China

Understand

China was one of the great civilizations of the ancient world, and for many centuries stood out as a leading nation with technologies that the West was not able to match until the early modern period. Paper, gunpowder and the compass are examples of Chinese inventions that are still widely used today. As the dominant power in the region for much of its history, China exported much of its culture to neighboring Vietnam, Korea and Japan, and Chinese influences can still be seen in the cultures of these countries.

Chinese civilization has endured millennia of tumultuous upheaval and revolutions, golden ages and periods of anarchy. Through the economic boom initiated by the reforms since the 1980s, China has returned to its place as a major political and economic world power, buoyed by its large and industrious population. The depth and complexity of the Chinese civilization, with its rich heritage, has fascinated Westerners such as Marco Polo and Gottfried Leibniz in centuries past, and will continue to excite — and bewilder — the traveller today.

In Chinese, China is zhōng guó, literally "central state" but often translated more poetically as "Middle Kingdom". People from everywhere else are called wàiguórén (外国人, "outside country people"), or colloquially lǎowài, "old outsider" with "old" in the sense of venerable or respected (in practice, these terms mostly refer to white people or Westerners, and almost never to any foreigner of Chinese descent).

Get around

Google Maps does not work in China, and tends to have patchy coverage and data quality even if accessed via VPN. Moreover, China uses its own coordinate system for security reasons, which sometimes causes problems when using foreign map apps. The most common direction-finding app used by the Chinese themselves is Baidu Maps, though it is only available in Chinese. Amap (高德地图 gaode ditu) is a very convenient app available for both, Android and Apple devices. It is useful for navigating on foot or by car and also lists available public transportation options (bus and subway), including the price. Also available in English. It covers all of China and is useful even in seemingly rural places, though sometimes certain routes are only found on Baidu maps, so it's worth having both. Apple Maps uses Amap’s data and is reliable, though it lacks certain features that the others offer. Alternative methods include other map apps based on OpenStreetMap data or renting a local GPS. More information at GPS navigation.

Names of long streets are often given a middle word indicating the part of the street: north (北 běi), south (南 nán), east (东 dōng), west (西 xī), or central (中 zhōng). For example, White Horse Street or Báimǎ Lù (白马路) may be split up into Báimǎ Běilù (白马北路 "White Horse North Street"), Báimǎ Nánlù (白马南路 "White Horse South Street"), and Báimǎ Zhōnglù (白马中路 "White Horse Central Street"). In some cities, however, these names do not indicate parts of one street. In Xiamen, Hubin Be…

See

China's attractions are endless and you will never run out of things to see. Especially near the coastal areas, when finished with one city, the next one is usually just a short train ride away.

Whether you are a history buff, a nature lover or someone who just wants to relax on a nice beach, China has it all from the majestic Forbidden City in Beijing, to the breathtaking scenery of Jiuzhaigou. Even if you live in China for many years, you'll find that there's always something new to discover in another part of the country. Perhaps unsurprisingly due to its sheer size and long history, China has the third largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, after Italy and Spain.

China is on the border between two bioregions. Eurasian wildlife can be seen in the north and west, and South Asian wildlife can be found in the south and southeast.

Make sure you carry your ID around with you in China, as you will need it to purchase tickets and enter tourist attractions. This is typically your Home Return Permit for Hong Kong and Macau residents, Taiwan Compatriot Pass for Taiwanese citizens, or passport for most foreigners. Tickets for some popular attractions like the Forbidden City in Beijing or the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing must be reserved online in advance. Tickets are tied to your ID in order to prevent scalping, so make sure the ID you present at the entrance matches the one you purchased your ticket with.

thumb|Karst formations, Guilin

Eat

thumb|A fish dish in a [[Yangzhou restaurant]] Food in China varies widely between regions, so the term "Chinese food" is a blanket term, about as descriptive as "Western food." Still, there are some broad characteristics. Gastronomy has a long history in China, and dishes subtly balance many flavors, aromas, and colors. Each region developed cuisine and techniques based on the ingredients at hand, so you'll find spicy meat-filled dishes in cooler inland regions, slowly simmered seafood stews in coastal regions, quickly stir-fried fresh vegetables in busy southern ports like Guangzhou, and simple and hearty meat dishes in the Northeast with its notoriously harsh winters. Even many native Chinese find food from outside their home region to be "foreign".

In southern China, rice (米饭 mǐfàn) is a staple food served with many meals, so much so that its root word 饭 (fàn) means "meal" as well as "cooked grain". It may be served plain (eaten by itself as a side, or used as a bed to soak up sauce from the main dish), stir-fried with a variety of ingredients to make fried rice, a quick tasty street meal and a common way to use up leftovers at home, or made into congee (粥 zhōu), rice porridge that's a common breakfast. Noodles (面 miàn) are another important staple, made from either rice or wheat, and served in a variety of methods. Soybeans are used to make soy sauce, a quintessential seasoning in Chinese cooking. They're also used to make tofu (豆腐 dòufu), which comes in many forms besi…

Drink

The Chinese love a tipple, but unless you are used to imbibing heavily, be careful when drinking with Chinese. Generally speaking, heavy drinking is more prevalent in northern China than in southern China.

There are hardly any liquor laws in China. The legal drinking age is 18, but it's basically not enforced, and you'll never need to show ID. Alcohol can be purchased anywhere and drunk anywhere.

Sleep

thumb|Rural inn in Shennongjia, [[Hubei]]

Availability of accommodation for tourists is generally good and ranges from shared dorm rooms to 5-star luxury hotels. Sleeper trains can also be a decent option if you schedule your long-distance travel overnight (see the Get around section above).

Since 2024, any licensed hotel outside restricted areas by law must accept foreigners. In practice, many hotels, especially cheaper ones or those in remote areas, never got the memo, don't know how to use the mandatory registration system, or simply don't want to bother. Using an English-language booking service like Trip.com can help avoid this hassle, as hotels that choose to list there are almost always foreigner-friendly. Anecdotal accounts have reported success (or at least a free ride to another hotel) requesting the intervention of the Public Security Bureau when hotels refuse to comply with the law. You may also fill in the Online Accommodation Registration Service at the Government Service Platform of National Immigration Administration available in seven provincial-level regions (Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan) instead, but this requires creating an account on the platform.

Hotel reception staff will make a photocopy of your passport, entry stamp and visa (if applicable) as part of the registration process. On rare occasions, someone from your hotel will escort you to the local police station to satisfy the establishment's reporting requirement…

Stay safe

While China is generally safe for visitors, the government has some authoritarian aspects, and the topic of human rights in China is highly contested. Despite what's written in the Chinese constitution, in practice some freedoms are strongly curtailed, such as free speech, privacy, freedom of information and the press, freedom of religion, and the right to a fair trial. As long as you're not deliberately provocative, most of these are unlikely to affect you during your visit — especially since enforcement is somewhat arbitrary anyway — but if they do, punishments can be heavy. China is known to use extrajudicial detention, torture, and the death penalty. Often criticized as "hostage diplomacy", detentions and enforcement are sometimes stepped up in reaction to geopolitical events. Chinese dual citizens and people of Chinese heritage who are citizens of other countries have been subject to "exit bans", kept in China, sometimes for years, to compel them to cooperate with government investigations or pressure their relatives to return to China.

As long as you behave and do not get involved in drugs or political activity, you shouldn't have any problems. Even bypassing the Internet firewall or accessing potentially subversive material is usually overlooked for the average visitor. However, it doesn't hurt to have a contingency plan in case you run afoul of the government.

Respect

thumb|Tea-serving at a restaurant in China

Foreigners are still a rare breed in most parts of China, which means that how you interact with people there may well shape their impression of your country or even of foreigners in general. Follow the law, be polite, and try to leave a good impression as it affects the general reputation of foreigners in China.

Unlike Japan and South Korea where bowing is extremely common, in China the practice did not survive into the modern era, and is now only used in certain formal occasions such as marriage ceremonies, funerals, religious rituals, and by students greeting teachers in school. Give a soft handshake when greeting someone, which can be accompanied by a slight bow. Buddhist monks and nuns should be greeted by placing your palms together at chest level with your thumb and fingers pointing upwards (similar to the Thai wai), and bowing your head slightly while saying Ēmìtuófó (阿弥陀佛). Personal space more or less does not exist in China. Elevators and buses can get very crowded. It's common and acceptable for someone to come in close contact with you or to bump into you and say nothing. Don't get mad, as they'll be surprised and most likely won't even understand why you're offended. Important items such as business cards or important papers are given and received with both hands. Business cards in particular are treated very respectfully and formally. How you treat someone's business card is seen as representing how you will treat the…