Survival Chinese Phrases by Situation
The Chinese you actually need, organized the way you actually need it — by situation, not by grammar. Every phrase comes with Chinese characters, pinyin, English, and a tap-to-hear ▶ button, so you can play it to a driver, a receptionist, or a pharmacist when tones fail. The scenario structure follows China's official immigration handbook for foreigners, Chinese Handbook for International Visitors, filled out with the situations expats really run into.
2 scenarios · 92+ audio phrases · Updated September 2026
50+ Chinese Phrases for Taxi in China (with Audio & Pinyin)
What to actually say in a Chinese taxi or DiDi: telling the driver where to go, changing the route, paying by QR code, getting a receipt, and handling problems — every phrase with Chinese characters, pinyin, and tap-to-hear audio.
Read the phrases →Chinese Phrases for Hotel Check-in in China (with Audio)
Hotel Chinese that actually gets used: booking by phone, checking in with your passport, asking for WiFi and wake-up calls, room problems, and checking out with a fapiao — every phrase with characters, pinyin, and tap-to-hear audio.
Read the phrases →Prefer the pocket version?
The Chinese phrasebook tool has the universal short set — emergency, transport, food, shopping — with one-tap audio in six languages. These scenario pages are the deep version: every phrase in context, with the dialogues that go with it.
How this series is built
China's National Immigration Administration published a free official handbook — Chinese Handbook for International Visitors — with ten chapters of scenario Chinese: entering the country, finding a place to stay, documents, getting around, shopping, food, healthcare, community life, leisure, and festivals. Each scenario page here takes one slice of that official structure, verifies the phrases against real situations foreigners report, and adds the context a handbook can't: which counter, which window, what to do when the answer isn't in the book. New scenarios are added as they're finished — only live pages are listed above.