15 things i wish i knew before travelling china
Here I am referring to mainland China, as the ‘the special administrative regions’ of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau make them much easier to foreign travellers to visit.
China is one of the most beautiful countries I have visited, it has such a strong sense of identity and culture. The delicious food, the incredible landscapes, the unbelievable ancient historical artifacts – all make China an amazingly and intriguing place to visit.
I came to Hong Kong in March 2020, at the height of the pandemic and due to closed borders and limited flights to my home country – i decided to make it my home and have loved every minute.
During the many lockdowns we endured I was unable to make it into mainland China. Since these restrictions have been listed I have managed to make it over once.
There are several things that make mainland China a difficult place to travel. First off – the visa. For a UK passport holder it was a long and expensive process. Add in the sheer size of the country, complicated electronic payments ruling over cash and the VERY essential VPN – things can quickly get a little overwhelming in the planning stages of the trip.
From turning up in Beijing not realising that I had to book the Summer Palace tickets 3 months beforehand, to not fully realising ‘no Google’ meant ‘no maps, no Gmail’ – here is everything that I wish I knew before travelling to China!!
15 things i wish i knew
before travelling to china
- Bye Bye Google
Yes we know now that Google is not allowed in mainland China, however I had not fully realised that this meant that Google maps and Gmail were also not available. Made for quite the difficult trip I can tell you.
2. You can use Microsoft Bing instead.
Lets face it, it is not as good. BUT If you somehow end up without a VPN (ahem…like me…) you can use the Chinese search engine to search Bing, and then use that to search.
3. Not all VPNs work
Even some of the more well known ones do not work, or have major data limitations.
Make sure your VPN is up and running and has the unlimited data option. You will most likely have to pay for this so just accept it – money well spent!
4. Almost nobody will speak English
I did not meet anyone who spoke any English outside of my fellow travellers in Beijing. Either people are too shy to use the English that they know, or they did not speak any. Even the young hostel receptionists did not speak any which I was a little surprised by.
5. People will assume you speak Mandarin
I had fully expected for nobody to speak English, however the huge surprise was that as most people do not actually leave China – they had no idea that others would not speak Mandarin. People I met thought that I could not understand their northern Chinese accent and would instead write down what they were trying to tell me. As you can imagine – this did not help! The effort was much appreciated however.
The tourists that do come here without a tour can general speak some mandarin, at least conversational. I have never felt more ignorant in all of my travels. I did find that everyone was so patient with me using translate and I was so appreciative!!
6. People will think that the virus is from the USA.
Even the Chinese I met who were educated abroad believed this. I won’t get into it, but this was a surprise.
7. The crowds are overwhelming
I am not much of a city girl, however i have lived on Hong Kong island for over 4 years now, so I thought I was used to crowds and tight living. Mainland China? It is hard to imagine the sheer number of people who live in China, even a small city is a few million people. The number of people in the streets, in train stations, walking around is overwhelming.
The tourist destinations are something else, I have been to a lot of tourist attractions in my travels but none have had the overwhelming tour groups that I experienced in China.
8. If you look foreign – you are a tourist attraction
Many Chinese do not leave China, and depending on the province that they live they may never see a foreigner. Expect photographs, people taking photos with you, wanting to touch your hair and facetime their relatives. At first it is scary but after getting used to setting some polite but firm boundaries it gets easier.
Don’t feel bad about saying know to photos on some days. At first I felt awful for doing this, but at Jinshaling seeing the Great Wall of China if I had not refused photos then I probably would still be there now.
9. There is so much to see and do – you cannot do it all!
China is a beautiful country and also absolutely HUGE. You simply cannot do everything just prioritise the things that you most want to see.
10. Electronic payments are the norm here
WeChat and Alipay are the two main forms of payment, but they are more than just electronic payment systems.
They are search engines, ways to buy entry tickets, transport payments and the main form of communication.
Cash is used much more than I was led to believe before I visited , so it is definitely worth taking cash, but not everywhere has change so it can mean you really overpay.
You can now connect a foreign credit card to Alipay and WeChat but i found that even my Hong Kong card only worked about a ⅓ of the time. Apparently you can hire tourism companies to help you set all of this up.
11. Lots of tourist attractions are ticketed and sell out months in advance
Some of the tickets can only be purchased on WeChatt and you may need a tourism company or a Chinese speaker/reader to help you book tickets. Do not be like me and turn up in Beijing without having booked anything and not being able to visit even the museum.
12. Hostels are more expensive and not all accommodation accepts foreigners.
I found hostels here to be pretty expensive as not all accommodation will accept foreigners due to the extra work required to register all non-chinese travellers. You will need loads of help from the hostels works so it really is worth the money – their patience using translate with you really is impressive!
13. Do not visit and tourist site during a Chinese holiday.
Ever. If possible check the low seasons or any days/times that are less busy. Generally people do not get up early so I would definitely suggest going as soon as things open.
14. I wish that I had gotten a tour company to help me set things up
Now I would consider myself an experience traveller, so i generally avoid alot of tourist conviecens and like to do things myself. However, i really think that it would have been much more enjoyable if I would have gotten a company to help me set up some tickets for the main attractions in Beijing and helped me with a bank account to make sure that my electronic payments worked more often on buses.
The other foreigners I had met in hostels all had a Chinese speaking friend or family member help them purchase tickets for the main attractions. Paying around USD50 for help setting up my electronic payments and getting tickets really would have been a small price to pay in hindsight.
15. People are helpful. Really helpful.
In all of my travels I had never needed as much help as I did here. Mostly because of my own ignorance in not learning the language, and being an idiot and not preparing adequately.
Strangers would help me get onto the correct trains and buses, a host made me dumplings to take to the wall for free because she knew I had no way of paying, a bus of people all figuring out where I wanted to go and waited whilst I found the correct accommodation. The sort of kindness that you remember, that becomes the highlight of the trip and when you get home makes you think how you can be a little kinder to strangers.
