Ride-hailing is the single most useful piece of infrastructure a visitor to China touches, and this site has covered it as software: which app, what language setting, how to pay, where the pickup bay is. All of that is right, and none of it is the reason you can get into a stranger's car in a country where you cannot read the road signs.
That reason is a licensing regime, and it produces one check worth ten seconds of your time.
The instrument, and who wrote it#
The Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Booked Taxi Business Operations and Services were issued on 27 July 2016 by seven bodies including the Ministry of Transport, first amended on 28 December 2019, and amended again on 30 November 2022 by a joint order of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Commerce, the market regulator and the Cyberspace Administration.
The 2022 version is the current national text. Cities issue their own implementing rules underneath it, which is why details vary by city and why this page stays on the national layer.
Two certificates, not one#
A lawful ride-hailing trip in China rests on two separate permissions, issued by the local taxi administration — the same authority that governs the metered street cab and its receipt.
Article 13 — the vehicle. The taxi administration where the service is provided issues the Online Booked Taxi Transport Certificate to a vehicle that meets the conditions and is registered for booked-taxi passenger transport.
Article 15 — the driver. The city-level taxi administration issues the Online Booked Taxi Driver Certificate to a driver who meets the conditions and passes the assessment.
So the car is licensed as a vehicle and the person is licensed as a driver, separately. This is the same two-actor structure the site has met before, where an agency's obligations and an individual's licence are different things with different remedies.
The rule that is actually about your safety#
Here is the pair of articles worth carrying, and they are why the plate matters.
Article 17 requires the platform to ensure that the vehicle providing the service online is the same as the vehicle actually providing the service offline, and to report the vehicle's details to the local taxi administration.
Article 18 imposes exactly the same requirement for drivers: the driver on the app must be the driver in the seat.
That is a legal duty on the platform rather than a customer-service aspiration, and it converts a habit into something with a basis. Check the plate against the app before you open the door, and glance at the driver's photo. If either does not match, the trip you are being offered is not the trip the regulation describes, and the correct response is to decline it and rebook.
Article 19 is what makes the check possible: when providing the service the platform must supply the driver's name, photograph and mobile number, the service rating, and the vehicle's licence plate. Those fields are on your screen because a rule puts them there.
The fare, and the invoice nobody asks for#
Article 20 is short and does two things.
The platform must set fares reasonably and practise marked pricing — which makes ride-hailing the fifth trade on this site to get the general marked-price duty restated in its own instrument, after shops, hanfu studios, entertainment venues and produce markets.
And then the part almost no passenger uses: the platform must provide the passenger with a taxi invoice.
A street cab gives you a printed receipt from the fare equipment. A ride-hailing trip gives you an invoice through the app, on request, and it does the same job — it identifies the trip, which is what turns a vague complaint or a forgotten bag into something traceable. Find it in the trip history before you need it rather than afterwards.
What the 2022 amendment changed#
Worth one line, because it cuts against the instinct to ask a driver for papers.
The 2022 revision removed the penalty for failing to carry the transport certificate and the driver certificate, and reduced the fines for operating without having obtained them. The certificates still have to exist; carrying the physical documents is no longer separately penalised.
The practical consequence is that the app is your verification, not the glovebox. The plate, the photo and the name on your screen are the check the system is built around.
In practice#
- Match the plate before you get in. It is the one habit this page exists to justify.
- Look at the driver's photo, which is on the screen for the same reason.
- Use the in-app channel for calls and messages rather than a personal number, which is also how the trip stays attached to a record.
- Take the invoice from the trip history, especially for anything you might need to trace later.
- The rest of the mechanics — English interface, card payment, the airport pickup bay — are on the app page and are unchanged by any of this.
- For a street taxi instead, the regime is different and so is the paperwork: the meter, the tariff and the printed receipt.
Frequently asked questions#
Is DiDi safe for foreigners in China?#
The structural answer is that the vehicle and the driver each hold a separate certificate from the local taxi administration, and the platform must ensure the car and driver providing the service are the same as those shown online. Checking the plate and the photo against the app is using that rule.
What licences does a Chinese ride-hailing driver need?#
Two documents are involved: an Online Booked Taxi Transport Certificate for the vehicle, issued to a car registered for booked-taxi passenger transport, and an Online Booked Taxi Driver Certificate for the driver, issued after an assessment by the city-level taxi administration.
Does the car that arrives have to match the app in China?#
Yes. The platform must ensure the vehicle providing the service offline is the same as the one online, and the same requirement applies to the driver. A mismatch means the trip is not the one the rules contemplate, so decline and rebook.
What information must a Chinese ride-hailing app show me?#
The driver's name, photograph and mobile number, the service rating, and the vehicle's licence plate. Those are required disclosures rather than product features.
Can I get a receipt from DiDi in China?#
Yes. The platform is required to provide the passenger with a taxi invoice, obtainable through the trip history. It identifies the trip, which matters for expenses, complaints and lost property.
Which rules govern ride-hailing in China?#
The Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Booked Taxi Business Operations and Services, issued in 2016 and amended in 2019 and again in November 2022 by a joint order of six national bodies. Cities add their own implementing rules beneath it.