Didi launches rural ride-sharing in northwest Yunnan

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has launched its rural ride-sharing service in northwest Yunnan’s Lanping County on February 5. It is the first time that Yunnan villagers can access car-pool trips at home. 

"So easy! Now we can get on a car soon after leaving home. We ordered the car on the phone and we know when the car will reach the town." Zhang, a mid-aged man from Lanping’s Fengta village, said in high sprit.

Traditional shuttle buses are time-consuming, and for a ride we often wait for quite a while, said another villager, adding the Didi car-pool trips are much easier.

Didi’s rural ride-sharing, which aims to provide smart transportation service for all villagers in Lanping by 2020, is supported by local authorities.

We will further optimize our products, and the car-pool service will gradually cover all the 109 towns, townships and villages in Lanping, said Xu Bin, head of the Didi Yunnan branch. 

Reporting by Wang Shujian (Yunnan Daily); trans-editing by Wang Shixue