An opportunity arose a few months back to accompany my wife on her work trip to China. She would be going for one week to meet with other international colleagues in Beijing for an HR summit. I decided to tag along for the ride and do some sightseeing in Beijing and Shanghai. I didn’t redeem any points for this trip, so I’m not going to detail my strategy on airfare or hotels like I do in most of my planning posts.
Instead I’m going to tell you the 10 essential things you need to know to prepare for a trip to China. I found traveling through China to be an absolutely amazing experience, but there are certain things you need to understand and prepare for.
China Travel Tips
1. Get Your Visa Before Entering China
This is the most important step in planning a trip to China. Without a Visa, a US citizen will not be allowed to enter the country. This step should be done after you’ve booked your plane tickets, train tickets and hotel stays.
You can obtain a Visa application from the China Embassy’s website. On the application, you will need to provide your travel dates and itinerary. The application must be typed with no hand written corrections or it will not be accepted. It seems daunting at first and if you’d like help, there are third-party companies that can assist you for a fee. In the end, I filled out the application myself and had no problems getting approved.
For travelers planning a layover or a short stop in China, you may qualify for a 72 hour Visa. Learn more here.
2. Purchase a VPN Before Arriving in China
China blocks access to such websites as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube. It’s jokingly referred to as the Great Firewall of China. When traveling in a foreign country, where you don’t speak the language and the culture is very different, having access to all of the internet can be vital.
You can get around the firewall by purchasing a VPN, or Virtual Private Network. A VPN disguises the device’s IP address so it looks like you are connecting from outside China even when you are in the country. There are many good VPN’s out there such as ExpressVPN and VyprVPN, which can be used on a monthly basis for a small fee. I used NordVPN and took advantage of a 7-day free trial, so I paid nothing. The VPN may slow down your browsing just a bit, but having access to Gmail, Google Maps, etc. was really valuable as I made my way around China.
Pro Tip: Make sure you purchase the VPN before getting to China. You will not have access to those websites once there, so you will be out of luck trying to purchase one if you are already in China.
3. Your Credit Cards Won’t Always Work
When it comes to paying for goods and service, China is actually much more technologically advanced than we are. Chinese citizens use apps like WeChat or Alipay, which are linked to their credit cards, to pay for almost everything. Those apps will only work, however, if you link a Chinese bank account/credit card.
The more modern or upscale the restaurant or store, the more likely they’ll take an international credit card, but be prepared to pay cash for most things.
Pro Tip: Before you go to China, make sure your bank knows you’re going to be using your credit card abroad. You don’t want your card being declined or even canceled for unusual transactions.
4. Bring Your Own Toilet Paper and Hand Sanitizer
The bathrooms in China leave much to be desired; especially public bathrooms. Make sure you bring your own toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Most public bathrooms are very dirty, have squat toilets and no toilet paper. You can find “toilet paper to go” packs on Amazon.
The bathrooms in hotels and restaurants in dense urban areas were more likely to have western toilets and toilet paper. But anywhere off the beaten path, you’ll be glad you have your own toilet paper and hand sanitizer with you.
5. Don’t Drink the Water
For the most part, tap water in China is not drinkable. Bottled water can be purchased very cheaply at most restaurants and stores.
6. Don’t Tip in China
The Chinese do not tip, so you shouldn’t either. Although it will probably feel weird not to tip, it’s not expected. We even had a waiter chase after us, to give back 4 Yuan (equal to around $0.60) that we had left.
7. Bargain For Everything
With the exception of upscale stores, everything can be bargained for in China. As a general rule of thumb, you can always start negotiations at 50% off or even more. And if you don’t like their price, just walk away. Almost always, the salesperson will end up asking you back and giving you the price you want.
A buddy and I bought t-shirts for our wives that had a starting price of $45 each. After some expert negotiating by my buddy and walking away, the salesperson sold us the shirts for $3 each!
8. Book a Private Tour
Booking a private tour is fairly inexpensive and takes the stress out of planning. Tours ensure that you can focus on having fun and not worry about the things that make traveling complicated when you don’t speak the language.
The tour guides I had on my trip were excellent. They enable you to skip long lines, avoid tourist traps and can give you suggestions for other things to do. I also really liked talking to them to learn more about the history and culture of China.
9. Traffic is Inevitable
In Beijing especially, there’s traffic unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. At 8 a.m. on a weekday, it could take us 30 minutes just to exit our hotel and make it down the block to the first stop light. Each tour, no matter where we were going, would be 2 to 3 hours of driving each way.
Beijing is also just enormous from an area perspective. The city is 6,490 square miles. That’s almost 13 times larger than Los Angeles or 27 times larger than Chicago. So if you think you can get from the northwest part of the city to the southeast part in 15 – 20 minutes, think again. During rush hour, that could take hours!
We sat at a stop light in rush hour trying to get to dinner one night. We literally didn’t move for 20 minutes, when we finally decided to just get out right in the middle of the street and walk.
10. Be Aggressive
The Chinese culture has a kind of free-for-all behavior when it comes to many things. This includes driving, where cars, mopeds and bikes are coming from all directions with little regard for pedestrians or traffic lights.
Another is waiting in lines. You’ll be standing in line at a restaurant and just when it should be your turn, out of nowhere someone will cut right in front of you. Or there may be no semblance of a line at all and it ends up being a big semi-circle pile up of people. The key is to remain calm, but know that you’ll need to stand your ground a little bit to ensure you get your turn.
Rules in China are just ridiculous. I do not get all that social media blocking. Thank God I have NordVPN on my phone and laptop, otherwise, it would be impossible to travel. You can try to get a discount with this code nordvpn.org/1yoffer I think it is not expired yet.