My family and I just got back from China. This was my second time in China, but my kids’ first time – and I wanted to make sure I was prepared. We took advantage of the 144 hour transit visa, which gave us five days (four nights) to explore Beijing and cross a bucket list item I had for the year: hike the Great Wall of China. While I would say that Americans really have nothing to fear with traveling to China and exploring the country (I think this fear illogically stems from media coverage and our current nationalism attitudes) I would say that China is not the most convenient place for Americans to visit and navigate, given technological restrictions and few people able to speak English. This post covers several tips I have if you are planning a trip to China and want to be best prepared.
My tips are listed in no particular order:
Tip #1: Get a roaming data package with your wireless carrier
We purchased roaming packages with our Thai wireless carrier prior to arrival in China – and the data worked seamlessly. Our carrier AIS offered 7 GB data for $11, which was substantially cheaper than AirAlo ($16.5 for 5GB) or Holafly ($20.7 for unlimited). While I didn’t compare the price or quality to the alternative SIM or eSIM options in Beijing Capital airport, I think spending $11 is a great price plus saves you the time (and hassle) of hunting around for SIM cards. The roaming package gave me 5G in the city and pretty quick 4G everywhere else, including sections of the Great Wall.
Tip #2: Make sure you have VPN on your devices
We already had ExpressVPN on our devices, since it’s a very important application to have as an expat (not just to use U.S. based streaming services but also to conduct financial transactions with U.S. institutions). But this was essential in China, in order for us to use our U.S. applications (e.g., Google Maps, Google Translate, YouTube) which otherwise would not work in China because of the “Great Firewall”. We used Google Maps and Translate a lot more frequently than their Chinese counterparts because these applications are more user-friendly and we didn’t need to constantly translate.
Tip #3: Download the right apps
I watched this YouTube video to download the right apps on my phone before entering China. The most essential are:
- AliPay – payment, pretty much accepted everywhere
- WeChat – payment also accepted everywhere; also important messaging app that we used to communicate with our driver.
- DiDi – ride-hailing app; we used this everywhere since none of our other ride hailing apps (Uber, Grab) worked in China.
The other apps I found helpful were:
- Baidu Maps 百度地图: Google Maps is superior to Baidu in pretty much every way for English speaking users with one notable exception – public transport. Given that Google Maps does not have real time train and bus time tables, Baidu Maps can route for you which, for example, subway to take and how many stops in order to get to your destination
- Dianping 大众点评: Google Maps also falls short in its crowd-sourced information and reviews of restaurants, cafes, shops, etc. We actually visited a restaurant that was permanently closed based on Google photos (that we later found out were three years old). This is where Dianping (Chinese version of Yelp) came in handy. While I think some of its reviews are rather gratuitous (e.g., a 4.8 rating is not where I would have rated), the number of reviews are plentiful and the photos are pretty accurate. The downside of the app: it’s all in Chinese, so you’ll have to take screenshots and Google translate them. Tip: Italian and Pizza restaurants are buried under the “Western” food category, which was easily overlooked in the main cuisine dropdown menu.
- Pleco Chinese Dictionary: I pretty much used Google Translate for all my Chinese-English-Chinese translations. But Pleco has one advantage – it works offline. Where there were spots where my phone did not have signal or I put on airplane mode to conserve data usage, I used Pleco to do some basic translations. It’s also a lot faster in case I needed to share a word with a DiDi driver or restaurant server.
Tip #4: Add a few credit cards to both AliPay and WeChat; make travel notifications
I found that the most frustrating part of my time in China was how to pay for things. It’s true that a major city like Beijing is truly cashless. We did not once exchange currency or pull out any CNY from the ATM. However, we found that the two major payment apps – AliPay and WeChat – while accepted everywhere, did not always work. I was at one retail shop at a mall trying to purchase some collectible toys for my kids and must have spent 15 minutes trying to pay. The shop, while a major brand in Asia, did not accept credit cards directly. I tried my American Express tied to WeChat and that didn’t work. I tried my Visa tied to AliPay and that didn’t work. I had to load another Visa onto AliPay to finally get the payment to go through. Another example of difficulty paying – Universal Studios Beijing. The website does not accept credit cards directly, either, and rejected both AliPay and WeChat. It wasn’t until I called American Express and implemented a travel notification (and waited 24 hours) that the payment went through with WeChat. My recommendation – preemptively add a few credit cards to both apps and notify your major card issuer that you’ll be in China; this should reduce the delays (and headaches) of payments being declined while at a store or restaurant.
Tip #5: Know your “number” for DiDi
This was my memorable #travelfail during my trip to China. After visiting Beijing’s Summer Palace, I called a DiDi to take us back to the hotel. But the driver, who did not speak any English, kept asking us for a four-digit “code” or a “number” (using his translation app). DiDi could not show him our desired destination without the number. I didn’t recall setting up a PIN with DiDi, so it wasn’t until he called DiDi customer support and I spoke English with the agent that I found out that the four-digit number was the last four digits of the phone number I used to set up on DiDi. Lesson Learned: the DiDi “number” to use, when asked, is the last four digits of your phone number!
Tip #6: Bring a mask, scented oils/creams, etc. to help manage smoke / odors
A lot of people, unfortunately, smoke in China. Our first hotel room was too smoky, so we asked the front desk to help re-locate us. And roughly half of the DiDi’s that we called were smoky inside the vehicle (or otherwise with bad odors, e.g., food, body odor, bad breath). If you are sensitive to smells, then I would definitely encourage you to wear a mask, preferably with some scented oils applied within the mask; I used a combination of a mask + jasmine oil and rolled down the windows in order to help me *survive* some of the horrible odors within some DiDis during some 20+ min drives around Beijing.
Summary
China is not the most accessible tourist destination to navigate. But that shouldn’t deter you from visiting the Great Wall of China or experiencing the other wonderful attractions the country has to offer. If you’re planning a trip there, then I hope using some of the above tips could save you some headaches and help make your trip just a little easier. Good luck with your travels!
~Lester T