As the Coronavirus continues to spread and claim lives, companies are taking various measures to help prevent the spread of the disease. Last night at midnight, DiDi announced that they’ll be suspending their Beijing inter-city reshaping services, inter-city taxi-hailing serves, and inter-city designated driving services starting on January 26. The municipal transport authorities have already suspended all inter-provincial road passenger transports since Sunday to curb the spread of Coronavirus, the Beijing News reported. It’s unclear from their message whether the decision to suspend Beijing’s inter-city services is a corporate one or a request from local authorities or when they will resume their inter-city services.

*To clarify: inter-city means from one city to another city — in other words, if you want to take a DiDi to Tianjin, you’re out of luck. Normal ride hailing within city limits is not affected.

In the days leading up to the decision, DiDi had already encouraged their drivers to wear masks, disinfect their cars every day, and leave the windows open to allow for proper air circulation.

For those staying in Beijing this week, DiDi’s car services will be operating normally and their CNY price hike still applies. Until our beloved city gets its groove back, we encourage families to take the appropriate precautions to stay safe.

The app automatically adds a gratuity fee or ‘surge’ in order to reward those drivers who haven’t fled the city due to the virus or have not returned home during the spring festival period. The surcharge fee applies as from Tuesday, Jan 21 until Monday, Feb 3 and will apply to all types of rides, including carpooling service. Expect to pay as much as an extra RMB 9 per ride during this period.

One more handy feature (presumably, also available only in the Chinese version of the app) is the “Spring Festival Rider Guide.” where users will be able to check this in-app guide for up-to-date information on average hailing success rates as well as the most difficult times and areas to hail a car.

Source: DiDi Chuxing, The Beijinger, China Daily
Photos: giphy, Pan Daily, Property Portal Watch, Mike Wester

According to Didi Chuxing, they have announced on November 6 that they will be reintroducing the Hitch Service. The company has spent more than a year updating the service since it’s cancellation. They have implemented many new rules, and one rule is a restriction for female users who can only use it from 5am to 8pm.

While researching this topic, we have discovered a hidden gem for families with young children. The ride option is called 宝贝专车 equipped with a children’s seat, roughly translating to “children’s car”. It is a service for children between the ages of 9 months and 12 years. Here are the basic steps you need to use this service.

Please note that this option is only available by changing the language to Chinese. 

Step 1

When you change your Didi language option to Chinese, swipe the ride options all the way to the left until you find 关爱出行 （Caring ride service) and select it.

Step 2

Select 宝贝专车（Children’s car）for a car that comes equipped with a children’s seat. You will also have an option to choose your desired pick-up time by selecting 用车时间 （Time to use). Add your pick up and drop off location.

Step 3

If you want to add your contact information, select 选乘车人（Contact info) entering your phone number (手机号) and your name (姓名). Then click the black button on the bottom to get your children’s ride!

Photos: Wendy Xu, Pexels

Recently a few readers reported that while using the popular Chinese app, Didi Chuxing, a notification kept appearing requesting Chinese ID.

After the recent changes involving Uber, this understandably caused a bit of fear and panic among foreign users. Uber was bought out by Didi Chuxing earlier this year in a move that proved Chinese companies know the market best. Uber had been “bleeding” money in the Chinese market, and finally accepted defeat.

After the buyout, Uber required all users to update the app. The update changed in interface into Chinese and then required users to enter a Chinese ID. This essentially made the app altogether worthless for expats.

With these rumors spreading around the city, we investigated the details of the changes.

Chen Xiaoni, a representative of Didi Chuxing through the Brunswick Group, Didi’s PR company, explained that the notification is only for Didi’s popular service called Hitch (顺风车). As the name implies, it’s a ride sharing option between non-commercial drivers and riders. The company is requiring that ID for rides that take driver and passenger from one starting city to a different destination city.

Without Chinese ID, riders will only be able to travel within the city of ride origin.

“The system only accepts users holding Chinese IDs because Didi can’t verify foreign passports at this stage. The company is working on solving this issue and hope to find a solution in the future,” Chen explained.

Though this is bad news for foreigners who were using Hitch to go between cities, everyone else can take a deep breath. Life will not get drastically more difficult for expats looking for a typical taxi ride when this new change takes affect this year on December 29.

“Other than Hitch, other services provided on Didi Chuxing platform such as express cars and private cars don’t require real name registration. Users can use these services as usual,” Chen reassured us.

Photos: Andrew N.

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