Transportation Chinese Vocabulary Word List

The vehicle is very important in our daily life. The airplane is the most common mean of transportation for those traveling to China. If you spend a short time in China, take a taxi or bus is a good choice for going out, and maybe you want to buy a car when plan to stay in China for a long time. In order to travel freely in China, learning Chinese words for different types of transport is necessary.

Transportation in Chinese Vocabulary List

Transportation on Land

公共汽车 [gōng gòng qì chē] - Bus
长途汽车 [cháng tú qì chē] - Long-distance bus
有轨电车[yǒu guǐ diàn chē] - Tram
小汽车 [xiǎo qì chē] – Car
的士 [dī shì] - Taxi
警车 [jǐng chē] – Police card
救护车 [jiù hù chē] – Ambulance
消防车 [xiāo fáng chē] - Fire engine
卡车 [kǎ chē] - Lorry
火车[huǒ chē] – train
自行车 [zì xíng chē] - Bicycle
摩托车 [mó tuō chē] - motorcycle
地铁 [dì tiě] - metro

Transportation on Sea

轮船 [lún chuán] - Boat
邮轮 [yóu lún] - Cruise ship
游艇 [yóu tǐng] - Yacht

Transportation in the Sky

飞机 [fēi jī] – Airplane
直升机 [zhí shēng jī] – Helicopter
热气球 [rè qì qiú] - hot-air balloon
宇宙飞船 [yǔ zhòu fēi chuán] – Spaceship

How to Talk about Take/Drive Transport in Chinese

If you are a passenger and want to take vehicles, all transportations listed above can use the term “坐+ Transport”, 坐 [zuò] is a verb , means sit, travel by. Some simple examples: 坐汽车[zuò qì chē] means by car, 坐飞机 [zuò fēi jī] means take a plane, 坐船[zuò chuán] means by ship.
Further Reading: How to take a Taxi in Chinese.
If you are a driver, use the term “开+Transport”, except the transports of bicycle and motorcycle. The word开[kāi] here means drive, for example: 开飞机[kāi fēi jī] means fly an airplane. To talk about ride a bike and ride a motorcycle, we use the word 骑[qí] means ride, so ride a bicycle is 骑自行车[qí zì háng chē].
What Kind of Transportation Do You Often Use?
Tell us what kind of transportation you often use in Chinese in the comments below. If the transport is unusual and doesn’t mention in the Chinese transport vocabulary list above that you don’t know how to say it in Chinese, here to ask Hanbridge Mandarin’s teacher for help!