Even on the Shanghai Subway, it’s a struggle just to get on (上车) and off (下车) a train before a wall of people or those sliding doors say: 不可以！

As you can see from the video, riding the subway is often chaotic and hectic. It’s not the kind of place you want to be running around confused and lost. With all those people pushing and shoving, even if you know where you are and what stop you need to take, getting through the throngs of people may prove to be quite difficult. You need to know how to navigate the masses without starting an incident.

After giving you a background on riding the subway, I thought it’d be helpful to go over specific vocabulary or 生词 and phrases commonly used when taking the underground. These are common phrases that people utter every day on the subway and cannot be mistook for another meaning. Practice them and then try them out at a local station:

地铁 or (dì tiě) means subway.

地铁站 or (dì tiě zhàn) means subway station or stop.

下／上 车 or (xià／shàng chē) means to get off/on the subway cart.

请坐 or (qǐng zuò) means “please sit” or is a polite way of saying “take your seat”. I use this phrase when offering a seat to an elderly or handicapped person or a child.

注意安全 0r (zhù yì ān quán) means “please pay attention to safety” or “be careful”. This is a helpful phrase to say when people are overly shoving and pushing when getting on or off a train.

出口 or (chū kǒu) means exit. Look for this sign when you need to escape the subway!

入口 or (rù kǒu) means entrance. Look for this sign when you want to enter the subway.

线 or (xiàn) means line/train route. The lines of trains are numbered or represented with an alphabetical letter. You can simply ask people, “这个车是哪先？” or “What line is this train”.

转车 or (zhuǎnchē) means to change trains/transfer. Over the speakers, announcements will say “change for the [13] line here” 这站转车”

地铁票 or (dì tiě piào) means subway ticket. You can buy them at any automatic (with English) machine or from a subway teller. Tickets are simply inserted into turnstiles to enter and exit a train.

到了 or (dào le) means to “have arrived” or reached your location. When you here something something… 到了, it means the train has either arrived at it’s destination or a train is pulling into the station currently.

Now that you’ve studied these new vocab words, put them to use in a subway setting.