- \n
- Timing<\/a><\/li>\n
- Flying<\/a><\/li>\n
- Train<\/a><\/li>\n
- Bus<\/a><\/li>\n
- Metro<\/a><\/li>\n
- Didi\/taxi<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
- Safety<\/a><\/li>\n
- Miscellaneous (electricity, toilets)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Money<\/span><\/h2>\n
When I travel somewhere within Europe or America I have just 3 things I need to remember to take: 1. Passport 2. Debit card 3. Contact lenses with solution. That\u2019s it. If I have these \u2013 anything else can be bought (providing the card has money in it).<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a bit different in China though. The main difference for me was that I could have forgotten my debit cards and the result would have been exactly the same. So, for me, rule number one to survive in China is \u2013 \u201ctake cash<\/strong>\u201d, probably USD is best so you can exchange it easily before you figure out which cash machine will cooperate with you. The thing is \u2013 it does not seem possible to pay with debit nor credit cards anywhere\u2026 it\u2019s either WeChat Pay, Alipay or cash.<\/p>\n
If you are in China for the first time and for a short period \u2013 cash is the answer. If you are staying for longer, it might be worth investigating other ways of paying. Even though it is now possible to link your foreign credit\/debit card to WeChat or Alipay, you have to understand that it\u2019s still not possible to pay with these all the time. There are lots of discussions and troubleshooting tips available on the internet, which tells me this is not something you would want to spend time on if you are just visiting China for a short period of time.<\/p>\n
Another option is to open a Chinese bank account and only then link this to WeChat or Alipay.<\/p>\n
Again, there is so much advice online how to do it and which documents you will need (passport, proof of residence, proof of employment or student status or work permit, initial deposit \u2013 depending on the bank).<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s come back to cash. Since it\u2019s not really possible to buy RMB outside China, I would recommend bringing some USD. 5000 USD is the maximum limit, beyond which you need to declare and perhaps even have some documentation to explain why you are bringing so much money.<\/p>\n
The easiest way for me was to (1) check if the ATMs at the airport give out cash (they didn\u2019t), (2) exchange enough at the airport kiosk to pay for my hostel on arrival, pay for the metro trip to the hostel, and to be able to buy food. Yes, the exchange rate is not great, and there is a high fee to be paid too, but when you compare this with being tired after 15 hours of flying, not knowing your way around and actually needing to get out of the airport\u2013 it seems there is no other way\u2026<\/p>\n
Once I reached my hostel (which, despite advertising that they accepted Visa \u2013 did not accept Visa or any other card known in Europe.) and after sleeping for many hours, I was ready to walk around and find an ATM which would actually give me more cash. The only one working for my Czech debit card was Bank of China \u2013 which is absolutely fine, since the ATMs of this bank are everywhere.<\/p>\n
It is worth checking before coming to China what fees your bank charges for taking cash from others banks\u2019 ATMs; for Bank of China, there was a fee for each withdrawal. If I remember correctly, I had to choose an option of withdrawing from a Credit account, even though I only had a Debit account. You need to know your PIN for the card you are using with the ATM (less obvious for some). Maximum withdrawal is 2000-3000 RMB, but also check what you have set as a daily limit on your own cards.<\/p>\n
Make sure you call your bank in advance to inform them that you will be withdrawing money in China so they don\u2019t block your card. Despite that, they still might, so you really have to make sure you have some cash in the first place.<\/p>\n
(3) It is possible to exchange money in the banks and get an exchange rate 10-20% better than at the airport, but apparently the waiting time might not be worth it (1-3 hours).<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Communication<\/span><\/h2>\n
Make sure to download a VPN app<\/a> before you go to China. Since China blocks lots of sites and services you are used to, you will need a VPN to access them. I used a free one and it worked. There are also paid ones. I\u2019m not sure what the difference is between free and paid.<\/p>\n
There is Wifi in many public places so you can survive until you manage to get to a Mobile Phone shop to buy a local SIM card. Check beforehand if your phone can accept any other SIM cards than the ones you have. If you can\u2019t unlock your phone for other SIM cards, then you might want to buy a new phone for use in China.<\/p>\n
If your phone can accept other SIM cards, then (1) you can either buy a Chinese SIM card online thru Amazon before you come to China or (2) when you are in China, you should visit one of the providers e.g. China Mobile and China Unicom, and ask for a SIM card with Internet for your stay in in China. Only China Mobile was able to sell me such a SIM, the other one didn\u2019t have such a service or maybe they didn\u2019t understand what I needed. I paid around 80 RMB and it worked for a month. Didn\u2019t need to cancel anything when leaving the country. No top up was needed.<\/p>\n
What I did<\/strong> was I showed them a piece of paper with this sentence written in Chinese characters and then I was directed to the teller who spoke English. It took more than an hour, but I walked out with the new SIM card installed and working in my phone. You also have to show your passport. This means that your SIM is tied to your passport, which allows the Chinese government to know what you write in WeChat\u2026<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s also good to have a phone which has dual SIM capabilities so if you get an SMS from your regular phone number, you can actually accept it and also check your contacts from the original SIM. You might not see your contacts if you replace this card with another Chinese phone.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Meeting people<\/span><\/h2>\n
I would like to recommend two ways to meet people \u2013 Couchsurfing and WeChat. I was lucky to meet some friendly Chinese through Couchsurfing by advertising the dates of my trip to China and then also by inviting some Couchsurfing members to meet me for beer\/coffee via private messages through this app. Quite a number of young Chinese use VPN so they have access to various Western apps.<\/p>\n
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Couchsurfing enthusiasts also organize meetups \u2013 free for anyone to join. These are advertised in the Events section of the app. The meetups are really good to get some local information, e.g. people might share with you which WeChat groups they belong to and send you an invitation to the groups you are interested in. Otherwise WeChat is good for contacting new friends \u2013 basically, it has all the same features as Whatsapp, and more.<\/p>\n
There might be visitors interested in \u201cother kinds of meetings\u201d with Chinese people \u2013 so just for the record and for those speaking Mandarin \u2013 the Tinder equivalent of China is Tantan.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Medical\/hygiene<\/span><\/h2>\n
All I can say is: take care of yourself and make sure you don\u2019t get sick! Fortunately, I didn\u2019t get sick on my visit to China, which means that I can\u2019t give an account of how it is to use medical services in that country. What I found on the internet tells me that either the experience will be unacceptable by Western standards, expensive, or both.<\/p>\n
If I were to get sick, my instinct would be to find the nearest international clinic \u2013 so make sure you check beforehand where they are. It is a good idea to always have with you a list of things you are allergic to or medicines you take \u2013 translated into Chinese. Also \u2013 do consult your new Chinese friends that you met through Couchsurfing or other means when you need to go to the doctors.<\/p>\n
Before you go to China \u2013 get medical insurance and figure out how it works and what it covers. Despite that, I understand you will have to pay for everything anyway (visits, prescriptions, etc.).<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Food<\/span><\/h2>\n
I personally trust street food more than restaurants. I ate street food in India, and I ate street food in China \u2013 nothing happened to me. Either I am lucky or the rule of thumb works \u2013 \u201conly eat in places where lots of people eat\u201d. This should at least guarantee that food is fresh. Menus of small variety is an advantage as well \u2013 the ingredients will be stored for a very short time only if all customers eat the same thing. And small variety is a good thing, because even if the menu is long, when you read it, it\u2019s just a combinations of 4 kinds of meat with different kinds of noodles.<\/p>\n
Learn to use chopsticks, e.g. study Youtube videos. \u00a0\u00a0When reusable chopsticks are offered \u2013 I saw people first pour hot water on them (keeping the tips in a small bowl) to disinfect them.<\/p>\n
Learn basic characters for kinds of meat, noodles, vegetables \u2013 since many small hole-in-the-walls don\u2019t have picture menus.<\/p>\n
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Ask your new Chinese friends to take you to places where they like to eat. Let them order so you can try new things. I would say it is a challenge to eat some things \u2013 I was trying to convince myself that even in Eastern Europe, where I come from, not long ago people also almost always ate all the parts of animals. I guess we stopped when we started to go to the shops and now we keep asking for the same parts while ignoring the others. In China, the tradition to eat all parts goes on so either don\u2019t ask what you are eating or ask afterwards.<\/p>\n
Do go to a tea house. You will get a thermos of hot water and tea leaves with a cup. You can sit there for hours topping up the cup with hot water.<\/p>\n
Drinking and asking for hot water is common so I would ask for it at my hostel and mix it with instant coffee to have my morning drink before I set off for the day.<\/p>\n
Drinking unboiled tap water is not recommended, so ask for hot water or buy bottled.<\/p>\n
6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Moving around<\/span><\/h2>\n
a)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Timing<\/span><\/h3>\n
If you are visiting China for a short time, mind the public holidays (check the calendar here<\/a>), especially before and after<\/strong> Spring Festival (New Year). This is when the whole of China travels and it\u2019s not easy (maybe even impossible) to get seats on planes\/trains\/etc., and prices will be high. On the other hand \u2013 during the Spring festival days itself, it should be easy to get tickets at good prices, since the Chinese would be spending time with the families they have travelled so far to see.<\/p>\n
The second day to avoid is National Day \u2013 a week in October.<\/p>\n
Other 3-day public holidays periods not recommended to visit China are the Western New Year period (30 Dec-1st Jan), Tomb Sweeping Day around April, Labor Day 29th<\/sup> April-1st<\/sup> May, Dragon Boat Festival around June, and Mid-Autumn Festival around September. That is, unless you want to actually see how it looks like when 1.3 billion people move around. If yo do, make sure that you plan well in advance and be prepared to pay more.<\/p>\n
If you are planning to visit Tibet \u2013 check first if the region is not closed to tourists. This could happen around February and March.<\/p>\n
Consider the timing also due to climate (temperature, humidity, rain, etc.). Generally, spring and autumn are recommended as the most favourable conditions, but of course there might be advantages for certain regions to be visited at other times (e.g. fewer tourists, cheaper prices, easier to get permits).<\/p>\n
b)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Flights<\/span><\/h3>\n
Consider using the Chinese online services below for booking flight\/train\/hotels \u2013 they have websites and\/or apps in English, prices can be cheaper (even moreso if you use their Chinese version), especially on in-China connections, than other international services of this type. They usually enable booking 3 months in advance.<\/p>\n
Ctrip<\/a>(\u643a\u7a0b) or Fliggy<\/a> (\u98de\u732a) \u2013 flight, train, hotel, car, tours<\/p>\n
Qunar<\/a>– flight, train, hotel, car (app in English, they don\u2019t <\/strong>accept foreign bank cards)<\/p>\n
You can also check the low-cost Chinese airlines (mind extra charges for baggage etc.)<\/p>\n
Spring Airlines<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 flight and hotel<\/p>\n
West Air<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 flight only<\/p>\n
If you check in your luggage, I would advise you to take a set of clothes and toiletries in your hand carry, just in case something happens with the checked-in one.<\/p>\n
c)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Train<\/span><\/h3>\n
Usually you can book train tickets around 30 days before your travel date.<\/p>\n
You can do it online – via Ctrip<\/a> or Chinahighlights<\/a> for a fee of $5-6 \u2013 and pick up the tickets at the station (show booking number sent to you and passports for all travellers) or go to the station directly.<\/p>\n
At the station you can\u2019t use the self-service kiosks if you don\u2019t have a Chinese ID. You have to queue. What I did was I first checked online what train number I needed to get to my destination and wrote it down neatly on a piece of paper with the times and destination (you can include the class of the seat); I did the same for the return trip. I even managed to change tickets I already purchased twice at the station \u2013 using the same method of writing it down on a piece of paper (since my Chinese speaking skills still needs lots of improvement). If you go to the station on the same day as you want to travel. you might not get tickets \u00a0because they might all be sold-out (happened to me).<\/p>\n
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There are also Ticket Offices in different parts of the cities where you can buy tickets but not pick up the ones you booked online.<\/p>\n
Have passports for all people travelling and have cash to pay for all the tickets (if you only have foreign cards) \u2013 for both train station and ticket offices.<\/p>\n
d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bus<\/span><\/h3>\n
I used local buses in Chengdu and Leshan (from station to the big Buddha) and from the Train station in Emeishan to the Emeishan National Park. For these, I bought tickets in the bus or at the Train station in Emeishan.<\/p>\n
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For the city buses the routes are in Chinese characters and once on the bus they say what the next stop is, but even if they annouced it loud enough, I would not know anyway. So the workaround I figured out was to look out from the bus at every stop and identify on the route table at the stop the characters which were in red \u2013 this was the name of the stop. Then I looked at the route table inside my bus and checked where I am compared to my destination.<\/p>\n
For the bus from the Train station Emeishan to Emeishan National Park, I showed the map to the lady in the ticket office and she gave me the ticket. Then I walked outside the station to the bus stop and showed the ticket and map to people who looked like drivers and they showed me which bus I should take.<\/p>\n
- Flying<\/a><\/li>\n
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