Going my way? Chinese ridesharing app brings strangers together on the road home for the holidays

All three were young people from the same small town in eastern Guangdong province and had worked in Shenzhen for years but it took a ridesharing app to bring them together for the trip home for Lunar New Year.

Wang Yin, Lin Sheng and Li Xiaomin had been strangers until they made the five-hour trip back to Sanrao township in Li’s BMW on February 3.

They were among more than one million people across the mainland who used a new intercity ridesharing service launched by China’s top car-hailing app Didi Kuaidi over the Lunar New Year travel season.

The new service uses an algorithm to match passengers with motorists and calculates an estimated price for the journey.

Each year, hundreds of millions of migrant workers head home at the same time for the holidays, putting massive pressure on China’s transport system. Nearly 3.7 billion journeys are made on trains, buses and ferries over the 40-day festive period, even though the official holiday period lasts for less than a week. And tickets are often sold out months in advance.

“We all agree the cross-city ridesharing service really helps migrant workers who need to get home,” Li said.