一路(yí lù) - all the way, the whole journey in Mandarin

一路 (yí lù) means for the whole of a journey, from setting off to arriving. Put it before the verb and it stretches that verb across the entire trip: 一路跑, 一路唱, 一路睡. Add 上 to get 一路上, the version used when you are describing what happened along the way.

It carries the two commonest Chinese farewells to a traveller: 一路平安 and 一路顺风, both roughly "safe journey". Say either as someone leaves for the airport and you sound like a local rather than a textbook.

Watch the tone. 一 is first tone alone, but before the fourth tone of 路 it shifts to second, so this is yí lù and never yī lù. And do not read it as "one road": the number has bleached out entirely, and what is left is duration, not counting.