used as the shorter form of 摩托车 (mótuōchē). The younger the people are, the more often they use the shorter form.

3. Car in Chinese: 汽车 (qìchē)

The word for car in Chinese is 汽车 (qìchē), literally “steam vehicle”. Well, the earliest cars were all powered by a steam engine, weren’t they?

In daily Chinese, it’s also very common to hear the colloquial versions – 车 (chē) or 车子 (chēzi) for cars though these words can also be used to refer to other land vehicles (e.g. motorcycles, buses, trucks, etc).

4. Bus in Chinese: 公共汽车 (gōnggòng qìchē)

The word for bus in Chinese – as a means of public transportation – is 公共汽车 (gōnggòng qìchē), meaning “public vehicle”. We also have the word 巴士 (bāshì), which is borrowed from the English word “bus”, for buses in general. An example of this would be 观光巴士 (guānguāng bāshì) – sightseeing bus.

Another common way of saying bus, particularly the inner-city bus in Chinese is 公交车 (gōngjiāochē) – “public transportation vehicle”. It can even be shortened to just 公交 (gōngjiāo) in spoken Chinese.

5. Taxi in Chinese: 出租车 (chūzūchē)

Taxi is another word that can be said in different ways depending on which part of the Chinese-speaking world you are traveling to.

In Mainland China “taxi” is 出租车 (chūzūchē), literally “(for) rent vehicle”, and 计程车 (jìchéngchē) – “taximeter vehicle” is a taxi in Taiwan.

In the Cantonese-speaking region (Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong Province of China), the favored word for car is 的士 (dīshì), coming from the English word “taxi”. The rest of China uses the word as well, but only for saying “take a taxi”: 打的 (dǎ dī) – 的 (dī) is the short form of 的士 (dīshì).

6. Train in Chinese: 火车 (huǒchē)

This is easy. 火车 (huǒchē) literally means “fire vehicle”!

But do you know how to say “railway” in Chinese? 铁路 (tiělù)! From 铁 (tiě) – “iron” and 路 (lù) – “track, road”.

7. Subway in Chinese: 地铁 (dìtiě)

Subway or underground is commonly referred to as 地铁 (dìtiě) in Mainland China, which is essentially the short version of 地下铁路 (dìxià tiělù) – “underground railway”.

In Taiwan and Singapore, the word 捷运 (jiéyùn) – “rapid transport” is used to mean subway.

8. Plane in Chinese: 飞机 (fēijī)

Well…easy: 飞机 (fēijī) – literally, “flying machine”, which is a word I inexplicably love!

9. Boat in Chinese: 船 (chuán)

The word for boat in Chinese is 船 (chuán).

Actually, 船 (chuán) can be both a boat or ship depending on the context, but the measure word to collaborate with it differs – 条 (tiáo) is reserved for small boats while 艘 (sōu) is used for bigger boats and ships.

Watch out, because 船 (chuán) sounds somewhat like 床 (chuáng), meaning “bed” in Chinese. You don’t want to mispronounce the word and confuse people. (If you want to make Chinese people laugh, try these instead)

Here are some pictures to help you visualize these core transportation vocabulary.