10 Things You Want To Know Before Visiting China

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China is an amazing country full of different landscapes and unfathomable cultural diversity. China is probably very different from most places you have visited. We thought you would appreciate a few tips to make your trip more comfortable.

 

Rent a car?
You cannot rent a car in China. In order to drive in China, you need a Chinese driving licence, that you can only get when you are a permanent resident. It is possible to hire a car with a driver.

 

English, please!
Most people do not speak English. You are really lucky to find a person, especially outside of the bigger cities, who speaks to you in English. This is changing though: children in China nowadays learn English at school.

 

Write it down!
This ties into the previous tip, but since most people do not understand English, you should have some things written down and translated into Chinese. For example, it is a good idea to have the address of your accommodation written down in Chinese, so that the bus driver or taxi driver can understand it.

 

No liking & sharing … officially!
You cannot access Facebook, Youtube, Gmail, Google and other social media sites; plus, a lot of other sites you use in your home country. There are options to bypass this problem (just google VPN!). But make sure you have all the necessary access information through those sites before entering China. Print it out or download the information.

 

Do I need a gas mask?
Sometimes the pollution can be really bad. This problem occurs mostly in bigger cities and in Northern China. Make sure you check local websites for information on how bad the pollution is on the days you are visiting and take necessary precautions like wearing a mask. You can buy these masks everywhere.

 

Traffic hazards!
The traffic is very unpredictable. Chinese peple do not always obey the rules of the road. In fact, they mostly don’t. So be careful when walking on busy roads and crossing the street even if the light is green.

 

Want to see it ALL? Take your time!
China is a huge country. Do visit as many places as possible. China has so many different regions with different cultures and completely spectacular nature. The flights between cities are not very expensive and seeing different places is well worth a couple of flights.

 

Foreigner trouble…
Not all hotels accept foreigners. Make sure you book a hotel that you can actually stay in before your arrival. You might run into this problem mostly when trying to stay in very cheap hotels out of the bigger cities.

 

S, M, L, or XL?
The clothing sizes and shoe sizes are a lot smaller in China for an average European. If you are a bigger person or have a large shoe size, it’s harder to find clothes that fit you. Try to find large worldwide chain stores like H&M if you need to buy yourself something new to wear.

 

Do the homework!
Beware of knock-offs. In China, it might seem a lot cheaper to buy expensive goods like brand watches and electronics. Most of those are knock-offs and might break after a few uses. So make sure that you buy expensive things only from legit stores.