Before you travel to China – 10 must-know tips for first-time visitors
Recently I’ve had more and more people ask me about my trip to China earlier this year. My brother and I visited China in February, and I was completely blown away by the entire country – so much so that I can’t wait to get back and if it wasn’t for Christmas flights being so damn expensive from Australia then you bet I would be back on that place asap. There were many hours of of research (mostly from me as my brother just happily tagged along for the journey) when it came to knowing how to navigate China. I had a lot of preconceived ideas on how it would be… I knew there would be language barrier, more high-level tech and a struggle to connect to Google or Instagram. So, consider this the only blog post you will need to read and save for all those questions. Read on to discover the 10 essential questions every traveller asks before visiting China, plus tips on visas, transportation, food, culture and safety.
1) DO I NEED A VISA?
Many travellers will need to obtain a visa prior to entering China. As an Australian, we were able to enter China visa-free for up to 15 consecutive days for tourism, business, family visits or transit. Thankfully, as we only were in China for 12 days, we just made the cut! For stays longer than 15 days make sure you apply for a visa in advance via your local consulate. This is also your reminder to check that your passport has at least six month’s validity and you should have proof of sufficient funds and onward/return tickets.
2) WHAT APPS SHOULD I DOWNLOAD?
AliPay has everything you need on there. The catch phase is literally Simplify Your Life and for good reason because it does! Every time you enter a city and need a new metro card you can download it straight into AliPay and swipe like a normal card. It has all the metro cards saved in there. It also has every payment method you will need and DiDi in the app.
DiDi can be downloaded separately as well if it for some reason doesn’t work on AliPay.
Apple Maps works in China, fortunately. However, Google maps does not.
Baidu Maps is another alternative you should have downloaded in case Apple Maps doesn’t work for some reason.
WeChat is your main point of communicating with anyone back home and also locals in China.
Klook is another amazing app when it comes to getting the best online deal for activities and more. Use my code TRAVELLYKLOOK1 for an extra 10% discount on your bookings.
Trip.com can be used to book activities as well and often has great deals on hotels too!
Transport app tips:
Download these apps before you leave your country and familiarise yourself with them so you’re not as in shock when you arrive – like yo, the culture shock is enough to deal with.
Enable offline maps so you’re not having to use unnecessary internet data on them.
3) WHAT IS THE TRANSPORT LIKE?
Transportation was our biggest expense for our trip to China – see the full cost breakdown here. It might have been because I stuffed up and had to rebook a train ticket in the VIP sleeper class (so definitely check the dates of travel on your tickets!). The best way to travel around China is probably via train or plane. Overnight sleeper trains are very useful to save money on accommodation and also get you to your destination without losing a day of exploring. Make sure to pre-book your train travel via Trip.com or Klook. DiDi is the best app to have downloaded to get around anywhere. Our DiDi driver took us from Beijing to the Great Wall, waited in the car and then drop us back to Beijing. As mentioned above, AliPay can be used as your metro and bus card for any inner-city travel.
4) DOES ANYONE SPEAK ENGLISH?
I don’t think I’ve ever arrived to a country where nobody could understand me…which I understand is such a privileged thing to say. I realised when arriving in China that it was going to be a very interesting few weeks of attempting to communicate. Be aware that signs and menus are also most-likely never written in English. Use a translating app like Baidu (which works well without a VPN) or Google Translator (VPN needed) to scan the menu and convert to your language of choice. These apps are also great for speaking between your DiDi drivers or ordering food at a restaurant. I’m pretty sure the most common thing I ever translated was, “This is too spicy” especially when trying the spicy Chongqing hotpot (see here). Don’t be scared to get amongst the culture by immersing yourself in highlights such as tea ceremonies, temples and historical sites, festivals and local customs. When we arrived to Xi’An I saw everyone getting dressed up in traditional Hanfu outfits and I really wanted to try it as well, but didn’t want to be disrespectful. Just to let you know that if you want to do that experience too, you can! I checked! Message me on Instagram if you would like the details of the place I went to.
5) IS CHINA SAFE?
China is generally very safe for tourists, with low levels of violent crime. However it is common for first-time travellers to have these concerns. We never ran into any trouble on our travels around China. Most safety concerns are related to petty theft, traffic, or scams in crowded areas.
Key safety tips:
Keep valuables secure – Use hotel safes and stay alert in busy markets, subways, and tourist spots.
Watch the roads – Traffic can be chaotic in cities. Cross the streets carefully, and use ride-hailing apps like DiDi to avoid confusion around your desired destination.
Avoid scams – Stick to official tours, avoid unsolicited guides, and negotiate fares beforehand. Scams don’t seem that common in China though but best to be aware.
6) WILL I NEED TRAVEL INSURANCE?
As I have preached before, it is essential to get travel insurance no matter where you are travelling to. Throughout my travels I have use many travel insurance companies. I find Freely to be the easiest to navigate at the moment, especially for any add-ons like tech you might need to insure or if you’re doing any miscellaneous activities like travelling on a bike or ski/snowboarding. It’s very simple to download the app and select your trip.
7) HOW DOES A VPN WORK?
The VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a fun one. Since China’s internet is heavily restricted by the Great Firewall (yes, it’s called that. yes, I think that’s iconic) it means that most popular sites such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Netflix and basically anything and everything you use regularly back at home.
If you do your own research it will come up with companies like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Astrill and Surfshark, so it’s really a choice-your-own-adventure when it comes to VPN. We opped for ExpressVPN as it had the most reliable reviews on Reddit (yep, Reddit is my travel bible). However, it must be noted that the performances of these often fluctuate so it really depends.
8) WHICH SIM CARD SHOULD I GET?
Similar to travel insurance, there are a bunch of sim cards you can grab for your travels to China. I always opt for an e-sim as they are very quick to download and set up. For China, I would recommend either ESIM.SM or AIRALO (use code TRAVEL0704 for a little discount). Make sure to also set this up before you depart.
9) DO THEY TAKE CASH IN CHINA?
Let’s just say that cash ain’t king in China. We barely used cash when travelling around China. Which to be honest was a bit sad, as I feel like one of the best things about travel is trying to understand currencies and paying in cash. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t hold any cash on you. You definitely should withdraw a small amount, nothing crazy, for paying for drinks in random mountain villages or market stalls if needed. But yeah, it’s not essential as everything is pretty much done with AliPay. Even street beggars aren’t taking cash, in fact, I encountered a lot of them with printed out AliPay QR codes. I found that to be quite interesting.
10) ALWAYS HAVE TISSUES ON YOU
This one is more of a statement than a question and I should have made this point earlier on, so if you’ve stuck around until here then consider yourself lucky. You MUST always carry tissues or toilet paper (I guess it’s the same thing) on you because damn I got caught in some quite tragedy situations, for both myself and my brother who had to always sneak into the female toilets to hand me over a tissue. Don’t be fooled by the luxury toilet rooms that influencers keep showing you online, there are still some hectic ones where toilet paper is scarce. I would like this opportunity to give a special mention to the kind stranger who gave my brother a packet of tissues that one time because there was no supermarket or kiosk nearby and I was…struggling.
I hope you have enjoyed this blogpost and that these tips have helped you to prepare for your trip to China. Make sure to be following Travelly Concierge on socials (below) for more travel content.
As always, stay safe + travel always,
Love Elly-Grace x
All pictures taken by Elly-Grace from Travelly Concierge on Olympus Pen EPL-7 and iPhone 15 Pro Max. This blogpost contains affiliate links.
