A guide to your first time in China
Still undecided? Here's my pros and cons list.
PROS
- Amazing and super cheap food
- Safety in big cities
- Very interesting culture and history
- Great public transport
- Trains and flights connecting all major destinations
CONS
- Nobody really speaks english
- There isn't really privacy in public places
- If you don't have a proper VPN, you have to use Chinese apps
- The culture shock is significant
Go read my article to learn more about what my experience was like!
How to overcome the language barrier
My biggest issue while in China was definitely the language barrier. I have been in countries where English isn't widely spoken before, but nowhere as bad as China. A "thank you" was already too much...
Although, most people, especially in hotels and restaurants, are equipped with a live-translation app, which saved us a lot of times. Keep in mind that they can be imprecise and they aren't great for haggling!
What helped us a lot was knowing some of the Hanzi, the Chinese characters, at least enough to distinguish meat types and to know what was very spicy. Luckily, if you order something weird the waiters usually let you know :)
Getting around the major cities
When it came to getting around, the biggest issue we had was addresses. Whether they were in english characters or in Chinese, sometimes there were multiple roads with the same name or the search engines just couldn't find them. I ended up downloading 2 different apps and using them both:
1. Amap - this has only a Chinese version! It's the main one that the locals use and it has everything, updated and in detail. You can type addresses in English here, but the results are all in Chinese. It was pretty accurate, so I often trusted the first result, but it did make mistakes sometimes.
It worked wonders to find restaurants and to show addresses in Chinese to the drivers (before we started using DiDi)
2. Mapsme - this app allows you to download the maps of a city/region and always have them on you, whether there is connection or not. It wasn't always updated with the latest locations and it didn't take addresses in Chinese, but it worked pretty well. Since it's offline, it doesn't show many restaurants but most of the attractions are on it.
Remember, Google Maps doesn't work! Even if you download the maps in advance, the metro lines aren't updated, so you can't use it. Apple Maps on the other hand is very precise and accurate - but I don't have an iphone, so I can't give you advice on that.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
The Chinese metro is the best I have ever taken: and it's kind of obvious, since Beijing and Shanghai are the largest metros in the world. They are cheap, they are on time and very safe.
Although, there were a couple of annoying things:
- First of all, they close very early. Some lines don't run after 11PM. So, if you are eating out and plan to get back late, they aren't your best bet. I do suggest checking in the stations, as some stay open for longer!
- Second of all, they have security checks at every single entrance, meaning you can't really "run for it". In any case, nobody dares to do that in China, so when you hear the sound of the doors closing, I would just opt to take the next train.
The machines to buy tickets all have an English option and once you enter your destination, it automatically calculates which fare you have to pay. We used the metro even to get to Shanghai airport and it was super easy and convenient!
CHINESE "UBER"
One of my favorites things in China was DiDi! It's basically like Uber, just MUCH cheaper and better in some cases. The app takes addresses both in Chinese and English, and if you have WeChat you can pay through that.
When you enter a destination, it starts looking for drivers, already giving you an estimate of the cost: you can choose amongst different types of drivers, with different fares. It also includes taxis, which tend to be more expensive though.
You pay at the end: after the driver picks you up, the app goes into "driving mode", showing you the route, traffic conditions, traffic lights and speed limits. That way they don't overprice the ride and sometimes you can get off earlier, in case traffic makes it slower than walking.
You can also book rides in advance, but I wouldn't do it unless it's very early in the morning. Another great feature is that, when you sign up for the first time, you get very good discounts: save them for your more expensive rides!
DiDi was a game changer. Especially when we wanted to stay out late, it became our to-go-to.
Trains and domestic flights
The main thing to know about taking trains or flights in China, is that the level of security will be very high. Even to enter train stations, you will need to show your passport and to have your things go through a metal detector - therefore, get there early!
The train tickets can only be booked 2 weeks in advance: if you find websites that sell them before, it simply means that they will book them for you and charge you a fee for the service.
For very busy times or high-speed trains, the tickets sell out very fast, so having someone do the booking for you can be useful. The official website is in Chinese but it has an English version! Unfortunately, the latter often doesn't work, so it can be a hustle getting the tickets yourself.
Domestic flights are relatively cheap and fast, which is why we mostly opted to fly over taking trains. The regional trains are very cheap and they even travel during the night, but depending on where you go they can take very very long.
We flew with AirChina and everything went pretty smoothly. There was a bit of a delay on one of the flights, but it seems to be pretty common, so we expected it to happen.
Suzhou noodles - Suzhou is a city nearby Shanghai; you can reach with a quick train ride!
Scams
I'm happy to say that scams aren't a common thing in China (at least in my experience). I had heard pretty awful stories about them, but nothing really happened to us.
The only thing that we encountered was taxi drivers trying to overprice their rides: saying they didn't have a taxometer or that it was broken. With DiDi we were able to know what price to expect, so we knew right away if it was a scam.
Unless it was a touristy destination (such as the Great Wall), shop owners had fair prices and stuck to what they said. Haggling is a very common thing, but not as stressful as in other places.
My personal suggestion is to start very low (25% of what they say) and not pay more than half of the original price they gave you.
Food and Alcohol
As mentioned above, food in China was amazing. Not only did we get to try the traditional dishes, but also new things that we had never seen before.
Ask the locals for advice: it's the best way to get the real experience and not fall into tourist traps! Our worst meal was right outside of YuYuan Gardens in Shanghai, in what was clearly a very touristy spot with overpriced food - but then we walked 200m and found a market with some unique dumplings. This is to say that there is no rule. But the more that you explore and walk around, the more you learn what to look for!
TIP: A lot of buildings have food courts on the upper levels or undeground - make sure to check them out!
Beer was a big disappointment. Chinese beers are very light and watery, with no taste. We kept trying different ones, in hope for a better option, but we never found it.
There are very few bars that serve craft beer and it's always a bit pricey (as most of it is imported). Here's where we went in Beijing:
- Great Leap Brewery
- Closer
WeChat (Weixin)
In China everything works through WeChat (or a substitute like Alipay). The app is used to pay, to chat, to book monuments/museum visits and everything else you can think of. It is pretty easy to use and very convenient, as you have everything in one place.
To use it, you need to have a Chinese number - which is not simple to get, but it does make your life much easier. You can activate Alipay without a number, but from what I have heard you will miss out on some functions.
You NEED WeChat for most things - all the restaurants we went to didn't take credit cards and unless you have cash (which is not accepted sometimes), you are lost without the app.
Same thing goes for booking appointments: monuments have their own profile on WeChat and their websites all link to the app for the booking.
It sounds annoying, but once you set up the app with your phone number and your passport, you won't even think about it anymore.
Hiking in China
China is huge and most people are concentrated in the big cities, therefore I was very keen on exploring the countryside and its National Parks. We made plans to go to Zhangjiajie National Park, the one with the unique mountains that inspired the Avatar movies... And we were kind of disappointed.
From a natural perspective, the Park was awesome: its peaks were actually unique and like nothing I had ever seen before. We even got to see macaques, which was on my bucket list. But the infrastructure around AND inside the Park took something away from it...
All the trails had pavement, anytime there was incline there would be stairs and there were cameras way too often. Inside the Park there were elevators, cable cars and buses taking people up and down the mountains - making it a touristy destination rather than a place for people to hike and get lost in nature.
I love doing research before a trip, but I had avoided looking too much into the Park because I didn't want to see all the pictures and ruin it. I probably would have found this information online, because apparently all the National Parks are like this, but in a way I am kind of happy I didn't know about it.
Despite everything I just mentioned, I would still go to Zhangjiajie to see the mountains and get some fresh air. The experience was unforgettable and even though it wasn't the hiking I expected, I would still suggest it to others.
TIP: we went there in December and the place was pretty busy from our perspective - I would absolutely avoid it in the peak season if I were to go there again!
"All eyes on you"
If you read my pros and cons list you will find both the word "safety" and"lack of privacy" in it. I had read about the crazy number of cameras in the country, especially in Beijing, but I couldn't imagine it would be THAT many.
Everywhere, every 10 steps, there was a pole with multiple cameras on it. Like I mentioned above, even on the hiking trails!
It's very obvious in the beginning and you can't do anything but notice them... But you do partially get used to them at some point. Also because it's the system that makes the country so safe, in particular the metro stations.
After going through customs and getting our passports, faces and fingerprints scanned, we realized that the cameras were already able to identify us. It made things smoother at the entrance to monuments/parks, but it also meant that our location was "known" at all times.
It didn't honestly make much of a difference, but it's definitely one of those things that makes you think. I thought it deserved a paragraph in this guide, as it's something that you should know to expect before you go to China. That said: just enjoy your trip! Travelling to Asia for the first time was amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better country to start with.
Have fun in China and don't eat too many dumplings!
Giorgia
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