Survival Chinese for Wuhan: Phrases to Show, Not Say

This is the tool behind the line "you will point at food and show your phone". Print the page, screenshot a card, or copy the characters with the button on each one. With JavaScript disabled every card is still plain text you can select and photograph.

Bowls of noodles and chilli oil at a Chinese street-food stall — photograph. — Photograph: Unsplash contributor. A street-food stall — this is what the breakfast phrases on this page are for. The stall and city are not identified.

Three things to save before you leave the airport

Your hotel's name and address in Chinese characters — as an image, not a note that needs a connection. A screenshot beats pronunciation every time.
An offline translation app with the Chinese pack downloaded. It is the fallback when a sentence you need is not on this page. See the setup steps.
A photo of your passport and a copy of this page. Both work with no signal; both are more useful than a phrase you half remember.

Getting around

请带我去[地址]，谢谢

Qǐng dài wǒ qù [dìzhǐ], xièxie

Please take me to [address], thank you.

Replace [地址] with your hotel's Chinese name. Show the whole card to the driver.

请打表

Qǐng dǎ biǎo

Please use the meter.

For a taxi quoting a flat price. DiDi shows the fare in the app instead — see arrivals.

地铁站在哪里？

Dìtiě zhàn zài nǎlǐ?

Where is the metro station?

Point at the answer, or show the English metro map alongside it.

请写下来

Qǐng xiě xiàlái

Please write it down.

The single most useful sentence when the reply is too fast. Digits and written characters beat listening.

Ordering breakfast

一碗热干面，谢谢

Yì wǎn rè gān miàn, xièxie

One bowl of hot dry noodles, please.

The city's breakfast default. Order at the counter, then stand where the queue stands — see the noodle guide.

不要辣

Bú yào là

No chilli, please.

Wuhan breakfast is not inherently fiery, but chilli oil sits on the counter at most stalls.

我对芝麻／花生过敏

Wǒ duì zhīma / huāshēng guòmǐn

I am allergic to sesame / peanuts.

Cross out the one that does not apply. Hot dry noodles are dressed with sesame paste — if sesame is the allergy, this is not your dish. See the warning below.

多少钱？

Duōshǎo qián?

How much is it?

Or simply hold up the note. Prices at a neighbourhood stall are small; the surprise is usually elsewhere.

可以用支付宝吗？

Kěyǐ yòng Zhīfùbǎo ma?

Can I use Alipay?

China runs on QR codes. Set it up before you land — pay and connect.

At the counter, and when you need help

我不会说中文

Wǒ bú huì shuō Zhōngwén

I don't speak Chinese.

Say it by showing it. It resets expectations faster than slow English.

请说慢一点

Qǐng shuō màn yìdiǎn

Please speak more slowly.

Often followed by the other person writing the number down — which is what you wanted anyway.

我用护照预约了

Wǒ yòng hùzhào yùyuē le

I made a reservation using my passport.

For museums and ticketed sites. Carry the physical passport — copies are refused at some checkpoints.

我需要帮助

Wǒ xūyào bāngzhù

I need help.

For a real emergency use the numbers on the contingency page, not this card.

Two local words you will hear anyway

过早 (guòzǎo) is the Wuhan word for eating breakfast — literally "passing the morning". You do not need to say it; it is the word behind half of this site's food pages. 三镇 (sān zhèn), "the three towns", is what people still call Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, and it is why the city is planned town by town rather than around one centre. Both are Wuhan usage, not phrases to memorise.

The catch

These are standard Mandarin, not Wuhan dialect. You will hear the local variety constantly and understand almost none of it; that is normal, and it is not a failure of your preparation. Two honest limits: a translated allergy card is not a medical guarantee — if the stall cannot confirm an ingredient, eat somewhere else; and a screenshot is only as good as your battery, so keep the address card printable or on paper too. If something has genuinely gone wrong, use the contingency page.

Questions we keep seeing

Do I need to speak Chinese to visit Wuhan?

No. Metro signage and the major museums have English; outside them it thins out quickly. Showing Chinese characters on your phone works better than pronunciation, and the hotel front desk is the most reliable interpreter you have.

Is this Wuhan dialect?

No — these are standard Mandarin sentences, which everyone will understand. The local variety is widely spoken and often unintelligible to learners; two common local words are explained at the end of the page.

What should I save before landing?

Your hotel's name and address in Chinese characters as an image, an offline translation app with the Chinese pack, and a photo of your passport. All three work with no signal.

What if I have a food allergy?

Show the allergy card, but treat it as a conversation starter, not a guarantee. Hot dry noodles are dressed with sesame paste, so a sesame allergy rules out the city's signature dish; if the stall cannot confirm ingredients, choose somewhere else.

Sources, prices and currency

Language content composed for this page in standard Mandarin with pinyin; it is not quoted from a phrasebook and makes no claim about Wuhan dialect beyond the two everyday words explained in the text. No figures from the fact ledger appear here. The practical advice (screenshot over pronunciation, offline translation, passport copies) is editorial and consistent with the pay-and-connect and about pages. Class C — language content reviewed yearly; the allergy caveat is deliberately conservative.

Every CNY amount on this page is shown twice: the yuan figure you will actually see on the price board, and a US dollar conversion for budgeting. Dollar values are mid-market conversions at 1 CNY = $0.14957 (ExchangeRate-API (open.er-api.com), 12 Nov 2026), refreshed automatically when the page loads and cached for 24 hours. Your bank or card issuer will use its own rate and may add a foreign-transaction fee. Full explanation.

Checked yearly — geography, history and background. This page was last checked 2026-11.