Hey everyone. I’m planning on taking the high speed train (G79) from Beijing to HK on May 29th. I have booked in advance (May 11th) through Trip.com, but I’m scared that I won’t get the ticket for some reason due to limited availability/booking too late in advance 😬 What do you guys think? Do you think I’ll get a ticket or that I should already book a flight in case I don’t get a train ticket. Thank you!! (I hold non-Chinese citizenship)

Can someone point me where can i buy chinese sim card with chinese number (+86) that works in europe? phone would be used just for apps (gmail,whatsapp) not for texts,calls. tnx!

To clarify i will be staying in europe all the time not traveling just using chinese sim card in europe.

We will be travelling to Chongqing and will be there end May. My wife is in her 30s and is pregnant in her second trimester. She is very mobile and has no issues with walking up and down stairs.

We are thinking of taking a daytip to wulong karst - but I believe there are a lot of stairs and walking. Is it a relatively easy walk or is this something we should avoid altogether? I know there are porters but I feel like my wife will prepare to walk with me.

Any recommendations on walking around chongqing too as I believe there are a lot of stairs! Wife believes she can manage but just want to be prepared.

Who where or what tour guides and people should we take. Our family in USA can’t go and return

Hi!

I'll be visiting zhangjiajie later this year and saw that trip.com has tickets available for the park as well as tianmenshen that includes other things such as eco car, cable car, bailong elevator, etc.

Are these tickets legitimate, or do you just have to buy tickets at the gate on the day of arrival?

Thanks!

Title - Will be traveling with 3 people in total.

Interested in food, different culture, and anything touristy. I've been to Hong Kong/Macau often, and have been to Guangzhou where family is but nothing beyond.

Places I want to visit are Chongqing, Xi'an, Zhangjiajie, but open to other itineraries based on train routes that make sense without having to overstretch myself in travelling.

Thanks!

We've searched the house up and down many times and cannot find her old passport. Does anyone know what the policy is on getting a Chinese Visa if you can't find your old Chinese passport?

I would love to travel south from Chonqing, first to Songji, and then on to Yaoba or Xianshi. Have figured out bus connection to Songji but am at a bit of a loss about bus connections onward from there. Does anyone have any info or bus schedules?

I'd like to visit emeishan but I'm traveling with family, all of whom are seniors. My uncle has visited emeishan before and doesn't think his older brother and sister will be able to walk it.

I understand there is a bus halfway to the top and then a cable car to the top. If we utilize both means of transportation, how much walking would still be required to enjoy the site?

Both relatives are mobile and fine with city walking but uphill hiking and lots of steps would be really tough for them.

I fly to Beijing tomorrow and the only VPN I currently have is ExpressVPN because I use it at home. I have heard that it doesn’t work in China so I was wondering which VPNs are working at this moment in time? I have been thinking of getting LetsVPN and Veeeee to give myself multiple options

Hey!

I am currently in China (Shanghai) and I am having problems with Alipay, very frequently it gets blocked and 'Alipaysafety' promts asking me to summit photos of the card I am using. I have currently linked a VISA Revolut, has anyone experienced problems with it? I have WeChat too and it's working fine, I searched on Google but I couldn't find a reason, just people saying that 'it doesn't work' but a lot of people is posting here mentioning good experiences.

I'm deciding between entering China through these two cities from Hong kong. Then our relatives will arrange cars to pick us up and we travel to our ancestral hometown.

My preference is shenzhen as it's only 20 minutes from Kowloon. Can we do customs check at shenzhen train station?

I just read that actually customs may be at Lo Wu? And the train from Kowloon will take 35 minutes.

If we go to Guangzhou, will there be a customs check at the station closest to the border? Or will we be checked at Guangzhou?

We all have tourist visas.

So I have 11 days in summer and Im gonna sleep in Chengdu, Xian and Beijing

My question is

How do you rank these locations for day trips? (I gotta discard 3)

-Dujiangyan. (From Chengdu)

-Leshan. (Chengdu)

-Chongqing. (Chengdu)

-Longmen. (Xian)

-Mount Hua. (Xian)

-Pingyao. (Btw Xian and Beijing)

-Datong. (Beijing)

-Chengde. (Beijing)

-Tianjin. (Beijing)

It would be between 15 and 31 July and all places would be reached by train. No sleeping there.

So what would be your suggestions?

Thank you!

My gf will join me in Shanghai at the end of May for 12 days. I thought of going with her to Guangxi and Beijing, but I know it will be very rainy around Yangshuo these days. We usually don’t mind as we like this type of atmosphere, but I'm still thinking. Also because I kinda dream about going to Yunnan, but I'm wondering if it’s worth it in such little time (we could skip Beijing but it would be a shame). We both love to see beautiful natural landscapes and I think both regions would suit this but Yunnan just seems magical. What do you guys think? Thanks!

Nomad is offering discounts now and is thus cheaper than Airalo. Speed and connection wise, which is better in China? And I heard you can't purchase Nomad when inside China? What about Airalo?

I’m going to be in Beijing next week for my first time in china and I’m having difficulty with WeChat on my phone so I’m thinking about renting a phone at the airport in china and using that number to set up WeChat. Has anyone done this or know whether this would work?

I setup a WeChat account several years ago on a whim but didn’t do much on it, include add many friends. I redownloaded WeChat in preparation for this trip but I can’t reactivate my account until a friend verifies my account via the “help a friend login” feature. The problem is that I never really used my WeChat account so I didn’t have any friends added that I can get to activate my account. This feature seems to only work with friends I had already added before when the account was active … which is none. I’ve tried several times to have current friends with active WeChats to verify and had no luck. I’ve reached out to WeChat support about a week ago and had no response.

As a backup I’ve made a different WeChat account using a google voice number, which works. BUT I’ve realized that there’s no payment option under the services tab. It seems that because I downloaded WeChat outside of china, the functionality of the app is limited. I know everything runs on WeChat in china so I’m worried about the possibility of not having this work while I’m there. I’m going to try deleting and redownloading WeChat when I get to the airport in china but given all the difficulties I’ve had so far I wonder if it doesn’t just make sense to rent a phone with a Chinese number at the airport and make a WeChat account that way.

Any thoughts or recs for my situation?? Thanks

F(32) wanting to go to Hong Kong for a few days in late July this year while i am in china. Does anyone have any recommendations of what to do and where to stay for a solo female traveler. I havent traveled much solo and just want to get some safe recommendations from experienced travelers or Hong Kong natives.

I would really like to enjoy the sights and take in some of the history/culture.

I have an android phone and downloaded WeChat. I cannot find WeChat pay or any of the mini apps that my parents have on their phone. I looked for an updated version on the play store but apparently I have the latest version. Does anyone know why I can't find all these other things on my WeChat?

I'll be in China for a few weeks in July and I'm a bit of a foodie. I've been browsing the Michelin guide in Beijing and Shanghai and have noticed that none of the restaurants have websites or email addresses I can use to make bookings, only phone numbers. Some of them are in Dianping, but I can't make and account because I don't have a Chinese phone number. Is there any easy way to book them from abroad?

Me again!

I haven't left for China yet. I've gotten as far registering with alipay that it generates a QR code for me and seems to allow me scan with my cards connected. My question is, is this it? Am I good to go?

(I'm planning on trying to set up a TourCard as well, I hear it allows a higher limit?)

EDIT FOR CLARITY: I guess my other question is: can I spend money with a linked overseas card without verifying with a Chinese Bank Card?

Many thanks as always. You've all been so helpful.

All my love.

UPDATE: I can't seem to verify my profile at all. It has accepted my manually entered passport details, but I never got an option to verify? Any attempt to force it through other links requires a mainland Chinese bank number. Tour Card won't let me take a photo of my passport either. Seems to be a bug.

Can anyone, please anyone, tell me if I'll be able to pay for things using this app?

I’m going to Shanghai in June, I was wondering if it’s easy to find and buy rep clothes there, if so am I able to take it back to the UK without trouble?

Everyone who travels to China knows that if you don't have a Chinese phone number, there are a lot of things that you simply cannot do. I know this better than most because I was born and raised in China after all. I am now a Canadian citizen and will be traveling to China in July.

I went to China Mobile's website (link in Chinese), and when I want to sign up for a plan, it returns absolutely no results. Yes, I know on the left side there is a plan for roaming to Hong Kong and a voicemail plan, but I need a plan with only voice and text--mostly receiving text messages, because I can communicate with Chinese people via WeChat, which is dependent on data (I have a 3 HK $268/45GB for that).

(When I go to China, my plan is to have 3 SIM cards on my iPhone, 1 is a physical SIM, 1 is an eSIM and 1 is app-based). I know this will kill my battery to the point where the phone can go from 100% to 0% in an hour if it is not plugged in (my iPhone is almost 4 years old, the battery doesn't hold its charge very well.)

No cellphone plans available

All that I am saying is that this forces everyone who wants to get a phone plan to show up at the store in person. Unfortunately, even for people like me (who speak fluent Cantonese and Mandarin and have Chinese ID), the process is still very complicated because employees at the mobile shops are not too knowledgeable about the products that they are supposedly trained to sell. For instance, I ask them about the usage of 无忧行 (an Android/iOS app made by China Mobile that allows you to port your SIM card into the app so it becomes a virtual number) and what is the cheapest plan they have that allows users to use that app to replace the SIM card, the staff were not able to answer the question at all the last time my mom went to China.

I was just wondering if it’s okay if i have my VPN on 24/7 even when im not on my phone (sleeping) or is it better to turn it off when im not using my devices?

Chinese citizens are punished/fined for using VPN in China. Are foreigners allowed to use VPN while traveling there?

Hi all! This group has been so helpful for trip planning thus far so am hoping someone will have some experience with this!

Am planning a trip to Hangzhou and hoping to hit up some water towns. Planned my itinerary via bus schedules on Xiecheng (Ctrip) only to realise to my horror that a Chinese number is needed to book :((

Planning now to show up and book those buses the day of! But wanted to ask if Xiecheng schedules are reliable? They showed tonnes of timings on the app when I was planning, but somehow when I was cross checking with Baidu Maps and Gaode maps, there were far less timings (or some even showed no routes on Baidu?!) my last resort will be to take a cab between destinations. Anyone have any experience with this? My route is Hangzhou -> Wuzhen, Wuzhen -> Xitang, Xitang -> Nanxun, and Nanxun -> Hangzhou- if anyone has travelled to these areas before and would like to chip in, any advice would be sorely appreciated!

I'm doing a road trip from north to south (Shandong to Hainan) this summer in my car and I was wondering if anyone has any cool spots along the way to recommend for swimming. Lakes/rivers/streams?

I asked my Chinese family but they immediately said "swimming is dangerous" so they're no help. Used to swimming everywhere in Belgium so it'd be cool to do something similar along the way.

Thanks in advance.

Route (obscuring actual city names due to privacy reasons:)
Shandong, China
Huaian, Jiangsu, China
Anqing, Anhui, China
Lianxi, Jiujiang, China
Jiangxi, China
Qingyuan, Guangdong Province, China
to finally arrive on Hainan.

Hi, I'm planning a weekend trip to Chengdu (flying from Shanghai) 6/8-6/9 (Duanwujie/Dragon Boat festival weekend). Hoping to squeeze in the Panda Research Center and Sanxingdui Museum on the Sunday.

I have Wechat but it looks like without a Chinese phone number, I can't finish booking the Panda Research Center tickets. The EN website does say

" (3) Foreign visitors who are unable to purchase tickets online due to not having a Chinese mobile phone number, please go to the entrance and consult the staff for assistance with ticket purchases." But on the CN page it says 请游客朋友们提前网上预订门票，确因特殊原因无法线上支付的，当门票有余量时，门区支持现金补票，如有需要请咨询现场工作人员。which implies that's only if there are remaining tickets left? And I'm kind of worried that on the Dragonboat Festival holiday weekend, tickets might be sold out already.

Does anyone have experience buying the Panda Center tickets onsite through the special foreigner route? I'm wondering if I should just try to get a Chinese simcard with a phone for this (though my wechat is linked to my US number) or if I should try to buy some package from Tuniu...

Thanks!

Hello everyone,

Thanks to the new visa exemption we are visiting China for roughly two weeks. We will be landing in Beijing. Although the Beijing great walls / pingyao / xian part is easy, we are struggling to build an itinerary for the rest of the country and we would love your feedback.

-4 days in Beijing and the Great Wall. -then we were thinking of taking the train from Beijing to Pingyao, spend 1 day 1 night there to explore the city.

Here is where we are struggling : the west. We would love to explore the silk roads. But going to Dunhuang and Jiayuguan seems a bit far and rushed so we feel like we should compromise to nearer destinations.

-train to Pingyao to Lanzhou. And then on to Xiahe. What are the best things to do in the area apart from Labrang monastery? Does this seem reasonable ? Should we go first to Jiayuguan then to Xiahe ? Any other suggestions in the area ? 🤯

• Train from Lanzhou to Xian. it seems like 1 or 2 days should be enough.

-Xian to Shanghai. Is there something nice to explore between the two cities ? 2 days to explore Shanghai and flying back to Vietnam.

Thank you so much for your feedback we are so thrilled for this trip !

I am planning to visit family this summer and trying to pick a time to go. Late July into August works for me, but I’m worried it will be too hot. My family is also going to have a 2 month old and can’t do too much travel, so we probably will stay mainly in Shenzhen.

I’m worried about taking 2 weeks to just go and be miserable and hot. Anyone been there around this time and can compare it to something. I’ve lived in NC for 4 years so use to a bit of heat in the summer.