Planning your itinerary

• Find everyone in your extended network who lives in China, and ask them for intros to the types of people you want to meet on your trip. You’ll be surprised who knows whom.
  • People in China seem more receptive to warm intros, and proportionally less receptive to cold outreach, than people in the US.
  • Use WeChat for these communications (more below), not email. People in China treat email the way people in the US treat LinkedIn messages. If you do start an interaction on email, move it to WeChat immediately.
• Use Chinese AI.
  • As of writing, Chinese AIs had better answers to questions about China, especially travel logistics. (Given AI progress this might be false by the time you’re reading this.)

Getting a visa

• Get one ahead of time for peace of mind.
  • US citizens can get a 10-day transit visa on arrival, and many people use this for tourism. But it’s a long way to fly without knowing whether you can get in.
• Ideally apply at least 6 weeks before your trip.
  • Though depending on the visa you can get one in as few as 3 days.
• I used Travel Visa Pro to handle it all for me and had a good experience.
  • You can apply through the Chinese consulate on your own, but using a visa service saves you a trip to the consulate (a big deal if your city doesn’t have a Chinese consulate) and helps handle weird edge cases, of which there are always some.
• Get a 10-year, multi-entry visa if you can. It’s barely more effort than shorter visas.
• Though you can fill out your Arrival Card after you land in China, it’s easier to do it online beforehand.

Booking

• Trip.com served me well for booking hotels and trains, both pre- and mid-trip. I booked internal flights on the airlines’ websites directly.
• First-class tickets are about the price of economy tickets in the US. Take advantage of this at least once.
• Be careful with requesting vs. buying train tickets.
  • Train tickets only go on sale a week or two ahead of time. If you “buy” a train ticket from a 3rd-party website like Trip.com before then, you’re not actually buying a ticket, you’re buying a purchase request. The 3rd party will then automatically try to buy you a ticket when tickets go on sale, but they don’t always succeed if there’s excess demand. Keep an eye on your inbox, and rebook if necessary.

Setting up your electronics

Connectivity

• Many non-Chinese websites and apps, including most of GSuite, don’t work on the Chinese internet. They’re blocked by the Great Firewall.
• Both travelers and Chinese locals ubiquitously use VPNs to get around the Great Firewall, though this is a legal gray area.
  • If you’re going to use a VPN, download and test it at home. And you should probably download two so you have a backup.
  • Which VPNs work for which sites can change hourly in China.
  • VPNs slow down many Chinese apps, sometimes to the point of them not working.
• You do not need a VPN if you’re using international roaming in China. International roaming routes around the Great Firewall.
  • Here’s one site to check whether your plan works in China, but better to check with your carrier directly.
• Get a Chinese phone number (+86) if you want maximal access to the Chinese digital ecosystem.
  • Many apps, services, and AIs require a +86 number.
  • Get a physical SIM, not an eSIM.
  • You can only get a Chinese number in-country with your passport for identity verification.
    • You can buy one at the China Mobile, China Telecom, or China Unicom shop in the airport you land in.

A common device setup people use

• Bring the following devices to China:
  • A “China phone”
    • A refurbished iPhone with a physical SIM slot
    • When you land in China, buy a physical +86 SIM in the airport and install it.
  • Your personal phone that you use at home
    • With international roaming that works in China
  • (Optional) A “China laptop”
    • A refurbished MacBook Air or similar
    • This is just an extension of your China phone. Only needed if you prefer a laptop for WeChat messaging, drafting emails, notetaking, internet research, etc.
• Use your China phone and China laptop for all things related to the Chinese digital ecosystem, before, during, and after your trip.
  • Install your Chinese apps on these devices, and keep your personal apps on your personal phone.
  • Create and use a separate GSuite account, password manager, etc. on your China phone.
  • To get selected data between these devices and your personal phone, send emails or share GDrive documents.
• Use your personal phone to stay connected to your everyday digital life via international roaming.
  • Carry it with you in case you need it, but you can mostly keep it off, as your China phone will do basically everything in-country.

Apps to install

It’s best to create accounts for these apps with a +86 number when possible in order to get full functionality. But you’ll need to install at least WeChat and maybe other apps before your trip for planning, and you can use your personal phone number as the login identity for that, even if WeChat is on your separate China phone.

Must-haves

• WeChat (微信, Wēixìn): universal communication platform, plus payments
  • It’s used for both professional and personal communication.
  • Make sure to add a credit card so payments work.
  • Most people in China are dramatically more responsive on WeChat than email.
  • WeChat has a convenient desktop app, but you often have to manually sync messages between your phone and desktop.
  • Many non-WeChat apps, like Didi, can be run inside WeChat as “mini programs” even if you don’t have the standalone non-WeChat app installed. Weirdly these often work better than the standalone non-WeChat app.
• Alipay (支付宝, Zhīfùbǎo): payments
  • Make sure to add a credit card so payments work.
• Didi (滴滴出行, Dīdī Chūxíng): Chinese Uber
  • Cars usually arrive within 2 minutes, much quicker than in the US.
  • Any tier above the lowest offers good service. But even the highest tier is cheap.
• Amap (高德地图, Gāodé Dìtú) and/or Baidu Maps (百度地图, Bǎidù Dìtú)
  • Google Maps doesn’t work in China, and Apple Maps is decent but not great. You’ll need one or both of the alternatives above.
• Translation stack
  • Google Translate for live conversation translation (great for talking to Didi drivers, etc.) and live camera translation (great for menus).
    • Download the Chinese language pack for offline use.
  • DeepL for text translation, including text in photos.
    • It offers better, more nuanced translations than Google Translate.
  • EZ Screen Translator for whole-screen translation.
    • Critical for navigating Chinese app UIs that don’t have an English version, which many don’t.
    • There are similar apps on Android.
  • Pleco as a detailed dictionary
    • The gold-standard Chinese dictionary app, great for idioms, slang, etc.
  • WeChat has native translation for messages and mini programs that works well.

Nice-to-haves

• RedNote (小红书, Xiǎohóngshū): Chinese Twitter and Instagram, kinda
• Weibo (微博, Wēibó): another Chinese Twitter
• Zhihu (知乎, Zhīhū): Chinese Quora, but with more technical/academic content
• Meituan (美团, Měituán): Chinese DoorDash
• Dianping (点评, Diǎnpíng): Chinese Yelp
• Trip.com, as mentioned above
• Douyin (抖音, Dǒuyīn): the original TikTok
• Bilibili (哔哩哔哩, Bīlībīlī): Chinese YouTube
• Chinese AI (web interfaces linked here, but most come in app form as well)
  • Kimi (Kimi 智能助手, Kimi Zhìnéng Zhùshǒu), from Moonshot AI
  • DeepSeek (深度求索, Shēndù Qiúsuǒ)
  • Doubao (豆包, Dòubāo), from ByteDance
  • Qwen (千问, Qiānwèn), from Alibaba
  • Z.ai (智谱, Zhìpǔ)

Packing

• Check this, this, and this official link re. China customs restrictions.
  • In particular: many sleep drugs, ADHD drugs, and painkillers require a prescription if they’re allowed at all.
• Rules for whether you can take phone powerbanks on domestic flights seem to change frequently. Don’t be surprised if they take yours away.

Flying

• I used Timeshifter for the first time on my recent trip and had almost no jetlag.
• High-dose creatine (20-30 g per day in the form of soft chews) works miracles for me to combat jetlag after a flight.

When in China

• Always carry your passport.
  • Passport, not driver’s license. You’re legally required to carry it, and you’ll also need it every day for transit and checking into host institutions.
• Test your Alipay and WeChat Pay right after you land by buying something in the airport.
  • Don’t let your first attempt to pay using these apps be at the end of a meal you just ate. It will be awkward when they fail.
• Expect to be scanning QR codes constantly using different apps.
  • QR codes are used for everything in China. But you can’t rely on your phone’s camera app: you often have to scan from within the right app. (Usually WeChat or Alipay. The color or logo inside the QR code is a clue.)
• If you stay somewhere besides a hotel, you or your host is supposed to register that with the government within 24 hours.
• You are likely on camera at all times in public spaces.
• Get an egg tart at KFC.
• Don’t bow. It’s not Japan.