Survival and Travel Chinese Part 1: Asking for Directions

So you're traveling to China soon and you need to know some basic phrases in Mandarin to help get you by! We'll go through a quick primer on survival Mandarin to help you on your way!

First, let's start with some basic survival vocabulary (if you aren't familiar with Pinyin, please check out our introductory lesson on Pinyin first). You'll learn how to ask for directions and how to say your name.

Pinyin	English	Chinese Character (simplified)	Comments
wǒ	I / me	我
nǐ	you	你
wǒmen	we	我们	Add "men" after wǒ or nǐ to make it plural
jiào	called	叫
shì	is / are	是
rén	person	人
wàiguó	foreign country	外国
zhōngguó	China	中国
xièxie	thank you	谢谢
qǐngwèn	excuse me	请问
duìbuqǐ	sorry	对不起
zài	at	在
zàinǎli / zàinǎr	where	在哪里 / 在哪儿	Add "zàinǎli" or "zàinǎr" at the end of the sentence to denote where.
xĭshŏujiān	restroom	洗手间
chūzū chē	taxi	出租车	"chē" means vehicle
gōnggòng qìchē	bus	公共汽车
dìtiě	subway	地铁
zhàn	station	站
jīchǎng	airport	机场
jiǔdiàn	hotel	酒店

Great! Once you have mastered the basic survival vocabulary above, let's start with some simple Mandarin phrases:

English	Pinyin	Chinese Characters (simplified)
Excuse me, where is the washroom?	Qǐngwèn, xĭshŏujiān zàinǎr?	请问, 洗手间在哪儿?
Excuse me, where is the airport?	Qǐngwèn, jīchǎng zàinǎr?	请问, 机场在哪儿?
Excuse me, where is the subway station?	Qǐngwèn, dìtiě zhàn zàinǎr?	请问, 地铁站在哪儿?
Excuse me, where is the bus station?	Qǐngwèn, gōnggòng qìchē zhàn zàinǎr?	请问, 公共汽车站在哪儿?
My name is Sabrina (I am called Sabrina).	Wǒ jiào Sabrina.	我叫Sabrina.
I am a foreigner.	Wǒ shì wàiguó rén.	我是外国人.
We are foreigners.	Wǒmen shì wàiguó rén.	我们是外国人.

Please try part 2 of our Chinese survival guide.

↩ Back to Resources page