Urban Transport in China pt. 2 Smart Cards

Urban Transport in China pt. 2 Smart Cards Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 22, 2010 in Vocabulary

When you’re riding public transport in China, you may go some time without seeing people using 现金 (xian4jin1 – cash), opting instead for their 智能卡 (zhi4neng2ka3 – smart card), maybe just 刷 (shua1 – swipe) their 钱包 (qian2bao1 – wallets) without even taking the card out.
Where can you get these cards? In cities that use these cards (so far I’ve seen them in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau- I’m saving Shanghai for when I go to visit the World Expo), you generally look for a booth at a subway station that says 售卡 (shou4ka3 – cards for sale). You can sometimes also purchase these cards outside stations, but be careful that you don’t accidentally buy a 充值卡 (chong1zhi2ka3 – charge card) for your cellphone.

The cards go by different names depending on where you are. Beijing uses 一卡通 (yi1ka3tong1 – all-in-one card), while Guangzhou uses 羊城通 (yang2cheng2tong1 – Guangzhou connect), Hong Kong still uses 八达通 (ba1da2tong1 – Octopus card [lit. 8 directions connect]). Although cards cannot be used interchangeably, the Hong Kong Octopus card may allow RMB deposits in the future. The best part about these cards is not that they can sometimes offer a 折扣 (zhe2kou4 – discount) compared to the cash fare, but that they can also be used in 便利店 (bian4li4dian4 – convenience stores), 超市 (chao1shi4), and other places as well- including McDonalds!

Keep learning Chinese with us!

Build vocabulary, practice pronunciation, and more with Transparent Language Online. Available anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Try it Free Find it at your Library

About the Author: Transparent Language

Transparent Language is a leading provider of best-practice language learning software for consumers, government agencies, educational institutions, and businesses. We want everyone to love learning language as much as we do, so we provide a large offering of free resources and social media communities to help you do just that!

Comments:

Reply

Peter Simon:

Hi, Andrew and Steve, thanks for the excellent posts recently! and for the pinyin too – it’s more important than what Chelsea pointed out earlier: “I even don’t know how to read the signs” is an understatement. We haven’t got the faintest idea about reading without the pinyin. We can look up a sign in a dictionary for the meaning, but that takes ages sometimes and with some dictionaries, we don’t get the pronunciation.