Help and emergencies in Mandarin Chinese
The words you hope to never need. Play the ten Mandarin Chinese words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Mandarin Chinese phrases in this lesson
- 救命！jyoh-MING
- Help!
- 叫医生jyow ee-SHUNG
- Call a doctor
- 警察jing-CHA
- Police
- 药店yow-DYEN
- Pharmacy
- 医院ee-YWEN
- Hospital
- 我迷路了wo mee-LOO-luh
- I'm lost
- 我不舒服wo boo shoo-FOO
- I don't feel well
- 被偷了bay-TOH-luh
- It was stolen
- 这是紧急情况juh shir jin-JEE ching-KWANG
- It's an emergency
- 别烦我byeh FAN wo
- Leave me alone
Literally "save life", the true emergency shout. For everyday help, 请帮我一下 (ching bang wo ee-SHYA), please help me a moment, is the phrase, and bystanders respond readily to a lost foreigner.
Emergency numbers: 120 for ambulance, 110 for police, 119 for fire. Big-city hospitals have international clinics with English-speaking staff; bring your passport and expect to pay upfront, then claim on insurance.
Chinese police are generally helpful to tourists and cities are extremely safe to walk, day or night. Register-at-hotel rules mean always carrying your passport; police can ask to see it.
Marked by a green cross. Many medicines that need prescriptions in the West sell over the counter. Traditional Chinese medicine shares the shelves; the pharmacist will happily explain both options via phone translator.
You register (挂号, gwa-HOW) at a window first, then queue by department. It is a system built for scale; the international wing, 国际部, shortcuts it at triple the price and is worth every kuai.
Show your hotel card or map pin with it. Amaps and Baidu Maps rule China (Google Maps does not work); download one, or lean on your hotel's WeChat location pin, the local way of sharing any address.
Literally "I not comfortable", the standard unwellness phrase. Point and add 疼 (tung), it hurts: 这里疼, it hurts here. That plus pointing is a complete consultation anywhere.
Combine: 我的手机被偷了, my phone was stolen. Theft is genuinely rare in Chinese cities now; the more common loss is leaving it in a Didi, and drivers routinely return phones.
Police 110, ambulance 120.
Literally "don't bother me".