Getting from point A to point B is a frustrating yet important part of our daily lives. Whether you’re going to class, work, the supermarket, or out with friends, you’re going to have to use some mode of transportation. Living in a massive city like Beijing, there are many forms of transportation available. To help you build your vocabulary related to this topic, here are 15 Chinese words:

A video I made about the Beijing subway a few years ago.

“Ok, so now how do you use these words?” you may be asking yourself. Here are some examples of transportation questions and answers, using the vocabulary above:

1. 你怎么去学校？
nǐ zěn me qù xué xiào
How do you go to school?

我骑自行车去。
wǒ qí zì xíng chē qù
I ride a bicycle there.

2. 你是怎么来的？
nǐ shì zěn me lái de
How did you come here?

我是坐地铁来的。
wǒ shì zuò dì tiě lái de
I took the subway here.

3. 他会开车吗？
tā huì kāi chē ma
Can he drive a car?

他不会开车，所以他坐公交车。
tā bú huì kāi chē, suǒ yǐ tā zuò gōng jiāo chē
He can’t drive a car, so he takes the bus.

4. 飞机票多少钱？
fēi jī piào duō shǎo qián
How much is a plane ticket?

三千块。
sān qiān kuài
3,000 kuai (RMB)

那太贵了。咱们坐火车吧。
nà tài guì le. zán men zuò huǒ chē ba
That’s too expensive. Let’s take the train.

5. 你为什么很累？
nǐ wèi shén me hěn lèi
Why are you so tired?

因为我的电动车坏了, 所以我跑步来了。
yīn wèi wǒ de diàn dòng chē huài le, suǒ yǐ wǒ pǎo bù lái le
Because my electric bike broke down, so I ran here.

To give you a more visual representation of transportation in the ‘Jing, here are some pictures. The captions are in Chinese, so challenge yourself and try to understand them!

在北京很多人开车

北京的三轮车

在飞机上看到青岛

在大连你可以坐船

我们常常坐火车去旅行

我天天骑摩托车