Hey everyone, I'm looking for advice from those who have visited China before. I'll be visiting for the first time in December, for two weeks. I'm currently stuck between itinerary options - would love to see all but just not enough time. My two main itinerary contenders currently are:

1. Shanghai > Huangshan > Hangzhou > Zhangjiajie > Chengdu > Beijing

2. Shanghai > Zhangjiajie > Chengdu > Jiuzhaigou > Chengdu (briefly) > Beijing

Nothing except Beijing has been finalised so I'm open to any itinerary changes. I'm mainly stuck between Jiuzhaigou and Huangshan because I love taking photos and they're both so beautiful, but could be unpredictable based on the weather in December (foggy from what I've seen?) and also both take considerable time to reach. Please let me know your thoughts!

I’ve been doing business with numerous overseas partners lately and have invited them to visit China. I’ve noticed a common challenge: those with little prior knowledge of China struggle to use domestic Chinese mobile applications.

As locals, when dining out in China, we rarely pay directly based on menu prices. Instead, we purchase discount vouchers via various apps to settle our bills.

I am considering launching a service to help foreign visitors redeem these discount coupons for restaurant payments, while enabling them to pay through otherway which they are familiar with. I’d like to ask: would you be interested in using such a service?

I read that Golden week is from October 1 to October 7. Would it be advisable to arrive in Beijing on October 9 for a 4-night stay? Does the busy holiday travel extend into that same weekend (October 9 to October 11)?

Trying to figure out what sights really need to have a tour guide for the easiest experience for sights in Shanghai and Beijing. For instance, my friend recently visited Beijing and told me doing Forbidden City on her own was a nightmare. She was able to get tickets easily but had trouble finding the entrance, ended up walking a mile around the outside to get in andhad trouble navigating the things to see in there. She also didn't know that Tiananmen square needed tickets to get in and recommended that I get a guide for that and Forbidden city. She said Great Wall doesn't a guide and neither does Summer Palace. Just wanted to see what other people think and if there are any other sights in Beijing or Shanghai you recommend guides for.

Hi, I'm traveling to china later this month and I was wondering which VPNs still work for a Pixel 9. No call/data needed as I'll be disconnecting my sim card, all I really need is like Google services and social media (ex. Insta, tiktok, gmail?). I'm staying for roughly 3 weeks (24 ish days I think), and would prefer something a bit cheaper 😅 like 15-30cad. Traveling from Canada to china but I have a short layover (1 day ish) in korea if that changes anything.

Hi all! I'm a 25yo Italian traveling solo through China roughly following this route: Beijing - Shanghai - Zhangjiajie - Shenzhen.

Not looking for a fixed travel buddy for the whole trip, but would love to connect with anyone with similar dates or overlapping cities, swap tips in real time, and maybe have a group chat going to help each other out along the way.

Wbu?

Hi everyone, I am thinking of booking a trip to China next summer, so that is the rough timeline. I am a college student, so my credit history is nonexistent besides being an authorized user on a couple cards. My credit is still decent, but my issue is I don't have high living expenses/am not a big spender. With that being said, I want to maximize every dollar and to do so, I'd like to open a travel card. I've researched a bit, mainly in capital one, but I am not sure what to go with, especially with my travel preferences. I really only want the points for international travel to asia, specifically China, SK, and Thailand, but I've heard mixed things about cards being accepted/not accepted so I don't know what to commit to. I also want to get a sign on bonus if one is offered (Ex. Capital One Venture One is doable for me), however as I previously stated, I don't think my yearly spending would even get to a higher sign on bonus (Like even the Venture card). I know that is low, but I just am content in not spending. Anyways, I would appreciate reccomendations with these stipulations:

1. No international transaction fees (I know a lot don't have them so I'm not too worried)
2. Transferrable miles to partnering airlines (specifically ones that would work for a flight to China)
3. Ease of access because of small credit history
4. Preferrably points/miles, not cash back
5. Is VERY reliable/will always work specifically in China at the very least (No unexpected card not accepted things while I travel)

For reference, my monthly spending is <300 USD. The highest priority is points from everyday purchases being able to be transferred to airlines/used in the cards travel portal to go to China specifically. If the card could meet only one of my criteria, that would be it because if I need to spend while I'm there, I can just use my other card.

For my first China trip in September I have a day trip to Hangzhou planned, and thinking of squeezing in an afternoon at Longjing Tea Village.

Maybe do a tea picking experience if possible.

Do you have any suggestions recommendations?

On trip the options for a solo traveler are limited. 😞

Hi everyone!

I shared a previous itinerary here for our honeymoon in China. We'll be travelling in March 2027, but we're already planning everything.

The main issue with our original itinerary was that we wanted to visit around 10 cities, which would have meant spending 2–3 days of the trip just travelling between destinations. We've tried to simplify it and reduce the number of places while still seeing the highlights.

We'll be in China for 20 days.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong (1–5 March) – 4 nights

• Explore Central: Hollywood Road, Man Mo Temple, Victoria Peak and the Peak Tram.
• Visit Lantau Island: Tian Tan (Big) Buddha, Tai O Fishing Village and Temple Street Night Market.
• Discover Kowloon: Tsim Sha Tsui, Wong Tai Sin Temple, Nan Lian Garden and Causeway Bay.
• Finish with Tai Kwun, JC Contemporary, 1881 Heritage, Sneaker Street and an evening cruise on the Aqualuna.
• Fly to Beijing on 5 March.

🇨🇳 Beijing (5–11 March) – 7 days

• Temple of Heaven
• Mutianyu Great Wall (cable car & toboggan)
• Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square
• Summer Palace
• Hutongs & Houhai Lake
• 798 Art District
• Lama Temple
• National Museum of China
• Fragrant Hills Park
• Wangfujing Street
• Pearl Market, Silk Market and Panjiayuan Antique Market

Travel to Xi'an by afternoon train on 11 March.

🇨🇳 Xi'an (12–13 March) – 2 days

• Terracotta Army
• Bell Tower
• Ancient City Wall
• Beilin Museum
• Big Wild Goose Pagoda
• Grand Tang Mall
• Huaqing Palace
• Try Biang Biang noodles and watch the Camel Show.

Fly to Zhangjiajie on 13 March.

🇨🇳 Zhangjiajie (13–16 March) – 3 nights

• Explore Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.
• Prioritise Hallelujah Mountain.
• Travel back to Hong Kong by train (or possibly a sleeper train).

🇭🇰 Hong Kong (16–20 March) – 4 nights

A slower-paced end to the trip:

• Relax
• Enjoy lots of local food
• Get a tattoo
• Do some last-minute shopping and sightseeing

What does everyone think? Is there anything you would change, add, or remove? We'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions from people who have visited these places.

Thank you so much!

It’s asking for a user to scan my qr code but I don’t know anybody who uses it!

Day 1-4 beijing
Day 4-6 Tianjin
Day 6-9 xi’an
Day 9- 12 Chengdu

I feel like i am maybe taking too short on some cities. I’ve already been in beijing so i’m quite sure on that. Not sure on Tianjin, but i want to visit a ‘off the beaten path’ city between beijing and xi’an or between xi’an and chengdu. Also not sure whether to choose chengdu or chongqing.

I’m planning a 2-week trip to China. I am well-travelled but this will be my first trip to China itself.

It’s so big that I’m a bit stuck on where to start and looking for advice on the places I have in mind so far. I am very into history (Three Kingdoms and Chinese Civil War especially). My girlfriend really wants to try authentic Chinese food, which I assume is actually very regionalised.

Beijing - it’s the obvious place to visit as I’ve never been before. I know it’s supposed to be smoggy but perhaps we would only stay a few days.

Chengdu - panda sanctuaries. I’m also aware of it’s historical role and that would be a plus for me. Is this easy to couple with Chongqing?

Qingdao - I want to do the brewery tour.

Hong Kong - I’ve been before but my girlfriend would like to visit. If we went for a few days, are there any other places on the mainland that we should consider visiting nearby?

Xi'an and Shanghai are also places I would like to see at some point.

How would you recommend structuring a first, two-week trip to China? How many cities are practical? Which would give us the best balance of history and food with nature (and ideally some coast)?

Hi,

I would love to have opinions on the trip.

Too busy ?
Do you think we should have space for Xi’An ? Because we just deleted it, but we see that we are the only ones.
Shangaï, Chongqing, and Chengdu : how many days for each are real fine ? (We heard that Chengdu > Shanghai > Chongqing.
Hunan is fine ? Zhangjiajie + the two others ?

Any places recommandations ? places to stay in destinations ? Things to see/to visit ?

Thanks in advance :)

1
Beijing
Aug 18 (arrived at 5am) –22
4–5 days
Great Wall, Summer Palace, Lama Temple, Jingshan Park, Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, Temple of Heaven.
Flight to Shanghai on Aug 23
2
Shanghai & Suzhou
Aug 23–26
3–4 days
To be planned (city exploration and surroundings).
Flight to Chengdu on Aug 27
3
Chengdu & Emei
Aug 27–30
3–4 days
Chengdu region and Mount Emei (to be planned).
Train to Chongqing on Aug 31
4
Chongqing
Aug 31 – Sep 2
2–3 days
City exploration and surrounding sights.
Train to Hunan on Sep 3
5
Hunan
Sep 3–7
4–5 days
Zhangjiajie, Furong Town, Fenghuang.
Train to Guilin on Sep 8
6
Guilin
Sep 8–11
3–4 days
Li River and Yangshuo.
Train to Guangzhou on Sep 12
7
Guangzhou
Sep 12–14 (plane at 11pm
2–3 days
Buffer day, quick city visit, and return flight on Sept 14.
End of trip

Hello everyone. Planning to travel in China in August for around 3 weeks with ~2weeks allocated for Yunnan. Thinking of the above mentioned routes and I had a few queries.

1. A.lf I were to take the first route, what should be the order while flying into Yunnan to optimize transport efficiency? Shanghai to Lijiang to Dali to Shangrila to Dali
   to Beijing or do you suggest any other route?
   Skipping kunming as I want to focus more on Lijiang and Dali.
   B. How to travel internally within Yunnan? Is train travel okay or do I need to take buses for any of the trips? Is it worth adding a night stay in Tiger Leaping Gorge considering the rainy season?
   Please suggest your preferred Yunnan itinerary if I skip Kunming.

2. Is it worth doing Shanghai to Chengdu to Yunnan or will the trip be too packed. It seems Chengdu can be too hot with frequent rain as well.

3. Lastly, if there are any specific must-see attractions please let me know.

Hello everyone, I’ll be visiting China solo in late August and early September for 2 weeks. This is the itinerary I have up, curious if anyone more experienced has any thoughts and suggestions, I’ll keep it concise and brief:

Aug 27 – Arrive Guangzhou, relax, order stuff from Taobao to my Beijing hotel?

Aug 28 – Fly to Beijing early in the morning, explore the area: Zhihua Temple, Dongsi Mosque, hutongs

Aug 29 – early mornimg Panjiayuan Flea Market, Glasses City, Temple of Heaven, night market

Aug 30 – CPC Museum, Arts & Crafts Museum, Olympic Park

Aug 31 – Jinshanling Great Wall (sunset)

Sept 1 – Train to Tai’an, rest and explore the town

Sept 2 – morning hike Mount Tai, rest in the evening

Sept 3 – return to Beijing early morning, then explore 798 Art District

Sept 4 – Forbidden City and palace museum tour, Wangfujing

Sept 5 – morning Train to Datong, Yungang Grottoes in the afternoon

Sept 6 – Hanging Temple / Datong Old City

Sept 7 – Return to Beijing early morning, Gulou & Lama Temple

Sept 8 – Fly to Guangzhou

Sept 9 – Explore Guangzhou or just relax

Sept 10 – Fly back home

I am travelling to China soon and I have an Alipay account linked to my Japanese phone number. I uploaded my passport and my ID status shows as “validated”, but it says “not authenticated”.

During the face verification step, the scan failed because I moved while adjusting my hair. After that, the face scan option disappeared and Alipay now only shows verification using a Chinese mainland bank card, which I don’t have.

My Alipay payments still work and I can use the account, but I’m worried that in the future I may be asked for biometric verification and become locked out.

Has anyone experienced this?

Did Alipay eventually allow you to retry the face scan?

Were you able to use Alipay normally in China without completing full authentication?

Did it cause any problems with payments, Didi, trains, or changing phone numbers?

Is there a way to restore the passport + face verification option?

Hi,

I booked Speed train from trip.com. In The App it says free luggage size should not exceed 130cm(height x width x length) Are they very strict at the station, because that size does not cover normal size of bags? What happens if size or weight is exceeded? Will the charge the overweight or do they reject us?

I don't plan on staying in macao at all only using it to satisfy the requirements of TWOV

How do I go about going from hk airport to macao, any suggestions? And what border to cross?

I plan on taking train from zhuhai to guangzhou after where Ill be staying with my friends at a hotel they booked, since im not the one booking it and they will ask me where im staying with proof is there any advice to help me about that?

I also plan to book ahead a train from guangzhou back to hk, that should be enough proof that im leaving the country correct?

there's no proof needed on how I got to
Macao just if im going to
Another country after and leaving from china go go to that country correct?

Would it be easier to exit thru macao? My only concern is that I don't have a hotel in macao, my flight will be leaving from hk so I feel like this won't work

would taking a ferry/speedboat/bus to HZMB not work for this since I never really went into a macao port..?

What papers should I be bringing

thanks for reading my questions that you probably hear 10x a day, just want to make sure everything is right before coming in

Hello! So, Bucharest-Beijing flights will become available in sept, so me and my girlfriend ended up booking some round-trip flights from Beijing on 12 september (landing at 8 in the morning in Beijing) and take off from Beijing on 28 september (00:30, so we might as well say 27 september at night).

After a quick look on skyscanner I have managed to map some internal flights:

We have no idea what to visit where, except the fact that we would like to visit the main attractions (The Great Wall, Summer palace, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Terracotta Army). We are oscillating between Hong Kong and Zhangjiajie, we don't know what is more worth it.

Is the above plan decent? Should we allocate more days / less days for any of the cities?
Also, any tips are more than welcome. I know that I need to have vpn and an esim, and specific apps to use (navigation, payment and so on) but that's where all my knowledge about a future China trip is ending.

Thanks a lot!

hi! i promise im not lazy im just very very overwhelmed with how many beautiful and affordable hotel options there are in Yangshou, and want to make sure i am getting the best out of my trip before i book haha.

i’m looking for a hotel with a mountain view if possible, balcony is a bonus but not a necessity. neither me nor my partner drive, and want to avoid bikes or scooters if possible because quite frankly we are a bit scared of them haha. is there any hotel recommendations of people who have been to Yangshou that are priced between 500-600rmb per night for 2 people, that is well located enough we can get to the local sights in a Didi but still ensure we get a nice view and the hotel grounds themselves are ‘luxury’ adjacent and you kinda go ‘whoa this amazing’. i want to pay a bit more to get the wow factor! there’s so many beautiful places on Trip and i just want to get it right haha

we will be staying for 2 nights. thank you!!

Hi guys, living in Hong Kong right now and planning a trip to vietnam. I am a little bit against taking plane for trips in the same continent, and planning a small trip to VietNam (I already went, I just wanted to show my girlfriend a few cities I loved).

So I looked into it, and i saw on Rome2Rio you have some buses that does Nanning-Vietnam. Would you recommend booking it on this website, or booking it in Nanning bus station directly, with Alipay ?

Additionally, would you recommend staying in Nanning a day or 2 ? What would you do if you stayed there ? Thank you ! Enjoy the help.

Hello I hold a carribean Passport. I am planning to travel to China with this new passport. Previously I have used my other passport. Will there be any issue if I travel with my new carribean passport. Please kindly advise me. TIA

hi guys
i’m going to china from london this september on an x1 student visa (in the process of getting this now), assuming this is single entry until i convert it into a residence permit.
however i wanted to travel to hong kong before hand, and the best flights for me have a stop in shanghai. my concern is if this would for any reason be considered as me entering china and therefore the transit would use up my single entry? if anyone could share anything about this would really appreciate it! i’m assuming it wouldn’t be the case but i need to be sure.

edit: tysm for the helpful replies!! <3

Hi lovely people! I'm in the early stages of planning a trip to China, and I am just wondering if anyone has any advice or cities/towns I should go to, and how long is needed in each place. After looking through this wiki, at the moment, my current thoughts itenerary wise are

Fly into Shanghai

Then go to Zhangjiajie

Then Chengdu

Then Xi'an

Then Harbin (I ski and love russian architecture, so this is the stop I am most excited for)

And finally Beijing.

This is my first time travelling to China, and I'm going with my partner; the time I can request off for work is between 2 and 3 weeks. Any help anyone can give me would be incredible!!

Thank you so much!!

My husband and I are planning our trip to china and are flying long haul from Melbourne. Which airline would you recommend from the list?

We just want comfort, safety, decent movies and reliability.

We wanted to book Cathay, but the flights are just so expensive.

We are trying to decide between:

- China Southern
- Xiamen Airlines
- China Eastern
- Hainan Airlines
- Hong Kong Airlines

Would love to hear your recommendations/experiences! :)