Tips for traveling to China | Guide and Preparations

Let's get to it! These are the most useful tips we have learned traveling through China, things you should know before going to China so that everything is easier and you enjoy it to the fullest.

Update: From November 30, 2024, the visa exemption for Spanish passports and those of other European countries increases to 30 days.

Until December 2025 with Spanish passport (and from 11 other European countries) You can travel to China without needing to apply for a visa for stays of less than 15 days. And not only that, other good news is that these 15 days can be renewed if you leave China (including Hong Kong and Macau). That is, you can travel to China for 15 days, visit Hong Kong and re-enter China. In addition, you do not need a visa to cross to Hong Kong or Macao with a Spanish passport.

If you want more time without having to leave the country, you must apply for a 30-day tourist visa at a Chinese embassy or consulate weeks in advance.

Another entry requirement is that your passport has at least 6 months of validity and present the flight leaving the country, in case of leave by land to Hong Kong You may be asked to reserve a hotel and/or train.

As you can imagine, you could spend months traveling through China and still not see everything, so it's very difficult to recommend itineraries and how many days to dedicate to each place.carto each place.

We recommend you dedicatecarat least 15 days in China or take a route through 21-day China to discover the most popular sites. If you don't have much time, we suggest this itinerary China in 10 days.

Our recommendation is that you never underestimate the importance of good travel insurance. Especially in a country with such a different healthcare system.I think it is vital to have insurance with 24-hour support, as is the case with Heymondo through its App.

We would opt for the policy 'Tranquility Trip" or "Top Trip' which include more than half a million euros in medical expenses.

⪼ Here You can read more about what it is best travel insurance for china.

Since we're talking about health, There are no mandatory vaccines to travel to China. The recommended ones are hepatitis A and B, typhoid fever, as well as rabies and Japanese encephalitis for long stays in rural areas. It is also advisable to be up to date with routine vaccines such as MMR, diphtheria, and tetanus.

An international vaccination consultation before your trip will help you travel with greater security and peace of mind.

The weather and Chinese holidays are two crucial factors when planningcar your trip. In climatic terms, spring (April-May) and autumn (September-October) are ideal, with pleasant temperatures and little chance of rain. If you visit China in summer you will find very high temperatures, but not extreme, and the winters are very cold.

Try avoid major Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year and Golden Week (early October), as during these periods tourist sites are extremely crowded and prices for transport and accommodation often skyrocket to the point of selling out. Keeping this in mind is possibly one of the best tips for travelling to China that we can give you.

To more tips about the best time, climate and what to wear the China in your luggage you can read our guide.

Have internet throughout your stay in China It is super important because you need your cell phone for everything. (pay with Alipay, translate, look at transportation apps or maps…)

The most economical option is buy a local SIM upon arrival and the most practical option is to get an eSim before arriving so that you already have internet when you land, for this we recommend Holafly. A good point in favor of Holafly is that you includes VPN, something that is also super necessary, we will tell you more in the following advice for traveling to China.

eSim of Holafly with a 5% discount with the code «VIAJEROSLOWCOSTEROS»

Any guide to traveling to China recommends the use of a VPN (Virtual Private Network). This is a tool that creates a secure, encrypted connection between your device and the internet. This is especially important for traveling to China, where access to many international websites and services such as Google search, Gmail, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp are restricted due to government censorship policies.

So using a VPN allows you to bypass these restrictions, accessing the internet just as you would in Spain or any other western country.

Super important! If you will use a VPN, install it on your computer and mobile before traveling to China. Doing it once in China is very complicated.

As we said, the eSim of Holafly It already includes a VPN service so you don't have to worry, otherwise you will have to buy one for a few euros per month. Surfshark It is the one we always use. If you are going to choose to buy a local SIM, you are interested read where to get it.

Nowadays I dare to say that 99% of payments are made using mobile apps, most places do not accept credit cards. We already said it at the beginning of the article: The Asian Giant is another world! That's why we have many very useful tips for traveling to China.

There are two Apps that are the most popular to pay in China, these are WeChat and Alipay. We used Alipay throughout our trip, we didn't get to sacar No cash allowed. Since this is a very important point for worry-free travel, we have an article explaining it in detail. What is Alipay and how to use it.

I have already mentioned some essential Apps, such as Alipay for payments. But I leave you a list here so you don't miss anything. Leave us any questions in the comments :)

• WeChat: To Messenger service, the hotels will ask you to talk to you, and it also has instant translation. It is also essential for book entry to some places like Tiananmen Square.
• Alipay: To payments, ask for a Didi (taxi), take public transportation.
• Translator: We have used Google translator which has conversation mode, normal translator and image translator with Google Lense.
• Trip.com: It is the most reliable platform For bookings in China. The app groups your accommodations and lets you keep track of the trains you'll be taking.

The last essential App is a map that works, since Google Maps is useless in China. The addresses are not correct and the route by public transport is not given.

To iPhone the best option is Maps (it has worked very well for us). For Android we recommend Maps.me + Tecent Map to verifycar They match. Sometimes Maps.me hasn't shown us all the possible routes or the times haven't been entirely accurate. Tencent Map is a Chinese app, so it works perfectly, but everything is in Chinese, so it's not very user-friendly.

This is another topic that brings headaches, the distances in China are tremendous and some routes tend to sell out. If you like to improvise, China is not the ideal country for that, You will have to take all the long-distance transfers booked.

The best way to get around China is by train. both high-speed trains that cover very long distances in a few hours, and normal trains that also have sleeping cars for overnight stays. Almost all tourists take a train during their trip, the most typical journey being Beijing to Shanghai. You can't book it on their website without a Chinese phone number, so you have to do it through a provider, the most used is Trip.com.

▶We leave you our guide on How to buy train tickets in China.

As I said, it is the most efficient way, but it has a problem. They do not confirm the trains until 15 days before, which is when the Chinese website opens reservations. On Trip.com you can make the reservation but it is not confirmed up to 15 days before.

If you want to avoid this uncertainty You can cover the greatest distances on internal flights. For short ones as there is a large influx of trains there is no problem, on several occasions we buy it at the same station.

Search engine internal flights

Public transportation in China

Inside the cities, public transportation works very well. We leave you our transportation guides so you can read more.

• How to get around Beijing
• How to get around Shanghai

If you need to use a taxi, we recommend Didi that works like Uber.

Unlike the vast majority of countries we have traveled to, in China Booking.com is not one of the most used platforms. There are fewer hotels and prices are usually higher.

The booking platform more widespread is Trip.comWe booked almost all accommodation in China through them, and some through Agoda. Particularly in China, where we found the most variety and the best prices is Trip.com.

Our recommendation is bring all reserved accommodations. Many hotels in China are not licensed to accommodate foreigners so asking upon arrival is not a good option, not to mention the language barrier.

we spend 65 euros a day between the two (excluding flights). Generally, we don't consider China a country caror, with the exception of transportation between cities where a good part of your budget is going to go away and tickets to some national parties , the zhangjiajie, the mountains of Avatar. Although it also depends a bit on you, for example we paid 30€ for the Beijing to Shanghai train, but the same journey by bullet train cost €90.

Accommodation is cheaper than in Europe; double rooms start from €20 in most places and sometimes more. caras in Beijing y Shanghai. Eating is also economical with a variety of dishes from €2 or €3 and drinks at less than €1.

Apart from these indicative prices, we have also written a complete article about how much does it cost to travel to china where We include our budget y some tips if you are looking to travel cheap.

That's right! Traveling to China is not carOr, although of course you can spend as much as you want depending on your travel style.

There is no country in the world where they would not like that you have taken the trouble to know how to say a few words in their language. Especially in countries where they don't speak any English and you will have to have a translator in hand all day, knowing how to say thank you or say hello in China will make them smile.

We leave you the words that we use so that you have them at hand ⬇️

Here are some tips for traveling to China that we would most like to receive. Take note!

We recommend you bring an external battery Because you need your phone for everything and use a VPN, the battery doesn't last long, and also, on some trains there's no restroom. cargar. And although the plug inlet Spanish works in most plugs yes or yes I would take a adapter multi-input.

always carry your passport on you, they will ask you to buy almost all the tickets, to get on trains or maybe even on the street at random checkpoints in very important areas of Beijing.

Another important point of advice for traveling to China is that most toilets are "hole in the ground" toilets, it is usually indicated on the door whether it is a hole or a normal toilet. And They practically never have paper, so he always carries handkerchiefs with him.

The water is not entirely drinkable. In some places they serve you water with your food but it is either hot or lukewarm. At train stations and airports, they sometimes have cold water fountains, but many others only have fountains with boiling water for making tea or noodles. To avoid buying plastic bottles, we have used our bottle with filter throughout the trip.

The food is delicious and varied, it has little to do with Chinese food as we know it in the West. But, in many regions it is spicy (especially in Sichuan, my goodness, I still remember the Hot Pot we ate in Chongqing…) If you don't like spicy be sure to ask the translator.

And very important, If you don't know how to eat with chopsticks, we recommend taking a bag with a fork. Another option will be to eat with a spoon, which they always have for soups.

I wanted to end the article with some cultural shocks that you will almost certainly have, I wouldn't want to do too much to you either. spoiler because these things are better to live.

But I do tell you some cultural aspects to take into account before traveling to China, possibly one of the countries where you are going to have the most cultural shocks in the world.

• Smoking is allowed indoors.
• they will ask you take a photo with you. Of course, they ask for them very politely unlike in other countries like India.
• Burping, making a lot of noise when eating, and spitting up mucus On the street it is the order of the day.
• I don't know how to tip, the waiter may not even understand the concept.
• sometimes they ask pay right when ordering as in a hurry. I imagine it is cultural and not that they distrust us.
• Personal space can be scarce in heavily touristed areas.
• It is recommended to haggle, especially if you buy imitations.
• Be careful when queuing. They like to sneak in, but you tap them on the shoulder, point to the end of the line, and they leave. It seems that this gesture is universal.

We hope that these tips for traveling to China have been of great help to you. To read more guides for travel to China on your own You have all our updated articles or you can gossip about our experience on Instagram.

Thanks for reading us!

Start preparing your trip to China

These are our favorite websites to do so. Plus, if you use our links you support all the content about China at no extra cost to you.

Find hotels in China
on Trip.com

Book trains and internal flights
on Trip.com

Find cheap flights to China
on Skyscanner

VPN to access Google
with NordVPN

Travel with Insurance
-5% in Heymondo

Backpacks, down jackets and much more
at Decathlon

Avoid commissions when paying in Yuan
with TradeRepublic

Mobile Internet + integrated VPN
-5% with Holafly