46.8 Vocabulary: Bus, Minibus and Light Rail Routes in Hong Kong
We will learn how to read a bus, minibus or light rail route in Hong Kong below.
Bus and Minibus Routes
1. Routes with one digit
If the route has one digit, we read the digit and then add the classifier 號 hou6 (‘number’).
9
九號
gau2 hou6
Note that for the number 2, we say 二 ji6 instead of 兩 loeng5 in this context.
2
二號
ji6 hou6
If the route ends with a letter, we read the letter after 號 hou6. We can optionally omit 號 hou6.
6X
六(號)X
luk6 (hou6) ik1 si4
2. Routes with two digits
If the route has two digits, we read the digits like normal numbers and then add the classifier 號 hou6.
81
八十一號
baat3 sap6 jat1 hou6
If the route ends with a letter, we read the letter after 號 hou6. Alternatively, we can read the digits one by one and then the letter without adding 號 hou6 in between.
72X
七十二號X
cat1 sap6 ji6 hou6 ik1 si4
七二X
cat1 ji6 ik1 si4
3. Routes with three digits
If the route has three digits, we read the digits one by one and then can optionally add 號 hou6.
960
九六零(號)
gau2 luk6 ling4 (hou6)
If the route ends with a letter, we usually read the digits one by one and then the letter without adding 號 hou6.
249X
二四九X
ji6 sei3 gau2 ik1 si4
If you’re curious about how bus routes are numbered in Hong Kong, you can check out this Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_bus_route_numbering
Light Rail Routes
All light rail routes have three digits. We read the digits one by one and then can optionally add the word 線 sin3 (‘line’).
507
五零七(線)
ng5 ling4 cat1 (sin3)
705
七零五(線)
cat1 ling4 ng5 (sin3)
Some routes end with the English letter P. We can still optionally add 線.
507P
五零七P(線)
ng5 ling4 cat1 pi1 (sin3)