Hey, traveling to China for the first time and just after any tips and tricks? We are staying in Beijing. I'm looking for the best simcard/VPN set up and other helpful hints to know before the trip. Cheers
Traveling to China - Late October 🇨🇳
LColdestpants on 12/07/2017 - 23:52
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Hahahah +1
All good on that front, updated last year haha
Im not sure if you can still buy a simcard locally. I heard different stories from people. It wasnt an issue for me a couple of years ago but during my trip to Shanghai last year, I was asked to produce a chinese ID to buy a sim which I dont have. China mobile didnt wanna accept a foreign passport. Seems like the policy keeps changing.
Thats what i'm hearing as well. With the internet being restricted just looking for a work around, So i can at least use Facebook.
Do you have a stop over in Singapore? Or direct flight?
I'm heading to Beijing in September and am curious about stuff to do.
Hey we have a stop over in a place called "CAN Guangzhou" for about 2 hours.
When are going there?
We leave on the 22nd of OCT for 12 nights, Yourself?
Guangzhou not CAN Guangzhou, a big city of a population of 14 Millions :)
Anything to do around the airport? Or in it its self? :)
Late October in Beijing should be nice. We were there in Dec/Jan and freezing! That was maybe 7 years ago and since then, the China Visa fees have gone up manytimes. Wish to go back soon but not winter.
CAN is the airport code for "Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport", I believe it's short for Canton, Westerners' name for GuangZhou. Think Cantonese. They used to have (might still do) a no-visa policy if you are there for a certain hours. It's a huge huge airport so can be confusing. 2-hours is not much so be sure to study your map, especially if you are with different airlines.
Tips for Beijing? So many, I can write pages and pages because I was the "tourguide" for our trip. There was 3 of us, and we decided to hire a taxi whose name we got from a friend. That was the best decision ever. I plan the daily itnenary, and he picked us up everyday and took us around. When we were tired (I think only happend one day) we chose not to be in his car and walked around the area.
Beijing is a huge city, so for our 12 nights, we stayed in 3 different hotels in 3 different areas. I remember in cold winter midnight, we ventured out to "Ghost Street" for dinner/supper and the street was lit-up like day time, full of people!!
We didnt bother with VPN or FB, rather spend our time venturing out. Nowadays perhaps you can sign-up for WeChat. It's widely used and used for everything!
As for SIM card, AFAIK, they should have very good if not better public wifi in China. That's based on chats with friends.
If you provide more info or ask more specific questions, I probably can help better.
Enjoy!!
Awesome thanks for the reply! I ment 12hrs not 2 haha
Is there anything you really recommend seeing?
Any hotels you recommend?
Should we take Cash or will a travel money card do?
Are taxis easy to get?
Is there any good translator apps or books that we should get?
you could visit this place
http://www.cantontower.com/en/they have a walk where you can actually walk around the outside of the tower about halfway up. i did it during the middle of summer, i really don't recommend it in summer.
You mean the processing centre service fee has gone up… I recall this was quite a substantial jump when they moved their office into the CBD with a view.
A while back (15 years) while on business, we had a traveller take a photo of one of their military installations from the outside across the road. He earned a smack in the face with the butt of a rifle, a smashed camera, a day in the installations interrogation room, and through intervention of a colleague with powerful political connections, an armed escort back to the airport and onto the next plane.
Enjoy your stay, but never forget to play by their rules.
We went in April. We stayed at Novotel Xin Qiao. We had club rooms including breakfast, all day non alcoholic drinks and happy hour including alcoholic drinks and light buffet. We got it on an Accor special for $60 per person a day. Didn't spend a cent for first two days. We liked the hotel as it was a five metre walk to a train station.
1. Use the Subway. Very easy to get around and signs are in English. You can go to the Summer Palace and the Olympic stadium easily.
2. Don't go to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. Hire a driver and go to Mutianyu. Go up the wall via cable car, walk the wall to the toboggan and go down. Be aware that the steps are irregular.
3. Try the Tuk Tuk food tour. Above average price but great tour through the hutongs eating at places you will never find by yourself. Some places only fitted ten people.
4. We took cash and card but only used cash. Our hotel was next to bank with foreign exchange.
5. I cannot stress how important it is to have your destinations written in Chinese. If you hail a taxi driver, even ta the airport, he will probably not speak English and may not read hotel names in English characters. Get your hotel name in Chinese characters.
6. We got a free VPN on a trial on about Day 4. Ours was routed by Tokyo.Who did you use for your VPN? And did you use any translator apps?
Express vpn. Glad to use it after listening to Chinese controlled news.
Did not use a translator app.
Late Oct still gets quite cold, especially in Beijing, and if you're going to the Great Wall. I highly recommend a private tour guide also if this is your first time. You don't want to be in one of those big group tours, they take you shopping, feeds you lunch in a massive dining hall, etc, and the guide generally speaks horrible English. Private tour guides cost a lot more (still affordable though) but they take you in their own car, leave you to have your own lunch (I tried to invite mine multiple times but he kept on politely refusing), and doesn't take you to those tourist shops with crazy prices. Trust me, it's a lot worth it. I've been on both the group tours and private tours, so I'm speaking from my own experience.
Other than that, go to Da Dong and try the signature Peking Duck. There are other famous Peking Duck restaurants nowadays too in Bejing so you don't need to go to Da Dong, but this was the one we went to a few years ago, and we loved it.
Not too sure about the simcard but I do think that they record your details. However, I vaguely remember that a foreign ID, such as Passport is OK. Otherwise, if you have Vodafone, you can use the $5 per day roaming as well.
Was there earlier this year, used https://www.expressvpn.com - worked very well. Trialled some other ones, but they didn't work. I think it's a bit of a cat & mouse game with VPNs though, so they may not always work all the time…
Thats the one im leaning towards by the sounds of it
Have just returned from 10 days in China and can tell you that apart from the language difficulties it is difficult to obtain a sim card there. Went to a China Unicom store with a Chinese speaking tour guide and it took an hour to get one sorted. Yes you do need your passport. A friend of mine bought his on ebay before leaving Australia and activated it when he arrived without any problems.
Just went to china (not Beijing) and my hotel had wifi with a vpn set up. All the websites that shouldn't work did. Which hotel are you staying with?
Otherwise, just download any vpn. They're all pretty good.
Also, get wechat. It is often used to connect to wifi and get deals and specials at various shops and restaurants.
And download google trabslate and the Chinese language packs too.
Awesome thanks!!
Hi mate I just got back from Shanghai and Beijing recently and they're both great places. I installed about 4 vpn's to be safe and although I definitely recommend using a few the free snap vpn with the key app symbol was by far the most reliable, just be sure to keep cycling through the countries if the app doesn't connect. With regard to transport the subway was by far the best way to get around, I'd recommend saving a map before leaving. Also the language barrier can make things a bit tough so it's best to make sure you've got a sim, data and translator app before leaving.
Enjoy the trip.China. Awesome! You will love it!
We used China Unicom (uses same freq as our mobiles). Good although if you travel around the country it's like roaming internationally with a cheap sim (roaming rates etc). If you're staying in the one place - just go with the cheapest you can find. Obtaining a sim is no hassle at all.
VPN for us was ExpressVPN. Works good for all but WeChat (essential) so you will be turning in on and off all the time.
Use the metro to get around. Note that if you get a reusable card that you just top up you will need a alipay account in order to have any unused funds retrned at the end of your trip. Google maps works really well for navigating metro and trains.
Wechat translate is awesome for text. Spoken - English to Chinese use Google translate. Chinese to English use Baidu (every one you meet will have it loaded anyway by default).
Have a great time! We cant wait to head back!^ What's that craziness, just take the card to the counter after last trip and they refund you cash.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/transpor…
I must have sucked then. I was fobbed off to the self-service machine. No option to return cash (as far as I could work out) :(
Looks like I was wearing my "western sucker" hat that day. :)
Further braindump…
We used Airbnb in Beijing (June). Great place. https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/14842853I'm under the impression that Facebook and all Google services don't work. None of my mainland Chinese friends use them - apparently due to Google's problems with China. Everyone uses wechat for instant messaging.
RE SIM card - order a China Unicom Cross Border King SIM online from their HK shop for about AUD25 https://www.cuniq.com/au/data-card/great-china/cross-border-… and it will be in your letterbox in about 10 days or less.
You can top it up online or via a third party app such as Ding. Cheap to use, gives 1GB of data/1 month for abt AUD20 as a top up.
The SIM activates when you switch on in China and your number arrives on SMS. Looking at one I just received for another trip, I think I can figure out the phone number from the SIM number, but won't be passing that around until it's confirmed on connection in China.
From the China perspective, it appears to be a HK service, so all your usual apps (FB/Google) work just fine.
I have been using this as my primary SIM with a Voda $5 per day roaming as backup.
WeChat (Eng version) installed before you leave gives text, voice and video calls to other WeChat users and I reckon about 1 billion people in China use it. Also has a mini-FB called Moments for posting pics and vids.This is very good info, thanks Rory.
I’ll be going in two weeks time. Any update please?
Make sure your passport is renewed and valid