Can you use Uber in China?
Opening the Uber app in Beijing or Shanghai will find no drivers. Uber lost the Chinese ride-hailing war and sold its local operation to…
Answers
One question, one page, answered in the first two sentences. These are the things people search three days before flying.
Is tap water safe?
The water leaving a Chinese treatment plant is usually treated to a reasonable standard. The problem is what happens between there and your…
Do I need a VPN?
This is the question most often answered badly, because the honest answer is conditional and most guides give a flat yes. The condition is…
Do credit cards work?
China skipped credit cards. It went from cash straight to QR codes in the 2010s, and the overwhelming majority of urban transactions now…
Is China safe?
Chinese cities are heavily policed and extensively camera-monitored. Whatever one thinks of that in general, its effect on street crime is…
Do you tip?
The bill is the bill. Chinese service staff are paid a wage rather than a tipped minimum, and the transaction is understood to be complete…
Is English spoken?
English is taught throughout the Chinese school system, so a great many people have studied it. Far fewer use it, and confidence drops…
Power bank rules
Two separate rules apply, and travellers usually only know the first. The international rule, which is the same everywhere: lithium power…
Police registration
The requirement applies to every foreign national in China, on any visa or visa-free entry. The window is 24 hours in cities, extended to…
Station arrival time
The instinct from European rail — turn up five minutes before, walk to the platform — does not transfer. Chinese railway stations are built…
Is Airbnb available?
Airbnb operated in mainland China for several years and withdrew its domestic listings in 2022, citing the cost and complexity of the…
Plug adapter
The useful thing to know is that Chinese wall sockets are usually combination sockets: a single fitting with slots for both flat two-pin…
How much cash?
Carrying a large amount of cash in China is a solution to a problem that no longer exists, and it creates a new one — you become someone…
Booking train tickets
Two routes, and the choice is a genuine trade-off rather than an obvious one. The official app: 12306 China Railway's own app. It now has a…
Which hotels take foreigners
This catches people out because it looks like discrimination and is not. Every guest in a Chinese hotel is registered with the local Public…
Vaccinations
This page is orientation, not medical advice. Requirements depend on your medical history, your route and how long you are staying, and a…
Drones
The gap between "can I bring it" and "can I use it" is wider in China than almost anywhere, and travellers routinely carry a drone across…
Is street food safe?
The reflex to avoid street food entirely costs you the best breakfast in the country and does not meaningfully reduce your risk — a busy…
Alipay for foreigners
China skipped cards and went straight from cash to QR codes. Alipay and WeChat Pay are not a convenience there — they are the default, and…
ATMs in China
A rejected card at a Chinese ATM usually means you picked the wrong machine, not that your card is blocked. The network coverage is…
Is China expensive
China is not a backpacker-cheap country in the way parts of Southeast Asia are, but it delivers far more for the money than its economic…
Bargaining
The advice to "always haggle in China" is a decade out of date and was never true of most transactions. Modern urban China runs on fixed,…
Vegetarian in China
China has a deep vegetarian tradition through Buddhism and one of the world's great repertoires of vegetable cooking. It also has a default…
Ordering without Chinese
Ordering is far less of a barrier than most visitors fear, because China solved the problem for its own domestic tourists first — millions…
Baijiu
Baijiu is the most-consumed spirit in the world and almost unknown outside China. It is typically bottled somewhere between forty and sixty…
Leaving food
This is one of the etiquette questions where the old rule and current practice pull in opposite directions, and the honest answer sits…
What not to do
Most of what visitors worry about is not an issue. You will be forgiven almost anything as an obvious foreigner making an obvious effort.…
Bowing in China
This one is worth stating plainly because the mistake is so common, and because getting it wrong is more awkward than doing nothing at all.…
Beijing's two airports
This trips up more visitors than any other Beijing logistics question, because both airports are called "Beijing" and they are nowhere near…
Pudong to the city
Shanghai has two airports and they behave very differently. PVG (Pudong) handles most international arrivals and is far east of the centre.…
Paying for the metro
Chinese metros are excellent — clean, frequent, cheap, signposted in English in every major city. Paying for them is the only part that…
Where to stay in Beijing
Beijing is enormous and laid out as a series of ring roads, so the wrong base means an hour of travel before each day starts. Choose by…
Where to stay in Shanghai
Shanghai divides at the river. Puxi on the west bank is the older city where most of the character lives; Pudong on the east is the skyline…
Capital Airport to the city
Capital sits north-east of the city and is well connected. The decision is essentially train or taxi, and the train usually wins. The…
Metro security checks
This surprises almost every first-time visitor, because no Western metro system does it. It is completely routine, applies to every…
Shanghai Maglev
The Maglev is a genuine engineering landmark — magnetically levitated, frictionless, and quicker than anything else carrying passengers on…
Where to stay in Xi'an
Xi'an is unusually easy to choose a base in, because the old city is still enclosed by its Ming walls and almost everything you want is…
Getting around Chengdu
Chengdu has expanded its metro at remarkable speed, and the result is one of the easier large Chinese cities to move around. The metro…
eSIM and the firewall
Search this question and you will find a dozen confident pages saying yes. Almost all of them are published by companies selling eSIMs. The…