You don’t need to be a seasoned traveler to visit China, but there are some things you should anticipate in order to acclimatize to the local culture, which will allow you to enjoy your time in China. During my trip to China this summer, I experienced both travelling with a private tour guide and venturing on my own. Based on my observations from my trip to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, I came up with a list of 10 things you should know before traveling to China.
10 Things You Should Know Before Traveling to China:
1. Summer Weather
Summer is not the most ideal time to visit China! As a teacher, I travel mostly in the summer when I’m on holiday. In Beijing, the skies were grey and smoggy the entire time I was there. My guide assured me that blue skies are more recurrent in the crisp, cool fall weather. In Shanghai, there were three consecutive days when the temperature felt like high 50C. Don’t be fooled by the cloudy and smoggy skies – the UV index remains severely intense. Don’t forget the sunscreen; red and sunburnt, I learned this the hard way!
Tip: During those dog days of summer, remember to visit indoor attractions, keep hydrated with fluids containing electrolytes (coconut water and Gatorade quench thirst like no other) and wear a hat or use a parasol
2. Crowds
China is not for the enochlophobic (fear of crowds). You need to be able to tolerate crowds and limited personal space. Not to mention, there are many smokers in China – even in places where you would think smoking is prohibited. We saw a man smoking inside a shopping mall, yet no one seemed perturbed!
One interesting fact is that there is a driving schedule for residents of Beijing to manage the flow of traffic. For example, on Mondays, licence plates ending in 1 and 9 are banned from the roads; Tuesdays, plates ending in 2 and 8, and so forth.
Hold your spot firmly when standing in queues as people will attempt to jump the queue. While lining up at the Beijing Zoo, at least 3 families cut the line ahead of me, not to mention there was pushing involved in catching a glimpse of the giant pandas.
3. Pedestrians Don’t Have Right of Way
Take extreme caution when crossing the roads. Unlike North America where many pedestrians think they’re invincible, in China, motorists will most certainly bowl you over.
On my first night out in Shanghai, I was waiting to cross an intersection near Shanghai Times Square. A woman in front of me stepped out on to the road mere seconds before I did. An oncoming scooter that had disregarded the traffic lights plowed into her at full speed. Both the woman and the rider landed in the busy intersection – the scooter on top of her. Miraculously, both parties walked away nearly unscathed but it was a powerful reminder to look left and right before crossing.
4. Toilets
Though squater toilets are relatively unfamiliar in the Western world, these toilets are commonplace in many other countries in the world. In China, squater toilets are the norm; you can’t avoid them, so you might as well be prepared. In my purse, I carried an arsenal of tissues and hand sanitizer. Toilet paper is rarely provided in the stalls so always carry a pocket sized pack – again, this is dependent on which city you visit in China. Toilet paper and soap are more regularly stocked in Shanghai public washrooms.
Tip: I discovered that most handicap stalls have western toilets!
5. Ordering at Restaurants
Waiters tend to give you a very brief look-time at the menu. I thought maybe it was just me and my dining party, but it became a reoccurrence at many restaurants we ate at in Beijing and Shanghai. The waiter would literally stand over our table while we were mid-menu-perusal. Don’t feel pressured. After requesting an English menu (if and when one was available), we simply informed the waiter that we needed more time to look through. In one case, the waiter decided to wait table-side while we read through every single item in the 8 page menu.
6. Language
I didn’t expect that English would be widely spoken in China; however, I was in Hong Kong just prior to visiting China and had gotten used to the number of locals who spoke English. None of the employees, including the manager at a local McDonald’s spoke any English. I put on my best charade act to ask for jam at breakfast!
Locals identify stores by the Chinese name rather than the English name. For example, McD’s is known as 麦当劳 (Mài dāng láo). Always have your hotel make any English to Mandarin translations for you before venturing out on your own. Taxi direction cards provided by many hotels come in handy as taxi drivers only speak Mandarin.
7. Subway Security Checks
All subway stations have bag scanners and security checks at the entry points. Place large bags and items on the conveyer belt to be scanned. Sometimes the guards are too busy chatting with one another and are lax, but my mom has been asked to take a swig of her bottled water! Be prepared for minor snags during the rush hour.
8. Currency and Credit Cards
It’s best to pay in yuan when in China. Many hotels offer currency exchange. The most commonly accepted currencies for exchange are: US dollar, Euro, Japan Yen, Great Britain Pound, and Hong Kong dollar. I asked the front desk to exchange $100 Canadian dollars and the receptionist made a face like I just asked her to smell my socks!
The most commonly accepted credit card is Union Pay. My Visa card was not accepted at a few clothing stores. Be prepared to carry several types of credit cards. Smaller shops, including Shanghai’s Fabric Market, only accept cash.
9. Scams
There are many tourist scams in major cities in the world, and China has its fair share. I’m not proud to admit it, but we walked right into a rookie scam at the Beijing Airport. We were in departures en route to Shanghai. We must have looked like confused tourists trying to figure out which way to go, since a man came up to us and ushered us to the appropriate check-in counter. I should have known better since he wasn’t wearing a uniform. After we secured our boarding passes, he demanded we pay him a fee! We gave him the equivalent of $2 USD, but he insisted on more. I told him that I was going to call the police and walked away.
10. Social Media
News flash: many of your favourite social media sites cannot be accessed through China’s firewalls. Before your arrival in China, you need to purchase a Virtual Private Network (VPN) subscription. What the VPN does is it masks your IP address, misleading the network to think you’re in a region outside of China. Using a VPN, I was able to access Facebook, Twitter, and a full range of Google products.
Have you travelled to China? What are some things you would change or add? Share your comments below.
Read my related blog post: Beijing Itinerary Day 1
Have you travelled to China? Did you enjoy this post? Let me know in the comments below or by sharing it using the social media links!
Safe Travels!
xx Deb
littlekoo says
Great tips, and pretty accurate from my experience too. Luckily, my husband speaks some Mandarin and can read some characters which is a great help! Travelling in China is not easy but there are loads of great things to see and do. Have you been to Guilin? I think that’s my favourite place that I’ve been there, so beautiful (and relatively quiet)! Thinking about tip 1, we visited Beijing in May and were very lucky to get a few days of clear skies – but I don’t know how common that is that time of year.
Deb Che says
Thanks for your comment 🙂 Any amount of Mandarin knowledge can certainly help with getting around in China! I agree – there is so much to see and do in China. Every corner of it offers different landscapes and cultural traditions. Guilin is definitely on my list. I hear the landscape almost echoes that of Halong Bay. Glad to hear that it’s relatively quiet & hopefully less touristy! Have you traveled anywhere else in China? I also want to visit the Yunnan province in the south.
littlekoo says
I have been to Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Xi’an, Guangzhou and Shenzhen (but the last 2 only because they are near Hong Kong). Xi’an is a nicer city than I was expecting, we only went for the terracotta warriors but I enjoyed exploring the old city centre too! I blogged about it recently, if you want to see what we got up to there.
Deb Che says
Nice! You’ve been to a good number of cities in China. Xi’an is also on my list of places to visit. Awesome – I definitely want to read about your experiences in Xi’an 🙂