What does 排队 mean?

排队 is the universal act of waiting your turn, but in modern China the experience has been transformed by technology. While physical queues still exist at subway stations, supermarket checkouts, and popular attractions, many queuing experiences have gone digital:

• Restaurants: Popular restaurants use 美团 or 大众点评 for virtual queuing. You take a number (取号) on your phone, go shopping while you wait, and get a notification when your table is almost ready. The days of physically standing outside a restaurant for an hour are largely over.
• Hospitals: You register (挂号) and queue virtually. Your phone shows your position and estimated wait time.
• Banks and government offices: Take a printed number ticket from a machine and wait for your number to appear on a screen.

The social rules:

• 插队 (cutting in line) is genuinely taboo and can cause loud, public confrontations. Chinese people will call out strangers for cutting in line.
• In more informal queuing situations (boarding a crowded bus, entering a subway car), lines can be looser and more fluid. This is not 插队 — it is a different cultural norm about queuing in high-density situations.
• Virtual queuing has solved many of the friction points of physical queuing while creating new ones: you now need a Chinese phone number and the right app to queue at a popular restaurant.

The phrase 排了好久 (queued for so long) is a common complaint that doubles as a humblebrag about going somewhere popular. Waiting a long time for food or entry is a social signal that the place is worth it.