Updated: April 26, 2024
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Getting into China
Inter-City Travel
Intra-City Travel
Chinese Digital Landscape
Visiting Attractions
Culture
Introduction
I recently took a 10-day trip to Shanghai and nearby cities. Planning for this trip took more effort than normal due to China’s unique digital landscape. The purpose of this guide is to help you plan your own trip to China as a tourist. While not the easiest country, Mainland China can be visited independently.
Note: This guide is written for a casual Western tourist trying to visit China. Processes may be different if you are planning to move to China, visit family outside of typical tourist areas or stay for an extended period.
Getting into China
Chinese Visa
Most nationalities require a visa to travel to China. Visas must be obtained in-person at an embassy or consulate. You must visit the embassy/consulate to both drop off and pick up the visa. Processing times are usually between 3-7 days. The consular official will tell you. Americans typically receive a 10-year multiple entry visa but other nationalities get 6 months.
Currently (2024), the visa application does not require flight/hotel reservations which was previously the policy. However, they do ask for your general itinerary. If this is your first trip to China, I highly recommend going to more mainstream places such as Shanghai on your first trip, which will reduce your chance of getting rejected. Prior visits to Taiwan are not a problem but records of visiting certain Muslim countries – especially Turkey – could be a problem.
Just for 2024, nationals from 11 European countries can enter China visa free for 15 days.
Visa-Free Transit:
If you are transiting China to a third country (including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), citizens of all nations are allowed to enter Mainland China without a visa for up to 24 hours (there are some unique exceptions for certain passport/airport combinations). You are allowed to take domestic flights so long as you leave China within the 24 hours.
Additionally, if you have a Western/wealthy country passport, you are allowed to transit for 72 hours or 144 hours depending on the airport. If you take advantage of this program, you can only stay in the city/region where you landed and must depart from the same airport.
Beware: You may be denied Transit Without a Visa if you have a passport stamp from Turkey.
Visa Free Areas:
Certain areas of mainland China can be visited visa-free.
Hainan is an island in the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam. Currently, citizens of 59 nations (including the United States) can visit Hainan visa-free.
Shenzhen, China’s third largest city, sits next to Hong Kong (which has its own immigration scheme and is functionally its own country). Tourists in Hong Kong are allowed to apply for a special 5-day visa at the land border that allows access to Shenzhen.
Tourists can visit the rest of Guangdong Province which contains Shenzhen visa free on guided tours organized through Hong Kong or Macau registered tour agencies. Your group must have at least three people and only certain cities may be visited.
Intercity Travel
Planes:
Flying in China is no different than flying in any other country.
All the airlines are owned by the government and are of similar quality. The four largest carriers are Air China (the flag carrier), China Eastern (based out of Shanghai), China Southern (based out of Guangzhou), and Hainan. Shenzhen, Sichuan, and Xiamen Airlines are also major carriers.
Trains:
China has the world’s largest rail network and high-speed rail network which makes getting between cities a breeze.
China has multiple types of trains. C, D, and G Class trains are high speed trains with G class being the fastest. All other classes of trains are “normal” speed, which is still faster than a car.
The nicest seats on the train are business class and are similar to a business class airline seat. First class seats are in a 2-2 seating configuration, while normal tickets are 3-3.
For longer normal train rides, you can purchase a sleeper seat. A hard sleeper has 6 beds in each compartment while a soft sleeper has 4. If a train is sold out, you can also buy a standing room only ticket for the price of a normal ticket. All seats are assigned.
The easiest way to purchase tickets is using the Trip.com app. Do note: it takes about 15 minutes for the purchase to go through.
Foreigners can purchase tickets at any train station, but you must go to the counter with a live person (who may or may not speak English) and cannot use automated kiosks.
For all train journeys, your passport is your ticket. The physical or digital ticket on the app is purely for your own records.
When traveling to the station, arrive at least 30-45 minutes early. Expect an initial passport scan and thorough security search to enter the station. People will start lining up early but boarding typically starts 20 minutes before departure. As a foreigner, you must use the “manual channel” line where your passport will be scanned once more.
You will then head down to the train platform where you will have about 10 minutes before the train arrives. All seats are reserved so try to figure out the location of your train car before.
Bus:
Bus travel is used to reach small towns off the railroad grid or in mountainous regions. They are slower but cheaper than trains. Longer journeys (such as an overnight sleeper bus) should be purchased at least a day ahead of time but in general you can show up to a station to get a ticket.
Intra-city Travel
Metro:
Most large Chinese cities have extensive, clean, modern subway systems called Metro. Tickets can be purchased at automated kiosks in the station using WeChat or Alipay. Note: I was not able to purchase a ticket on the Suzhou subway system without setting up an account linked to a Chinese ID. This was not the case elsewhere but do expect more difficulties in smaller, less visited cities.
Rideshare:
The most popular ride sharing app is called Didi. It is embedded into Alipay and has English functionality. There is also a standalone Didi app. It works nearly identically to Uber/Lyft.
Taxis:
Taxis exist in most cities. Legally, meters must be used in all situations. Beware of fake taxis who will try to rip you off (especially at the airport).
Car Rentals:
I would not recommend renting a car in China. The public transit is good, many signs are only in Chinese and the driving is hectic.
China is one of the few countries that does not recognize and International Driver’s Permit. If you do want to rent a car, you will need to obtain a temporary license which takes a couple hours and involves a vision test.
Maps:
Figuring out directions in China is difficult. Google Maps is officially banned but is accessible with a foreign SIM on roaming and Apple Maps is terrible. Additionally, listings on Western mapping apps are often in the wrong location (off by multiple blocks) and/or have very few reviews (if any). China has many mapping apps but almost all are exclusively in Chinese.
Because of this, finding out directions is difficult. Here is what I would do:
- Figure out where I want to go and find street address on Google/Apple Maps. Double check the text of the reviews (if they exist) to ensure that listing is in the correct location.
- Scour map to determine nearest subway station and figure out which lines intersect at the station.
- Open PDF of the subway system to determine station name and use map to figure out route
- Ride subway to station
- Once at the subway station, open Google Maps and enter address to determine walking directions.
- Walk to place
Chinese Digital Landscape
Modern China is an advanced society that relies heavily on a digital landscape largely incompatible with the West. It is impossible to travel independently in China without downloading and setting up the two super-apps WeChat (Weixin in Chinese) and AliPay.
The Great Chinese Firewall:
Most Western apps/websites are banned by the Chinese government. This includes:
Google Apps: Google, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Translate, Google Photos, Google Voice, YouTube
Meta Apps: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp
Rideshare Apps: Uber, Lyft
Videoconferencing: Zoom, Microsoft Teams
Wikipedia
New York Times
Apps that are NOT banned: TikTok, Facebook Messenger, Apple Maps
The firewall can be bypassed if you are using roaming on a non-Chinese SIM card. Many American cell companies (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) have international roaming plans. However, the firewall will reappear if you are connected to WiFi without a VPN or are using a Chinese SIM/eSim.
Alternatively, one can download a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which can mask your phone’s/computer’s location and switch it to another country without the firewall. There are hundreds of VPNs on the market but not all work in China. I used Astrill VPN, which was expensive ($30/month for up to 5 devices) but is supposedly the best due to its supercenter in Hong Kong. Make sure to do your research on the VPNs, because the Chinese government regularly updates its security measures and can drastically reduce the effectiveness of a specific VPN.
Texting:
WeChat is the primary communication app in China. It replaces SMS texting, WhatsApp and direct messaging (DM-ing) on apps. Facebook Messenger technically works, but nobody uses it. Creating a WeChat account requires numerous steps including obtaining an invitation from an existing user. Make sure to do this multiple days before arriving in China.
Despite its ubiquitous usage, WeChat is a clunky app. Expect challenges.
Payments:
99.999% of purchases are made digitally on WeChat or Alipay. Most merchants accept either app. To pay, you either scan the merchant’s QR code using your payment app of choice, or they will scan your QR code. You cannot pay for things in China without AliPay and WeChat!
Since late 2023, foreigners can link foreign cards to WeChat and AliPay accounts. WeChat accepts both credit and debit cards, but Alipay only accepts debit cards (at least in my experience). The registration process takes time to approve the linkage so make sure to do this at least a few days ahead of your trip.
While rare (happened to me twice during a 10-day period), a merchant cannot accept a WeChat/Alipay payment linked to a foreign credit card. To get around this, you can have a Chinese person or bank transfer funds to a money bank (similar to a Venmo wallet balance) within WeChat/Alipay. Or you can attempt to pay with cash if you have it.
Credit Cards and other digital payment methods such as Apple Pay do not work except perhaps at high end hotels.
Cash is rarely used post-pandemic but technically accepted most places. As cash is so rare, the merchant will likely not have change.
Visiting Attractions
How to Find Things to Do:
One downside of not having the full functionality of Google Maps is not having access to a statistically significant number of reviews of attractions/restaurants. Therefore, one must use other tools.
The best thing to get is a good old-fashioned guidebook. I use Lonely Planet because I think it speaks to my type of travel, but there are hundreds of other guidebooks out there. Do make sure that the book is updated since COVID. While most attractions have remained, restaurants in China seem to have a lot of turnover or change location frequently. To stay up to date on food, you can also check out online travel blogs.
WeChat’s Discover tool has a search feature where you can find articles.
TikTok is a good way to find newer or trendier spots. Search “(city name) travel recommendations” or “restaurants in (city name) and you might find good stuff. Since very few Western travelers have been to China post-covid, the results likely won’t have many views (I found an epic 24-hour spa in Shanghai based off a single TikTok with only 10,000 views).
Business WeChat Accounts:
Most businesses have accounts on WeChat that function similarly to a brand’s Instagram or Facebook page. Here you can find photos and videos, information on their services/menus, and can message them. Maisie used a salon’s WeChat to book a facial appointment.
Visiting Attractions as a Foreigner:
Increasingly, attractions in China require a reservation to visit. Reservations can typically be made via the official WeChat account. Unfortunately, some of these reservation sites require a Chinese ID to use and have pages only in Chinese. To get around this, you can visit the ticket office for said attraction where they can help you get a ticket using your passport. This does not work for all attractions, so just know there is always a chance you won’t be able to get in somewhere. Visiting on a weekday (when people are working) also will increase your chance of getting into places.
Culture
Tipping:
There is no tipping in China.
Sensitive Topics:
Avoid talking about or researching political/sensitive topics (you know what they are) while in China. I don’t know if there are any specific repercussions, but better to just play it safe.
Interacting with Locals:
Locals are for the most part very friendly but very few people know English. If you do not look Asian – especially if you have lighter colored hair or are tall– expect to be approached by people asking to take photos with you.
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