1.1 Flight and Hotel

If you have money, I suggest you use your preferred local airline to book your flights. If you want to travel cheap like me, I suggest you book with Air China (don't use Brave Browser for booking, though, it doesn't work).

There is a trick to booking with Air China. Flights from Europe that use Beijing as a hopping point are cheaper than direct flights to and from Beijing. So, if you also want to see other cities apart from the capital, I suggest you start you journey outside the capital and end it outside. For example, I used Beijing as a hop to Seoul (I know, that's Korea, but hear me out), then spent a week in Seoul, and then took a flight from Seoul to Beijing (very cheap). I ended my journey in Hangzhou, so Beijing was again only a hop. Those hop tickets are almost half the price of direct flights to and from Beijing.

For booking hotels, I suggest using booking.com (no, they didn't sponsor me). The thing is that only certain hotels are allowed to host foreigners, they need a certificate. The hotels on booking.com all have that certificate, so you won't have a bad surprise upon arrival.

A tip for the introverts: don't book a shared room, you will need your private space after a day in the city, because there are soooooo many people, it's so crowded. You will go mad if you don't have a place where you can lock yourself away from everything. It took me about three days to get used to the amount of people on the street.

1.2 VPN

I think everyone heard of the Great Firewall of China. Basically, most websites cannot be reached and most apps, especially anything Google, doesn't work without VPN. You have to have VPN, otherwise you'll be screwed. And you need to set it up beforehand! Once you're there, you can't purchase any VPN anymore, because the Great Firewall will stop you.

My local contact told me that only Astrill VPN works well. It worked perfectly for me, so I can recommend it. A month costs 30$. And if you want super fast connections, e.g., for online gaming, you can upgrade to VIP for at least 10$. If you just want to stream, the standard is fine.

The setup of Astrill works a bit strangely, so I'll briefly explain: Creating an account only works via Website, not via App. Also, not all Browsers and all Email-providers are supported, so if it doesn't work for some reason just try a different browser or a different email address. In order to create an account, you choose a payment plan and then sign up.
Wait with the payment until a few days before you fly to China, because once you pay, the time starts running. Install the App on all devices that you want to use and log into your account. Done.

1.3 SIM card

Because roaming is very expensive, you will want a Chinese SIM or eSIM. If your phone can handle an eSIM, lucky you. If it can't, don't worry, you can simply buy a travel SIM at the airport in China upon arrival. Just go with China Unicom, they are the cheapest (15$ for 15 days with 40GB, no texts, no calls) and work all over China. You can recognize them by the lucky knot logo.

Don't be disturbed when the airport staff takes your phone to switch SIM cards. Just let them do their thing, they know what they're doing.

If you have a dual SIM phone, that is the best. If you don't, I highly recommend bringing two phones because you will still need your normal SIM to work as well for any kind of PIN message and such.

1.4 Necessary Apps

There are a few apps you'll need and you have to set most of them up before going to China. I'll walk you through each one and explain the use and benefits.

A - Alipay
You absolutely have to have this app, because VISA card does not work in China! Apart from the hotels, almost no one can handle foreign credit cards. So, nothing will work for you if you don't have Alipay. You use Alipay for payment in almost every shop and also for public transport.

It's important that you create an account and register your credit card at least 24 hours before you arrive in China because the payment will be blocked for the first 24 hours for security reasons. Also, play around a bit with the app, so that you know how it works. I'll explain the traveling part later in the Public Transport chapter.

B - WeChat
WeChat (Chinese call it Way Xin) is not just a chatting app, it also allows you to pay. You definitely need this one as well. I had WeChat but I didn't prepare the payment part of it. Then I had to pay a taxi driver and he only had WeChat Pay. I had no cash, so I registered my VISA card during the drive, but like Alipay it has a 24 hours block before you can make the first payment. So, how did I manage? A traffic assistant paid the fuming driver and I paid the traffic assistant via Alipay... It was not a good day, believe me. And at least I speak a bit of Chinese, I don't want to know how this feels when you speak no Chinese at all and the taxi driver just keeps hurling at you...

When you make a WeChat account, it will ask you to verify yourself by one of three ways: another person with WeChat scans a QR for you, you tell WeChat your credit card information, and a third way which I forgot. If you, like me, have no one who has WeChat, take the credit card way and then be patient. The verification will take a few hours up to a day. Then you can finish your registration.

WeChat has one little problem: while you can easily change and add new phone numbers in Alipay, you cannot change the phone number in WeChat for 190 days after registration. So just be aware of that and carry your normal SIM with you in case WeChat wants to send some PIN message.

C - Amap
I heard that Apple Maps works ok in China, but Google Maps definitely doesn't at all without VPN. Although Amap is completely in Chinese, it has the advantage that it can show you the quickest public transport way from your location to anywhere you want to go in realtime, which is awesome (more on this in Public Transport). And believe me, you'll want to use public transport, because walking is simply no option (at least not in Beijing). My stupid German you-can-walk-to-anywhere butt tried, I almost died. Don't be stupid like me. The app is very intuitive, so try using it blindly.

D - Translator
You'll need a good translator app, because no one speaks English (unless you're in Hongkong or Shanghai) and especially small vendors get annoyed quickly. Oh, and no Chinese person has a translation app, so you have to be the one to handle that. If you're lucky, they can speak Russian, but that's about it.

I used Google Translate for talking with people, because it has a conversation tool. WeChat has a translation tool included that can translate from pictures. I'm not sure if it can do instant translation too. Try figuring it out.

1.5 Money

Most transactions are made by app, but you should always carry 100-200 Yuan in cash, because sometimes the apps randomly don't work. If scanning a vendors QR doesn't work, first let them try to scan yours. If that also doesn't work, use cash. If the amount to pay is too big, try splitting it in two transactions.

Don't try to pay over and over again with the app that doesn't work, because at some point it will block any further attempts for security reasons.

ATMs can be found by searching for "ATM" on Amap. They work in English as well, so you should be fine. Just don't be confused when your withdrawal is declined. After my first try, my bank told me that I tried to withdraw too little, hence it was declined. If you experience the same, just try again with a larger amount.

>>>