A trip to China is not about relaxation.
A trip to China is hard work.
It means planning, organizing and putting into practice. Routes, guided tours, food and many unexpected things. No matter how hard you plan, your journey may still be shaken by some surprises. One of ours was getting around China.
Despite the preparation, our China tour confronted us with some interesting aspects related to traffic and transportation. In this post I gathered our lived experiences, tips and tricks we got along the way to make your path to China a little smoother.
So here I am to deliver. General, but also, crazy and unexpected data on getting around China – authentic, firsthand, and sometimes surprising experiences.
Getting around China: insider tips for using the train
Getting around China: the metro made easy
Getting around China: on bus rides, scooters and their best transport app!
Getting around China: insider tips for using the train
- Chinese trains already have a great reputation. They are fast (some superfast even!), clean, modern, affordable and on time. Although for most tourist destinations there are several trains a day, it can be a good idea to book (at least) a few days ahead. We booked most of our tickets on trip.com; it worked just fine!
- Maybe it’s because of the humongous size of cities or modern infrastructure, but train stations look like airports. This is no exaggeration! As everywhere in China, as you enter the railway station, you get your luggage checked. Then, you undergo the first ID check. For this, you must be careful and ask for info. Foreigners have to wait in different lines (sometimes entrances) compared to the Chinese. After the control, raise your eyes to the digital table and head towards the waiting lobby allotted for your train. Luckily, the info here is displayed both in Chinese and English. When your dedicated train is 10-15 minutes before the departure time, the actual gate for the platform opens. So, you’ll have to sit in another queue for another ID check. Again, different from the Chinese! This is why you need to arrive at the station around one hour before departure – it takes a while to pass through the Chinese formalities. In some cases, control is even more tedious, such as crossing from China to Hong Kong. Read here about our unbelievable experience in Hong Kong!
- We wanted to have genuine experiences, that is why for our Beijing to Shanghai travel we decided to take the night train. Sleeping on the train would not only save us precious travel time but also spare one-night hotel expenses. We took a sleeper train for six (with a 3-tier berth as we were five!), but to our surprise, compartments of six had no door! We walked throughout the whole train, so I can report that four-person cabins (double-decker berths) do have doors!
- We have noticed everywhere that people in China are rather lonely. I understand this is a Chinese policy that discourages people from large groups and gatherings, as probably they’d influence each other this way. So, I guess, four people in a train compartment is ok, while six is too large a number to be given privacy.
- We tried the Shanghai Maglev, the world’s fastest commercial train, connecting Longyang Road Station (metro) to Pudong International Airport on a 30-kilometer track. It uses German technology and, although it can achieve a top speed of 431 km/h, the train is currently limited to 300 km/h. While you cannot sense its levitation above the track (uses electromagnets), you can feel the inclination during the 8-minute ride.
Getting around China: the metro made easy
- Every curious tourist has heard of the great firewall of China! To survive, you must absolutely have internet (we bought Astrill VPN and Nomads e-sim) and Alipay. Without internet and Alipay you cannot do anything (the other apps are optional). This is how you’ll pay for the metro tickets, as well as food, guides and the rest. (We neither had nor used cash at all in two weeks).
- Controls are predominant at every metro station and tourist attraction. You have to undergo a corporal check and need to have your luggage checked, just like at the airport. Sometimes you need to take out the water for a scan. (Beijing has the strictest controls).
- When you purchase metro tickets, click on the name of the final destination. This way, you’ll get the right tariff on the screen and don’t have to bother about not being able to exit the station without a Chinese public officer coming to teach you a lesson! Happened to us, yeah!
- You can only purchase individual tickets at the metro. Rides are very affordable: an average ride ranks between 3-4 yuan (0.36-0.48 euros). Trains are clean, on time and you can choose between moderate and low temperatures.
- Metro lines are numerous and even more so are exits. If possible, do your research ahead! It can save you a tremendous amount of time! For example, People’s Square station in Shanghai has no less than 20 main exits, situated at a considerable distance from each other! (There is a whole underground city in the Chinese cities!)
Getting around China: on bus rides, scooters and their best transport app!
- Given that many cities in China are over 20 million, distances are immense. You need to add up the controls, and you’ll understand why you cannot manage visiting too much in a day!
- Beijing is by far the city with the strictest controls. In other parts of China, there is a slightly more relaxed vibe. There are cameras literally everywhere. All in all, you end up feeling safe in China.
- At the Forbidden City, because there was no luggage storage to shelter your things, they wanted to confiscate my SPF face spray considering it flammable.
- Forget the documentaries telling you about China’s level of pollution! Today, the Eastern Asia country is filled with more electric cars than some European countries! Most of the cars we see are modern and in a pretty good shape.
- In our first day in Beijing, we took the bus, but the experience we lived was so overpowering that we decided not to repeat it! So, we were patiently waiting at the bus stop planning to buy tickets from the driver. On the bus, there were 2 police officers who “wanted to guide us through the ticketing process”. It was so complicated considering they spoke no word of English! Anyway, in order to buy the tickets, we had to register our passport info on the app! This was all so unexpected, considering that one bus ticket cost no more than 0.12 euro!!!!! Anyway, it took us almost 3 stops before we succeeded! And in the meantime, the officers’ expression was so serious that we thought they’d ask us to get off the bus at the next stop!
Insider tip!: Always carry the passport with you in China! They might ask you to scan your documents anywhere!
- Did you know that in China there are more scooters registered than cars? This explains part of China’s unbearable traffic in the big cities! And scooters are a real danger both to themselves and pedestrians! I really mean it! We almost got killed by the e-scooters and cars that ignore the traffic lights! Even when regularly on a crosswalk, there are soooo many hurried delivery scooters who choose to only care about them! Be cautious on the crosswalk, and at the green traffic lights!
Insider tip!: Oftentimes, we’d glue ourselves next to Chinese to cross the road! They are better trained! And be prepared for noise and infinite honking!
- If you have the guts, rent an electric scooter! You scan a QR code from one of the hundreds of scooters, insert your passport info and wait! It is of course mandatory to have Alipay or We Chat! After some time, you get the approval and that’s it! We tried it, true, not in a huge city, but in Guilin! Very pleasant!
- In large cities, I noticed a 3 or 4-lane highway for cars that is separated from another wide lane which seems to exist to accommodate short stops for Didi drivers (Chinese uber) and the habitual never-ending line of scooters.
- You must absolutely download the Didi app before leaving your country! We have never used something like Uber so extensively! It is by far the most affordable app of its kind! We used it a lot in Beijing and took advantage of it, especially in smaller cities. For instance, in Guilin we only paid 7 euros for 30 km from the airport to the hotel! Or for 10 km we spent under 5 euros! Besides, Didi cars are usually great (most of them are BYD)! But do not expect English speaking drivers!
- Use the independent Didi app! There is Didi as part of Alipay as well, but it doesn’t display the location 100% faithfully! Precise location is crucial on broad Chinese boulevards.
- When using Didi, you can select regular rides in the app. But if you are in a hurry, tick express rides also, which results in faster but also slightly more expensive rides.
- Be prepared for the unexpected! As we wanted to experience several types of transportation in China, we decided to take a domestic flight from Shanghai to Guilin. Everything was reserved through booking.com one month before the flight with a Chinese company called Juneyao Airlines. But… on the day of the flight, the lady from the flight company enlightened us there was no flight on that day. More exactly, their flight was moved to the next day, and nobody announced us. I thoroughly checked all the mails and talked to both companies. I can only speculate whose fault it was, but one thing was sure, we had to reach Guilin that evening as we had activities booked for the next day. To sum up, we bought other tickets with another company. To this day, we did not get a refund, but I’m still hoping for the best. (The refund companies I applied for do not work in Asia!).
Have you been to China? Did you have any interesting or unexpected experiences? If so, I’d be more than happy to hear about them!
