Hi - I am booking a flight to HKG with an arrival time of 7PM. I have two options from here as I need to be in Shenzhen the day after. Would it be better to:

1. Take the train from West Kowloon to Shenzhen North right after the flight (and if this is recommended, how much time should I leave between arriving in HKG and the boarding time for the train?)

2. Stay the night in HKG and take the train in the morning.

I am aware that I need a decent buffer to go through the border checkpoint at West Kowloon. I think both would work fine but curious as to what others think! Thank you!

Hi looking for opinions and advice from anyone with similar experience. My wife and I live in the US where car seats are a must and travel to China to visit her family. However in China, from my experience, car seats are optional. Furthermore there is a lot of taxi travel to malls etc. Last time I visited with my 2yr old I was lenient to go with the flow - she rode in my lap often which made me uncomfortable. Planning another trip next summer with 2 kids now. I want to keep them safe but also not ruin the fun of traveling easily….

Does anyone have similar experience?

I’m looking at travelling early next year. I’m going to Hong Kong Shanghai Xi’an and Beijing. Are these cities safe for solo travelers? How reliable is eSIM for contacting family and internet? How safe are the trains? What apps do I need? I know Alipay for payment and didi for taxis. Is there anything specific that I should be aware of?

Hello, I have an Italian passport and in December I will be travelling with Air China from Budapest to Singapore with a 6-hour layover in Chongqing.

I was checking China layover visa rules and found information that was a bit confusing to me, in particular:

1. this page states: "China has adopted a 24-hour visa-free transit policy for foreign nationals of multiple countries at all international ports of entry. Any passenger holding interline tickets with confirmed seats to transit to a third country or region via China by international flights, sea vessels, or trains does not have to apply for a visa if his/her stay period in China is less than 24 hours and he/she does not leave the port of entry.". So judging from this it seems like nothing needs to be done.
2. this page states: "Foreign citizens travelling to other country or region through mainland China at open ports by plane, ship or train may stay up to 24 hours in China without a visa. An application for a preliminary entry permit at the Chinese border is required for a visa-free transit." This to me means that I don't need a visa but I'll need something else, namely a "preliminary entry permit". Searching online it seems like the preliminary entry permit can only be requested at the airport upon arrival.

So, all in all. Is there anything I need to do before leaving or will everything be handled directly on my arrival at the airport?

Thanks for any answer

• When: 22-25 February 2025
• Where: Cairo, Egypt     
• Who: International Students and Graduates
• How to Apply: All Details are available here https://forms.gle/CEnUUNQJuNoPFp9JA

Hello, I will be traveling to Shanghai soon and I was wondering- is it possible to get Hermès quota bags from the Hermès store in Shanghai? If yes, how do I get one? Thank you

I love those galleries, I booked tickets through the official site but it wasn’t clear if it included those separate exhibits? Do I pay additionally 10 yuan to enter each at the site or is it included?

Hi! Tourist and collector here. I'll be travelling to Hong Kong for the first time next week and i'd like to ask for recommendations for areas that I can find these items:

• tamagotchis (device, toys, merchandise, etc.)
• scissor seven merchandise (big fan of the show!)
• gashapons/arcades
• retro handhelds (Nintendo, etc.)

Also into vinyls but I think those would be easier to find! If you guys have any recommendations for food spots and fashion districts, that would be highly appreciated as well!!!

Thank you so much in advance, guys! ❤️

Currently, This is my 26-27 days itinerary in China.

I have these questions

1. I am not interested in seeing Panda's. Should i skip Chengdu? Which other city would you suggest, other than Chengdu - i looked at DAli/Lijiang. Its too far away from chongqing.
2. Should i increase one more day in Yangshuo?
3. Should i keep less days in Beijing and use that extra day in Chongqing to see Wulong karst national Park?
4. Do you suggest any changes?

26-27 days china itinerary

I’m having an extremely frustrating time trying to buy several train tickets in advance online but I’m not able to do so. The 12306 app on iPhone shows me a blank white screen when pressing on the register button and the web version keeps throwing up a “system is busy” error message when I’m trying to do the passport and email verification. And yes, I changed the language to Chinese for the web version and it’s still not able to load.

I actually went ahead on ctrip to book the tickets but when I tried to contact customer service to ask if they could contact me using email instead of text (I used a friend’s China phone number out of desperation) they told me I couldn’t book without a 12306 account. Which made me go huh??? Because I literally was able to pay for the whole thing without linking 12306 to ctrip. So I had to cancel the whole damn thing bcos wtf did I just pay for?! and I don’t even know if I’ll get my refund back.

So what should I do now? Say fuck it and pray that there are tickets when I arrive in China? Give the English trip.com a shot? Because this whole ordeal has been horrible and frustrating.

I found a wonderful person on Reddit who suggested this WeChat "Mini program" which basically translates to "vegan radar".

It's a live map of vegan and vegetarian restaurants within your vicinity for all cities in China.

I feel so lucky I found the reddit post on my first day in China, and have since tried dozens of amazing new freaky mushroomy, nutty, or gluttany substitute veggie dishes from simple Buddhist buffet to dry-ice gourmet.

Here's how to start your veggie foody adventure:

1. Have WeChat
2. In the search bar type "素食雷达"
3. Click the mini program
4. Find your green dot on the map and see all the other vegetarian restaurant dots surrounding you.

There have only been 2 restaurants that were not open, but everywhere else has been accurate.

Let me know if you want my recommendation for places in:

• Guangzhou
• Hangzhau

I'm in Beijing now and will go to Datong and Sichuan province later so I'll have more to say soon.

Hello!

I am planning a trip to China with my partner for about 35 days in total. Currently I am trying to figure out our route and what is realistic in 35 days. I am having a really hard time deciding what to do and what to cut since there are so many things we would like to see and it is unlikely I would visit China again in the foreseeable future.

I am particularly keen to see some big cities and my partner would really like to see some countryside. Places we really are set on are Hong Kong, Beijing, Xi'an, Zhangjiajie and Wangxian Valley town. We also both really want to see the panda sanctuary in Chengdu. I am aware that these are all a long way away from each other but we have over a month and at least the major cities are really well connected.

Initially I was considering the following order (days are rough estimates) -

• Enter via Hong Kong (6 days)
• Shenzhen (1 day) [electronics market]
• Zhangjiajie (4 days)
• Chongqing (5 days)
• Chengdu (3 days) [pandas]
• Xi'an (4 days)
• Beijing (5 days)
• Exit via Shanghai (5 days)

However as mentioned we are really keen on Wangxian valley town which is not really close to anything. My partner was also keen on going to some more rural places - other places I have considered are Huangshan Mountain and Yangshuo. I also was trying to find somewhere that might be good to see the rice terraces that is somewhat on our route. I am still trying to work out how difficult some of the more rural places are to get to and if there would be enough to do in these places to spend multiple days there.

We are trying to avoid internal flying if possible as we are travelling on a budget, but we are happy to take overnight and/or high speed trains. I am keen to see as much as possible without spending the whole time on a train or trying to cram too much in and end up feeling burnt out.

Any advice or help would be really appreciated! Thanks and sorry for the long post

Hi all,

I am nearly a week into my trip around China, and have just arrived in chengdu. My WeChat and Alipay has been working find up to this point, but now when I try to pay for anything it says international bank cards are not supported. Is this a known issue in chengdu?

Thanks

I'm travelling to beijing china and i have testosterone injections ( for a medical use ) to bring with me. Is legal ?

Hello, everyone, I (23 year old female) am visiting Tianjin for 2 months from march till may, this two months I want have a great time experiencing the city, I want to visit nice clubs/bars/restaurants, shop, visit nice places, outside of city as well, and do other things that will get me to enjoy the city. I would like to hear your recommendations on what to do and where to go, cause I have no idea, please help!

like there is a personal guide in Chongqing China can customize my trip basedon my budget and interests and pick me up from airport directly to my hotel and give me tour
helping me take care of the alipay and wechat and stuff how much would u pay like aside from my own tickets and didi bill and meals

and he seems descent asking about my interests and allergies and dietary needs and everything

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Hi all, I am from Australia and I will be arriving in China on December 19 11:55 PM, and I am planning on leaving on the morning of January 3 2025.

However, I was wondering if December 19 would count as a day or not, as I would technically be going through immigration after 00:00 on December 20. If it does count, then i would have to change my plans and leave before 23:59 January 2.

Does anyone have any experience with such tight time frames or have any recommendations on what i should do? I have contacted the visa centre here in Australia but they have been unable to give a concrete answer.

Thanks!

Hello everyone,

My friends and I will be traveling to Beijing from December 29 to January 02. I’d like to ask where the best place is to spend New Year’s Eve. Also, will there be fireworks at that time?

Thank you so much!

My father and I are staying in Guangzhou until November 18th, we have been in china for a few weeks now and before heading home we are hoping to spend time visiting some wholesale markets. I'm looking for some guidance on how to find and visit wholesale markets We are mainly interested in:

• Electronic components (my father has a business repairing agricultural electronics equipment)
• stock management agricultural equipment, rfid tags, scales etc.
• Electric powered agricultural vehicles, tractors & retrofit electric kits for quad bikes etc.
• Building and power woodworking tools eg. Power wood carving, sawmill, dust extraction.
• Agricultural repair tools (especially for water and fencing eg. Poly welding & fence wire ties)
• home fixtures eg. Taps, door hinges, air vents and extractor fans

I know there are a lot of options spread around, but we are just taking it easy staying in Guangzhou area and getting a feel for things. We do have some contacts we might be able to share a container with for shipping back to Australia, but we are really just wanting to take a look at the way things work here and maybe buy some small things to take in our checked luggage. We shop on Alibaba and AliExpress a lot, but it would be great to just wander around looking in person if that's a possibility! Any recommendations would be welcome:)

Hey im 22m solo travelling and looking for some cool concept bars and clubs. I like photogenic places. I assume 99% of people wont know english haha that's fine but hoping theres some cool spots to hit up that anyone can reccomend!

We are a family of 4 going to Shanghai in December with a 6 and 8 year old. Any suggestions for hotels that meet the following criteria?

• Close to public transportation
• We will be jet lagged so close proximity to night markets (not clubs, but street/shopping areas).
• Family friendly restaurants
• Breakfast buffet at the hotel

Budget is under ~$300/night but also flexible to splurge a bit.

Thanks!

Are public toilets easy to find in yangshuo and Guilin? Are they generally squat toilets? Are they generally clean? Thanks!

had a much shorter layover on the way here but Pudong WiFi was very limited without a vpn, will the experience be good enough just with a vpn? or is it recommended to get some type of 1day esim

Hi everyone,

I’m arriving in Shanghai very early in the morning at 1:30 AM and was wondering if there might be any issues getting a taxi or Didi at that hour.

When I’ve arrived at a similar time in some other countries, it’s been hit or miss finding an Uber/Grab-style ride that late. Because of that, I’m considering booking a hotel close to the airport for the first night just in case it’s tricky to arrange transportation at that time.

For those who have been to Shanghai or live there, do you think this is necessary? Are taxis or Didi drivers generally available around that time? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone!

I just finished a 15-day trip in mainland China (Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guilin, Yangshuo) followed by 5 days in HK with a friend. This sub helped me and I would like to return the favour to the community by posting and summarizing some (hopefully helpful) tips :

OVERALL

- We loved our trip to China : it was even better than expected and mostly easy to navigate. Lots of things were modern and new. What a beautiful country ! We would like to return for another visit someday.

- Chinese people were always very nice and warm to us, often adorable. We were stared at quite a lot (and sometimes pictures were taken) but never in a mean way, it was quite cute. So many good people happy to help!

- Yes, it can be very crowded in particular for touristic stuff – you need to be ready to wake up very early for certain spots and be prepared to see that some Chinese people may be physically « pushy » to skip lines. And yes, you will see and hear everyday men spitting loudly on the floor in the street.

- Easy for vegetarians to find food options. What surprised me a lot is that it was also very easy for my Muslim friend to find halal food : there was not a single Chinese city where we did not walk past many halal restaurants. He was very happy about it.

- It is very safe. Apart from a few people who tried to scam us, there was nothing particular to note and we never felt in danger - even as a woman when I was a solo.

- As expected, almost no one speaks English, and we don't speak Chinese : we used Google translation everyday and everyone (including older Chinese people) knew instantly to speak in our phone mics when we presented our phones. It worked very well.

- Your passport will be scanned a significant amount of times during your trips, for many reasons (museums, trains, etc.).

NOW, FOR THE TIPS :

I. ALIPAY AND WECHAT

- To clear any doubt that might remain: yes, those 2 apps are absolutely necessary. I recommend downloading those 2 app as early as possible from your home country in order to set up and verify the accounts (in case you struggle a bit verifying the passport, better to have some time ahead).

- Alipay app is the app I used the most during my China trip (probably like 5 to 10 times a day), to pay and to order DiDi car rides. It has a translating option which makes it easy to use. Note that any payment above 200 CNY (app. 23-25 euros) will incur a 3% fee, but a lot of sellers don’t mind if you ask to break the payment in several amounts to avoid it (if you care).

- WeChat (including WeixinPay) is also necessary: not only you may use it to pay, but there are a certain number of restaurants or museums where we could only use the WeChat scan tool to read the menu or purchase tickets. For WeChat, we could not set up an account without being « approved » by an existing WeChat user (we asked a Chinese friend). Then we verified our accounts by using our passports and confirming our phone numbers.

 - No need for Chinese phone number (I never got one), passport information is enough.

- Both apps have an integrated translation button to English, which makes things easier.

II. MAPS - GOOGLE AND SHOPS REVIEW

- As said by many people in this sub, Google maps was mostly useless - yes sometimes it can help to find a direction, but that's it, and it is often outdated. Chinese people seem to use Gaode Maps ; however, it is not in English (or at least people told me there was no English version and I could never switch it in English) so I could not use it.

- We used Apple Maps from our iphones: it was much better than google, and I liked that it integrated the Dianping app (used to give ratings to shops and restaurants). It's better than nothing but still not great (lots of things are missing, some roads indications are outdated). Sometimes I went to the DiDi mini-app on Alipay just to look at their map, without booking a Didi, because I found the DiDi map very precise.

- During our trip, we often went to restaurants before checking any review beforehand, judging "by the looks" or the presence of locals. It was generally very good.

III. METRO / SUBWAY

- I used the app « MetroMan » on my phone, which worked quite well. It also has a map feature showing you the closest subway stations which is nice.

- To get your subway card on your phone (which will be your ticket): open Alipay app on your phone -> Transport -> select Metro -> get the card/code (certain cities will require passport information). Downloading your QR code is free. So, when entering the subway you will scan your QR code and when leaving the subway you will scan it again. Average price for a subway journey was between 2 and 4 CNY. Chinese metro system was very easy to use.

- You can also use the bus through Alipay Transport feature, however note that some cities require a different QR code for the bus and the subway (so you need to download both).

IV. TAXI - DiDi

- DiDi was our best friend. Soooo easy and convenient to use, their map is very precise and shows the pick-up locations. Excellent price too : we usually paid 10-15 CNY (less than 2 euros) for 20-min DiDi rides. When entering the DiDi, your driver will double-check with you the last 4 digits of your phone number to make sure you are the right client.

- I never used the DiDi official app - we booked DiDi only using the AliPay app, which was particularly convenient with the AliPay translation tool.

- Payment is done through the AliPay app as well at the end of the ride : don’t forget to « approve » the payment at the end of the ride (note : unlike Uber, the authorization for payment was not automatically debited, we nedded to approve it).

V. TRAINS

1/ BOOKING A TRAIN TICKET

- Your passport is your train ticket. We never saw or used a single paper train ticket in China.

- The app is « Railway12306 » : there is the phone version and the website version, we used the phone (iPhone) version. We were 2 travellers but only I downloaded the app and booked the tickets : for this, I needed to verify my account with my passport (the photograph was not clear enough so I had to re-take the photos 2 or 3 times before the app accepted it) and phone number ; and using my app, I created a passenger profile for my friend using his passport (I never validated his phone number, apparently this did not matter – contrary to the passport reference which is extremely important as this constitutes the train ticket).

- you can see timetables any time but can only book using the 12306 app during China day time: we could not book the tickets at night time in China (for example, booking at 6pm France time did not work because it was 1am in Beijing and the app seemed out of service – so I booked all the tickets in France morning/noon time).

- Payment can be made through a foreign debit card HOWEVER our VISA cards did not work (despite the logo « Visa » in the app), so we used Mastercards.

- Tickets can be purchased exactly 2 weeks prior to the train time, not earlier.

- Certain trains, such as the Guilin to Hong-Kong train, appear as entirely « SOLD OUT » less than 5 minutes after the start of the purchase time – this got us a little worried at first, but we realized that those specific trains do not put all their tickets for sale at the same time. When we looked again a few days later, the sold out trains were available again (except for the 1st class and Business seats which remained sold out).

- For their peace of mind (notably to avoid creating a railway12306 account, etc.), lots of people seem to book through the trip.com app. This is also a possibility, of course against a fee payment (I looked out of curiosity, for the Guilin-HK train, the fee was 6 euros per person in addition to the xx ticket price). We personally never used it as we found railway12306 pretty easy to use.

2/ AT THE TRAIN STATION

- Be sure to arrive at least 45 minutes (off-season/weekdays) or 1 hour before your train time : you will need to go through security, find your « gate » and then queue up for your train. There are often several lines for queuing and since there are high chances that you foreign passport won’t scan at the machine (for Chinese identity cards), so always get in the line where you see a human agent at the front because this person will look/scan your passport and allow the passage for you.

- We found that the train stations themselves were easy to navigate: what took time was the walking time (for example in Xian, we walked 15min from the subway station to the train platforms) and sometimes the lines (but we were off-season so for us this was still reasonably quick).   

- The most recent trains have lots of food options, you can have fun with the QR code at your seat. Older trains have very limited food options (apart from snacks) so we regretted that we did not bring any food with us (for a 5 hours journey :’( )

- Second class is comfortable enough for the modern trains – if you are a little bit tight on budget, I would suggest to keep the 1st class tickets only for very long rides in less « modern / comfortable » trains. Business class is the best class (above the 1st class), we never tried it but apparently those have lie-fully-flat seats.

VI. CASH

During our 15-day trip, there was only 4 or 5 cases where neither our Alipay nor our WeChat/WeixinPay were compatible with the card machine of a seller (a few restaurants or when purchasing tickets for the Huguang Guild Hall in ChongQing) : for both cases, the seller did use Alipay/WeChat in principle, but not when those app were linked to foreigner Visa or Mastercard. So although using cash is very rare in China, I recommend always carrying a small amount to anticipate this kind of situation.

VII. PHONE

- I did not purchase a Chinese sim card and I did not use a VPN : I used roaming data with my French phone (I had 35Go in China included in my monthly subscription) so the firewall blocking did not apply – no restrictions on websites and app during my trip. Sorry I cannot be of any help for VPN etc.

**

I wanted to write some tips for the different cities that we visited but I see that my post is already really long, so I will stop there.

I hope this helps and that you enjoy your trip to China! It was great.