Taxi!

Taxi!

Although Mandarin Chinese is the largest dialect of the Chinese languages and most widely spoken, it is interesting to note that there are still linguistic differences between Taiwan mandarin and Mainland Chinese mandarin. For example the word for taxi on the Mainland is commonly known as chu zu (出租), which translates literately into English as a for hire or rent and familiarly known as da di I am not sure what is the Chinese character for da di is but it would be interesting to know. In Taiwan; however, it is known as hwang che (黄車), which translates in English literately as yellow car because all the taxis are yellow in Taiwan.

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  • The Strange Laowai
    No, in Taiwan, a taxi is a 計程車 (ji4cheng2che1) in Mandarin. On the part of the mainland where Mandarin could be called "the vernacular language" (Beijing, Jiangsu province, etc.), yes, 出1租1 chuzu is apparently the word they use. Never heard of dadi, but I HAVE heard of 的士 ("deksi"). However, deksi is Cantonese and therefore rather unrelated to your current discussion.

    I will ask my Taiwanese friends if 黃車 huang2che1 might be the word for taxi in TAIWANESE.
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