China is a quite large country by both land area and population, the country has thousands of interesting tourist destinations, you can always find some attractions there that might be of your interest.
In the same time, China is also a very different country, you will encounter many things that can be rarely found in other countries.
Below are 12 of the most important things to know before you travel to China, if you have never visited China before, knowing these things will make your trip much easier.
1. Get your entry visa
China requires travelers from the vast majority of countries in the world to have an entry visa to enter, only the citizens from a few countries can travel to China without a visa, Singapore, Japan, and the United Arabia Emirates are among these visa-free countries.
If you are from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, or Argentina, then the good thing is that the visa will be valid for up to 10 years, this means you apply for once and can enter China freely in the next 10 years without applying again.
To apply for the visa, go find an embassy or consulate of China that is nearest to you, and submit the files for application, which include an application form, your passport, flight itinerary, etc.
More details can be found on the website of China Embassy.
2. Use VPN to access blocked websites
As living in an era of internet, most of us can’t live without internet. Although China has the largest quantity of internet users in the world, and WiFi spots can be widely found at many public places, coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, the content on the web that accessed from within the country is heavily filtered, and as you might have already known of, most of popular foreign websites are blocked in this country, these sites include Google, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and many more.
This issue may set back many travelers, however, to access these sites is not difficult at all, check out this guide to learn how to access the blocked websites in China.
3. Best places to visit (for first-timers)
China is very large, the country has dozens of cities with population of over 5 million, and there are numerous attractions worth to visit, including natural views, ancient buildings and towns, and modern attractions, it’s impossible for a visitor to visit all of those attractions in one trip, so first-timers need to pick a few cities to visit first.
The best cities for first timer to visit are Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an, learn more about these cities at here.
If you have sufficient time in China, you can also try to visit Chongqing, it’s a very interesting and futuristic city.
And also take a look at these 8 most beautiful and interesting attractions in China.
4. Try to take high-speed rail instead of flights
China is proud of its High-Speed Rail, the country has the most expansive network of high-speed rail in the world, and the speeds of those trains is the fastest in the world, many types of those trains could reach a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour. By comparison, the maximum speed of normal trains is under 100 kilometers per hour.
The average speed of airplane is 800 kilometers per hour, but in many cases traveling by high-speed rail is much faster than flights, because airports are typically built in suburban areas, while train station are near the city center, usually it takes much longer time to reach an airport than a train station. Additionally passengers need to wait for about half an hour in the plane before the plane taking off, these factors make flights slower than high speed rail.
So if you want to visit a city that is not very far from the city you are visiting, for example, you are in Xi’an and the next city you want to visit is Chongqing, Wuhan, or Changsha, then High-Speed Rail is the best option for you, it will be definitely faster than flights. In fact, many people choose taking High-Speed Rail over flights even when traveling for a longer distance, like Beijing to Shanghai, for such distances, High Speed Train takes only about 1 hour longer than flights, but much cheaper.
If you want to travel by High Speed Rail, you can click here to book the train tickets with no handling fees (most other platforms charge handling fees to foreigners).
5. About the language barrier
In China, Mandarin is the most used language, but English is seen as the main language spoken by foreigners, so most signs found in public places, roads, all have English translation, and the audio notifications on subway is always followed with English translation, these things will make your trip less difficult.
Although English is rarely spoken among Chinese people, the language is widely taught in most schools in the country, because English is one of the most important subjects of National University Entrance Examination, almost every Chinese learned English when he or she was studying in school.
So that if you encounter some difficulties caused by the language barrier, you can try to ask a high school student for help, in most cases they will be pleased to help you since they get a chance to practice what they learned in school. Due to the lack of practice, their listening skills is generally not good, you should speak slowly and use basic words, it will be better to write down or type the question and show the text to them.
Some smartphone apps can also help you a lot, such as Google Translate and Pleco, the apps can even let you scan the Chinese words that you see on a paper, wall, or on some other places and then translate them.
6. You should know many Chinese people speak dialects
Unlike most other countries, dialects is very popular in China (But not as popular as ten years ago), there are thousands of dialects in China, in some provinces of southern region of China, almost every county or city has its own dialect, luckily these dialects are only existing in vocal, all of them use same text as Mandarin, and these years, more Chinese people began to speak Mandarin, though many of them have a variety of accents.
So just remember that not all of Chinese say standard Chinese or Mandarin, don’t let those dialects or accents confuse you when you are on a train, bus, subway or other public places, especially if you are learning Mandarin.
7. Avoid the Chinese public holidays
It’s recommended to avoid visiting China during the public holidays of China, on those days, the tourist attractions will be crowded with Chinese people, it will be very hard to see the scenery or other things you wish to see, as the views will be blocked by numerous bodies of visitors.
However, if you love the bustling and noise, you can have a try to visiting there by Chinese holidays.
Check the table below to see the dates of public holidays in China in 2023 and 2024.
| Mid-Autumn Festival + National Day (2023) | Sep 29th – Oct 6th 2023 |
| New Year (2024) | Dec 30 2023 – Jan 1 2024 |
| Spring Festival | Feb 9th – 15th 2024 |
| Tomb-Sweeping Day | Apr 4th – 6th 2024 |
| Labor Day | May 1st – 5th 2024 |
| Dragon Boat Festival | Jun 8th – 10th 2024 |
| Mid-Autumn Festival | Sep 15th – 17th 2024 |
| National Day | Oct 1st – 7th 2024 |
8. You need a local SIM card
Since the free communication tools like WhatsApp can’t be directly used in China due to the blocking, traditional phone calling is still the only reliable option to communicate with your relatives in home country.
However, the international roaming fee can be quite high, and the internet connection will not be very good if you use a foreign sim card, that’s why you need a local sim card, by using a local SIM card you can enjoy the fast and stable connection, and without international roaming charge, a local card makes it more convenient and much cheaper to communicate with your family and friends. You can click here to get a 4G SIM Card for China.
In the same time, you can also spend a few minutes to learn how to unblock WhatsApp in China. Although the service is blocked in China, it’s very easy to circumvent the block, with WhatsApp you can enjoy free international communication in places with WiFi connection, today most hotels, restaurants, malls and other public places in China offer free WiFi.
9. Try to ride shared bikes
Cycling is one of best ways to explore the city, in Chinese cities, it’s very easy to do that because you do not need having your own bike, since bike sharing is very popular in Chinese cities, especially in some large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, in those cities, you can even hardly to find someone riding his own bike, almost every bike being ridden in those cities is a shared bike.
Unlike the bike sharing systems in other countries, here in China the shared bikes can be parked at any place you like, you don’t need to find a station for parking, you can ride the bike to anywhere, this just make the trip more convenient.
The two largest bike sharing operators are Mobike and Ofo, if you want to explore a city by bike, it’s fairly easy to use, just download the app and pay the deposit, then the map in the app will tell you where to find the bikes, the only thing that you may think inconvenient is it requires a local bank account to use, however it’s not difficult at all to create an account.
10. Use online maps
Online maps is very helpful for travelers, especially in a country where most people can only speak their own language. The method of asking a middle school student for help is not always useful, because in most times they are living inside their school campuses.
Although Google Maps is blocked in China, it still can provide users the detailed information of transportation in Chinese cities, including the routes, time needed, which lines of metro to take, and other related information. The only additional thing you need to do is using a VPN service.
11. Always carry cash instead of credit cards
Although Visa and MasterCard are widely accepted around the world, the condition in China is totally different, the country has its own bank card system, which is used by almost everyone in the country, very few people use Visa or MasterCard. In addition, many people in China prefer to pay with mobile apps like Wechat, so they don’t need to carry cash or bank cards everyday. For these reasons you will find that almost no retailers in this country accept Visa or MasterCard, so you should to prepare enough Chinese Yuan cash for your trip, you can get Chinese Yuan cash from your local banks, or get them from ATMs in Chinese cities, but not every ATM has English translation, it’s better to know some basic Mandarin.
12. Never buy smartphones in China
As Google is blocked in China, the Android smartphones sold in Chinese market all don’t have Google Play pre-installed, and also don’t support the installation of Google Play Service due to the lack of a framework, which means you can’t download apps, even you can download the apk file from other sites, many Android apps still can’t run on those smartphones without Google Play Service, to install it you must root the device to add in the lacked framework, but rooting has become really difficult nowadays.
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