China travel advice and trip tips

Travel tips China (travel advice):

Use a bike. It's an ecological mode of transportation, it's cheap, and it's part of Chinese culture. In cities like Beijing it's almost obligatory. In other cities, such as Shanghai, it's bit more complicated.
Have as much as possible written down in Chinese. Whenever you need to buy tickets or take a taxi, it's best to have someone at the hotel write down what you want to do in Chinese. It will save you many a headache!
Always carry a hotel card with you: since few people speak English, if you get lost, you can always show people the card so that they can direct you to your hotel.
Learn their most important gestures and symbols: before travelling learn especially how to express numbers with your hands. It is completely different from how we do it in the West and will be of immense assistance.
Taxis are safe and cheap, but more than a few taxi drivers are swindlers. Only get in taxis with meters and always ask for a receipt. If there is no meter, always negotiate the price before getting in!
Be patient: even with Chinese who know English, communication will never be fluid in China, so have lots of patience!
Have enough cash on you at all times: most places don't accept credit cards, and it's not always easy to find automatic tellers.
Careful with day trips designed for Chinese tourists. They are much cheaper than ones for Westerners but take hours to get to the destination. On the way, they make numerous stops to more or less force the passengers to buy all sorts of nonsensical things. It's much better to organize the trip yourself.
Our suggested itinerary around China is the 23 days route.

Tipping

Chinese don't tip, so for the good of future generations of travellers, don't be the first to leave to do so!

Electrical plug/outlet China (voltage):

220V. 2 flat male vertical or 2 flat male horizontals and 1 rectangular male vertical.

Buy a universal plug converter.

Language:

Most Chinese don't speak English, and hand gestures don't always mean the same thing as they do in the West. Below we list some basic words in Mandarin (the most widespread dialect, though hundreds of languages and dialects are spoken throughout the country), as well as the way to express numbers using your hands.

Remember to have as much as possible written down in Chinese. Whenever you need to buy tickets or take a taxi, it's best to have someone at the hotel write down what you want to do in Chinese. It will save you many a headache!

If you are a curious person and you like to learn a little bit about every language whereever you go; we recomend that you to take a diccionary with you.

Always carry a hotel card with you: since few people speak English, if you get lost, you can always show people the card so that they can direct you to your hotel.

Here we give you some basic words that you may want to know:

Yes: Shi
No: Bu
Hello: Ni hao
Goodbye: Zai jian
Thank you: Xie xie
You're welcome: Bu yong xie
Sorry: Dui bu qi
Me: Wo
You: Ni
Beer: Pi jiu
Price: Chiá chien
Hotel: Lu kuan

How to express numbers with your fingers:

Using two hands, you can indicate numbers up to one hundred!

How to connect to some Internet pages and apps in China?

A large number of websites and apps are blocked by the "Great Firewall", by the Chinese government. Among the websites that you can't access there are Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Also, Google Play is blocked; it means that you won't be able to download any app from it. Youâ??ll be able to access the App Store, but won't be able to find all apps.

Instead of Google - that is blocked - they use Baidu and instead of YouTube, they use Youku. In both cases when you search something, results will be what most Chinese people search. Instead of WhatsApp, they use WeChat, that you can download if you want to talk with your family and friends when you are traveling. Theyâ??ll need to install the app too.

If you like traveling without being connected to social media or if you are not a very social media person, you don't need to keep reading. On the other hand if you love to keep in contact with your family and friends while you are traveling thru social media or WhatsApp, do not worry, there is a solution to access these pages.

How to access Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc from China?
You can install a VPN (Virtual Private Network), that will masks your I.P. address so that your phone/laptop appears to be connected from the United States, Japan or any other country even if you are in China. Using a VPN is completely legal.

When do you need to install the VPN in your phone?
We recommend installing the VPN before traveling to China, because if you wait until you get to China, it will be more difficult to install the VPN app on your smart phone, as Google Play is blocked and the Apple App Store doesn't let you download most of these VPN apps when you're in China!

Which one is the best VPN and which one should I choose?
If you Google VPN services on Google, youâ??ll find a lot of solutions, however we recommend you to choose one of these three: Express VPN, VyprVPN and NordVPN. We recommend them for these reasons:

They work: there are a lot of VPN services that don't work in China.
They are fast: you don't need to worry about Internet speed with these three.
They are stable: Once you're connected, itâ??s very rare to lose the connection (this is a major issue with most VPNs out there).
Post-sale service: If you have any doubt or problem with your connection, you can chat with a technician at any moment.
Large number of protocols and servers: It's an important detail because the Great Firewall is being constantly updated. Therefore, even if your VPN works today, nobody can assure you that it will work tomorrow. Having the possibility to choose from different protocols and servers provides you with much more flexibility.

In general Express VPN is the one that has better benefits (speed, servers, etc), also it has an online chat 24h for anything you need. It has a price of 11€ ($12,95/month). The only limitation is that if you are more than 3 people and you want to be connected at the same time, you wonâ??t be able (you can purchase a second VPN then). So if you are more than three, we recommend you to go for VyprVPN that for 10,50€ you can connect 5 devices at the same time, or NordVPN that for more or less the same price you can connect up to 6 devices simultaneously. VyprVPN has a cheap plan (for three devices) for 7,95€.

â??Express VPN and NordVPN have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Time zone in China:

GMT + 7 round the country (GMT=London, GMT + 1 =Paris...).

See current time in China.