Surviving China is a feat on its own! It is such a different country culturally, especially with such a large language barrier in certain places, we found China a bit hard to navigate and understand. However, we took down some notes and found some travel tips to make life easier when visiting China!
1 — Always bargain:
We came in thinking that we should start off with a price at least 50% off on what they offer. We were later told by a local that we were still getting ripped off and to start by offering 70% off the said prices. That way when you negotiate you end up getting the half price you originally wanted. Also, don’t be afraid to walk away if you are unhappy with the offered price. You will almost always get reeled back in. This is a great travel tip if you are a shoestring traveler as every dollar counts!
2 — Bring ear plugs:
China is loud.They don’t seem to use headphones when watching movies or listening to music and tend to speak a bit louder. Honestly, it is just a culture thing were not used to! But the noise is especially prevalent on overnight trains (if you get hard seats) or in hostels with the occasional snorer so earplugs can really help numb the noise. Jack bought some pretty cheap ones off Amazon that seem to work well.
3 — Take the metro:
Take the metro or buses. We found that the metro in most places in China (like Shanghai and Beijing) were well organized, efficient, convenient, and most importantly, super cheap–we’re talking like 2¥ per ride vs. ¥60 on taxi!! Taxi’s seem to give you a higher price to take you the same distance as the metro. On top of that, most taxi drivers didn’t understand us when we spoke so we either had the address written in Chinese prior to the taxi or would show it on our google maps. In the end, the metro was just easier and cheaper!
4 — Screen shot your destination:
We found it very helpful to take a screenshot the location of our destination (hostel, restaurant, site..) to show cab drivers or people where we were going if we got lost. Sometimes the streets are written in both English and in Chinese, but in case you still get lost, ask a cab driver to take you home by showing them the screenshot and it makes the communication a whole lot easier. It is also good for your own sake to orient yourself with where you are.
5 — Preload Google maps:
As mentioned in the above tip, taking a screenshot helps, but if you preload your Maps to where you are going (on Wifi), you are able to see every street name, every train line, and usually landmarks as well. It ends up being a handy guide to where you are going. Sometimes the maps still have the GPS function working even without Wifi, so you are able to see which direction you are heading. Just a heads up, Google maps does not work very well in China so we were constantly switching between Google and Apple Maps.
6 — Write or have the address in Chinese:
Most people in China do not speak much English. We discovered that finding information booths at airports or train stations (or even hostels) could help us write the address in Chinese to show cab drivers or when we needed dierections. It really helped when showing cab drivers to get to our hostels, it ended up being so easy and so simple.
7 — Get a YHA card:
In China, a YHA card cost ¥50. If you plan on traveling China for over a few weeks, you should definitely try and get one. We saved so much money on hotels, meals, drinks, and even activities. The purchase was worth every penny and you can get them at any YHA hostel!!
8 –Learn the Chinese hand gestures for numbers to negotiate price:
As previously stated, many Chinese do not speak English. We found that when trying to ask for a price or even bargaining, Chinese people would use certain hand gestures for certain numbers. They are quite easy to learn and would be really great to know prior to China. It makes bargaining heaps easier. Also, learn how to say please and thank you- they love it!
9 — Booking train tickets at the airports:
Train tickets are very hit and miss with availability in China. Any time we got off a plane, we would go straight for the ticket bookings to book our next train ticket. It saved us so much time! We no longer had to go all the way to the main train stations just to purchase tickets.
BONUS 10 — Be confident in what you order:
In China, people don’t always understand what you are saying. The majority of the time when we went to restaurants, the servers would mess up our order– and by no means they’re fault. If we asked “what is this?” or “what is in it”, they usually just wrote it down because you pointed to it and we would end up getting 3 dishes. So, be confident in what you order, know what you want and stick with it (it happens too if you try to change it!).
We hope these China travel tips are useful to you. If you have any of your own tips that we missed, please feel free to leave a comment below. The more the merrier! Please check out our China destinations page if you are looking for great information on China! .
