How to Plan an Independent Trip to China: Tips for First-Time Visitors

How to Plan an Independent Trip to China: Trains, Apps, Payments & Real Tips

When you think of China, you probably think of Beijing, Shanghai, or the Great Wall. But planning an independent trip across such a vast and culturally different country can feel overwhelming.

In this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy Collins is joined by traveller Lucy, who shares insights from her recent independent adventure across China with her long-time travel partner Joe.

Together, Tracy and Lucy unpack what it is really like on the ground, from high-speed rail journeys and cashless payments to language barriers, food discoveries, and cultural surprises. Lucy also reflects on how travelling as a pair shaped their experience, from planning logistics to navigating busy stations and unfamiliar technology.

Moving beyond the “big three” cities, Lucy and Joe explored destinations such as Pingyao and Yangzhou, offering honest insight into what first-time visitors truly need to know before they go.

If China feels exciting but intimidating, this episode will give you practical tools and the confidence to plan your own independent adventure.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How to realistically plan long-distance travel across China
• What booking high-speed trains is really like (and why Trip.com helps)
• How China’s passport-linked, paperless ticketing works
• Why nearly everything is cashless - and how to set up Alipay or WeChat before arrival
• Essential apps including Amap, Didi, translation tools, and VPN-enabled eSIMs
• How to navigate menus without English
• Why booking flexible hotels matters
• What to expect from public toilets and cultural etiquette
• How to structure an itinerary beyond Beijing and Shanghai

Guest - Lucy England
Show notes - Episode 93

🎧 Listen to next

• Episode #22 – A Journey to Central China: Unique Gastronomy, Stunning Landscapes, and Cultural Delights
• Episode #15 – Insider’s Guide for First-Time Visitors to Singapore
• Episode #14 – Visiting Japan: Top Tips for First-Time Travellers

Transcript

Why China Feels Intimidating

SPEAKER_02 0:00

When you think of China, you probably think of Beijing, Shanghai, or the Great War. But beyond those headline sites, many travelers still find China hard to plan and even harder to navigate. In this episode, I'm chatting with my friend Lucy, who recently travelled independently through China, about what it's really like on the ground and what first-time visitors actually need to know.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is founder of the Global Travel Planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy is joined by expert guests as she takes you on a journey to destinations around the world, sharing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, and practical tips to help you plan your next adventure. Join us as we explore everywhere from bustling cities to remote landscapes, uncover cultural treasures, and discover the best ways to make your travel dreams a reality.

Meet Lucy And The Trip Spark

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Hello and welcome back to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Now, today I'm joined by my friend Lucy, who recently returned from an independent trip through China with her long-term travel partner Joe. When Lucy first told me they were heading to China, I admit I was intrigued. It's a destination we're hearing more about, but one that still feels a little intimidating for many travellers, especially if you like to plan trips yourself. Now, Lucy, as you'll hear, is originally from the UK. She now lives in Australia and loves exploring destinations, that's it, a little off the main tourist trail. In this episode, she shares exactly how their China trip came together, what surprised her most and what she wishes she'd known before she went. We talk about travelling beyond Beijing and Shanghai using China's high-speed trains, booking accommodation, navigating language barriers, and the realities of paying for things in a country that's almost completely cashless. Now, Lucy also shares practical tips around e sim cards, VPNs, apps, food, cultural differences, and what makes China feel far more accessible than many people expect. If China has ever felt like a destination you'd love to visit but weren't quite sure where to start, this episode is packed with honest insights to help you plan with confidence. So, Lucy, I'm really excited for you to come on the podcast because um when you told me last year you were going to China, I was I was um intrigued. And it seems to be a destination that I'm hearing more and more about. So this is your first time on the podcast. So would you like to quickly just give us an intro introduction to who you are, where you live, what you do?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yeah, as you say, it is very strange coming on here and talking like this. Um but um yeah, I'm originally from the UK, as you know. Uh I've lived in Australia for over 20 years now. Uh I'm a teacher by profession. Um I live in Brisbane with Joe and Murphy, our little black fluffy dog. Very cute little dog. He's sitting on the sofa between the two and us. Because he doesn't like it when we travel. Um but yeah, love to travel, love to explore new places, and especially like going to places that um are not so well known. Yep. Uh and a bit off the main tourist trail. So yeah, China came about because Joe was flying back from Paris and was looking at where he could fly via using our points. And uh China came up and went, well, we've never been, so if we can get flights, how about we go there? So I was like, well, why not?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah, I know it's i interesting. I remember when uh when Joe was was flying off to Paris and you were kind of considering where to meet. So obviously you were flying from Brisbane, he was flying back from Paris. Yeah. So China was a good meeting point.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

We both have yeah, really easy connections flights or direct flights. Yeah. Um, so that and the points were there, so it made it an obvious choice. Yeah. And uh yeah, like I say, I had absolutely no idea, no preconceived impressions because I knew very little about it.

Itinerary Dreams Meet China’s Distances

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Uh there's not there's not a huge amount out there, which I know is something we talked about when you were busy doing your research, because both you and Jo travel independently, you like to organize stuff yourselves. Um, so what did what were your biggest questions before you actually went to China?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Well, it was like, well, what what is there? What is there? Uh what can we see? Where can we go? How can we travel about? Because in my head, I was like, is it easy to travel around? I don't know. I knew nothing. So we went to YouTube, and again, there's very little on there. Um, but what we did find most useful was people who were living and working over there and were traveling around. They gave the best, most practical um tips and advice, and also they were the ones who were exploring and gave us the idea to explore beyond Beijing, beyond Shanghai, looking at the other smaller cities and places where Chinese tourists travel.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

I was gonna say because because of that kind of lack of information, it's not it's not a country that I think there's a huge amount of stuff out there about. So, and we all know about Beijing, we all know about Shanghai, and go into to those two in particular, but it's those places outside which which you which you did, which is really interesting. So uh how did you decide? I and I knew when you had to fly into somewhere, so that would be your starting point. But when you started looking at those YouTube videos and reading information about it, how did you kind of put your itinerary together?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

So when we were watching, there were some dream places you always start off with way more than you can actually do because we only actually had two weeks. And uh we looked and we really discovered places like the Avatar Mountains, which I had no idea even existed. Um, really wanted to go there. We wanted to go and see the pandas, we um discovered these beautiful islands off the coast of Shanghai, we found out about these villages that had been recreated on the side of mountains, all of these places, like yes, we really want to go there, they're in the same region. However, when we started to really look at how how much time do we have? How long does it take to get from place to place? Um, we've the reality began to sink in, and China is huge. We think Australia is pretty big, but China is huge, and so the distances uh even on a bullet train, so when one of the train uh things we were looking at was going from Xi'an to Shanghai, uh even that on a bullet train was going to be eight hours. Oh wow, okay. So that just to give you an idea of the distances.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Um there are ones that you can go from Beijing to Shanghai in about four hours, but when you're doing other places So that isn't it's kind of deciding where you want to go, and then actually looking at the how realistic logistically it is to do it where you're not spending every single day on a train.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

That's right. It's we didn't want to spend all day or waste a day when we only had two weeks of every couple of days being on a train for several hours. So um we started going right, where are the must-see places? We're flying into Beijing. How many days do we think we need there? What do we absolutely want to see? What would be nice to see? Because the other thing we had to take into consideration was we were going in August.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Right, okay, so that's busy and hot, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

It's extremely hot, extremely humid. Um, we know that Beijing is a city of concrete, so we know what that means. It was also summer holidays for Chinese school children, so another we knew that there would be crowds. Um so this is where YouTube was really useful because we watched a few videos of locals saying these are the crowds. If you're going to places like the Forbidden City, if you're going to Tiananmen Square, um you can be waiting hours in queues in the sunshine with no shade. And until you actually see the volume of those crowds, it's hard to imagine. It's like when you go to um Taylor Swift or an edge concert and you're trying to get out, and you imagine those queues are everywhere, and those crowds are everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

That does not sound like a lot of fun, is it in the high tourist um places.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

There are plenty of other places. So we ended up deciding that places like the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square would be a if we can, we will, but it's not a a must see. Um so we looked for the lesser-known places and got some good advice, and we went up to I think it's Jingshan Park, where you can see the Forbidden City. There were people there, but we could walk around, we enjoyed the view, we saw it.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

And you weren't in a great big line we had two or three hours to get in.

Beijing In August And Crowd Strategy

SPEAKER_01 9:35

That's right. Um, I think the waiting in queues was one of the things we were really, really conscious of, and not wanting to spend our days there. So we had four days in Beijing, one of which we went to the wall the Great Wall.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Because I guess that has to be done, doesn't it? It can't go without it.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

This was a highlight for me. Absolute, just can't believe the ancientness of it. I don't even know if ancient is ancientness is a word, but the um have you seen Hadrian's Wall, Lucy? Yes, I have. It's even older than the wall. Uh it took 1500 years to complete. Wow, it's that's incredible, isn't it? It blows my mind. Wow. When you see the craftsmanship on the side of mountains, across mountains, and how steep it is. It's just it's phenomenal. And it was just standing on there feeling so insignificant, and just seeing it going on and on and on and on and on, and trying to get my head around it took 1500 years to come back.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Incredible, isn't it? It just incredible, and how you so that was a day trip. That was a day trip.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

So this was an interesting one because we had a day of absolute torrential rain the day before we went to the wall, because we'd left some flexibility in our plans just so that accounting for weather. So we went the day after the rain. Uh in the taxi, we got a um we got a taxi to the um the wall. On the way, the driver got a message saying, Um, oh, you can't go to that place. So there are three main places that people tend to visit from Beijing. There's Badaling, which is the closest where a lot of coach tours go. Um there's another one starting with M that I can't remember. I'll I'll remember. And then the Simitai, which is about two and a half hours from Beijing. Um, while we were in the taxi, we were on our way to I'm gonna have to remember what it was called. It starts with an M, I know that. Um and he gets a message saying it's closed, and we thought, oh, this is a um, you know, this is a scam kind of thing. He's trying to get us, but he absolutely wasn't. He was trying his hardest to get us to the wall, and yeah, because of the flooding that had taken place, um, it was actually closed, something we hadn't even considered could happen. Um, so he took us to Cimitai, which was two and a half hours from Beijing. Uh, and I'm so glad that we did that. It was beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

So you'd recognise you'd recommend going to the book.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

The other thing I wish we'd known about that one or done a bit more research into that because you can stay there, and so you can actually see at that point um the wall lit up at night, and you can do explore a bit at night. I'm just noting that down.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

That's the sort of that is just the sort of tip that absolutely is priceless.

Great Wall Logistics And Weather Curveballs

SPEAKER_01 12:57

It's the it's on this kind of they call it the water town, and it's it's a town that's been rebuilt for tourists. Um so it's very pretty. Reminded me a bit of the Cotswold villages and things. Um, but yeah, very man-made, but very pretty. And I think if I was to go again, I would stay there at least for one night, and then go up and climb the wall. Well, not climb the wall. We got the uh the gondola up. I would recommend that in the heat because it it's steep. You can't believe how steep it is until you actually see it. Yeah, and I'm not very good with heights either. So you're right in the gondola? I'm fine in the gondola, and I'm fine like walking down, but looking down, and I think if I was climbing up, I would have given up. But um, I would recommend going up in the gondola and walking down or climbing down, especially in the heat.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah. And then so was that would you recommend as well, because of that, I guess the the weather issue, and I guess it could happen to anybody, is to try and organise to go to the wall earlier on in your days when you're in Beijing.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Yeah, and this is another thing why when you're going to places like Beijing, where if you really want to go and see the Forbidden City or Tiananmen Square, places that you have to book, be aware that of the crowds and the weather, because um we had planned to go to Tiananmen Square the day that it rained. Um, we hadn't got tickets and were about to book when we looked at the rain and went, why would we do that in the rain?

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Yeah, pointless.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

So there were other things that we decided to be inside for because it was torrential rain. So yet definitely having a buffer of a day to play around with, because again, if we'd booked a tour to go to the wall, it would have been an awful day.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yeah, yeah. Um so it's good having that flexibility. Yeah. So you spent four days then in Beijing, and then where did you head to next?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

So the next place we went to was a little town. Uh it was four hours south of Beijing that we discovered from one of the clips on YouTube. Uh it's a town called Pinyo, and it's one of the towns in China that's been continuously inhabited for 3,000 years. Just and you can tell when you walk around, you just feel this thing. So it's this small walled city um that has um a laser show in the evenings, of which displays the history on the um city walls of how it came to be and what it's you know, with dragons and um wars and different things, but fascinating to see um just walking around this city that is so ancient.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

And is there a bit of a juxtaposition in China of that kind of the ancient and the kind of new? Because you're talking about light show and this kind of ancient absolutely there is.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

I mean, in this, this is this is where Chinese people go on holiday to explore their culture and see their um their heritage. But on the trains going to this place, the the the sheer size of the cities is really hard to comprehend until you see it because these apartment blocks and they seem to be built in clusters, just go on and on and on and on. So you'd be leaving the city, and then these things will just go on for about half an hour. Wow. Bearing in mind you're on a bullet train. Wow, so you're going fast, you're going fast, and you're not in the countryside, and it's just and these apartment blocks must be 20-30 stories high and in groups of like eight to twelve, and so that just the volume of people and how big the cities are was just blew my mind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

So tell me about um what you did after sorry, I need you have to tell me the name of that place again. Is it Ping Yao? Ping Yao Ping Yao Pinyao. So you uh we'll talk about your accommodation options in a bit. So but from so you went to Ping Yao from Shanghai on a bullet train? Yes, yes. And how did you find the train? I have to ask the dog what the trains were like.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

The trains were amazing. Yeah. Um the train travel was another thing that really surprised me. They're efficient, the booking system is very, very easy. The ticket then gets um attached to your passport. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Okay, so the tick so the tickets get so what the how does it do that?

Choosing Lesser-Known Stops

SPEAKER_01 17:37

So everything that you do is booked through trip.com. Hotels, tours, train tickets, everything, and it gets logged right on your account. Okay. Uh if you book a train ticket, if you book a um a tour, it will get attached to your passport. So you have to carry your passport everywhere. Right. It's an expectation. Like that's your identity card while you're there. Um, and so when you get to the train stations, which are like airports, exactly the same as the airport, you go through security, you have to check in, uh, you can't go onto the platform until your train is called, and then it's one of the places where queuing is really orderly, um, very efficient.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Well you say one of the places why is it is it not in others?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Not in others, okay. But there are definite rules to follow. Right, okay. And they will tell you if you're not following the rules correctly.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Um so did you put your seat as well? So you have a reservation for your seat? Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah, so it's the precise train, the time, and the the seat and the carriage. And so once you you scan your passport, they let you through, you go onto the platform, all the the all the carriages are numbered on the platform, and you cue very orderly behind the line. You do not go in front of the line until you are told. Right. You follow the rules very, very carefully.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Sounds like you get told off. Were you told off, Lucy?

SPEAKER_01 19:16

You weren't told off. We weren't told we're off, but we watched. Right. Somebody else watched and we we learned very much.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Okay, so used the you obviously you took the train a lot around China. That was your main way of getting it.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

It was very easy to book and very and was it expensive? It varies. Right, okay. Um look if you went on slower trains, they're a bit cheaper. Yeah. Um look to give I think one of the most expensive ones was going from Xian down to Nanjing, which was about$130.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Australian dollars.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Australian dollars. So others, it depending on the time of day, the weekend, whether it was a holiday or not. Yeah, yeah. Um, all of that it did, but it wasn't cheap, but it wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

But it sounds like it was good though.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

It sounds like it was it was very efficient, and yeah, they run on time and it's very, very easy. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Very good. Right. So you went from so you took the train down there, you went ping pingyao, and then so you were you did your four nights in Beijing, and then you was it three nights did you say in Ping?

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Uh we did four nights in Beijing, and then we did two nights in Ping Yao. And then where did you head from there? And from there we decided that everybody kept telling us that we should go and see the Terracotta Warriors, because that was a would be nice to see, but not a must. So we went uh across to Xi'an and we had three nights there. Uh we were gonna have two, but then we liked Xiang so much we ended up staying an extra night. Xiang was a really unexpected surprise.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that because it's it's somewhere I definitely would like to go to.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

The city walls, again, another ancient city, but also a bit more modern and much, much bigger. Um, something to note is that if you stay in the city of Xiang, then the getting to the um Terra Podra Warriors, it's about an hour. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

So it's just to build that into or it sounds like a good idea, I think, uh, to actually stay there, and especially three nights as well. So that was a reasonable amount of time.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Uh we would have we were actually gonna stay a bit longer, but the weather forecast was terrible.

unknown 21:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

So we decided to move on because one of the really good things is you can cancel the hotel on the day. Right. Okay. So cancelling up is up until about lunchtime or something on the day that you okay, so accommodation had to be booked throughthistrip.com as well.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Okay, so it's it's all very centralized how you're booking stuff. Yeah. Okay, that's good. So and was there a lot of choice? I know I was kind of talking going to talk about accommodation a bit, but was there a lot of choice for accommodation?

Bullet Trains And Booking With Passports

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Um, there are a lot of hotels on there. Right. If we talk about the accommodation, it's very, very varied. Right. We were advised to use Trip.com because although sites like Booking dot com and Expedia do advertise the hotels, other travelers had experienced when they got to hotels that they were saying, No, your booking doesn't exist, or no, we don't accept foreigners, whatever. So we were advised to do everything through Trip.com because that's the Chinese local um site.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Um so that's just but what was really good is that it gave you some flexibility, as you say, if you can cancel that late as well. And could you book trains that late as well if you changed your plans? Okay, that's really good. So you can actually have a lot of flexibility.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Yeah, I think there was there may have been a cancellation fee, a minimal one for the trains, but for the hotels, pretty much you could book because we booked an extra night in Xiang at the hotel that we were in, and then just cancelled on the morning as we checked out. It was very, very simple and straightforward. So where did you head after uh so after Xiang, we headed down to Nanj uh to Nanjing.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Um we spent one night in Nanjing and we were umming and owing whether we were gonna do another one, but we decided to move on to Yang Zhou after that.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

And why what was the attraction of Yang Yang Zhou?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

The food right, okay. Well why not? Why not? So Yangzhiao, we heard about on a YouTube clip, but also some locals at the hotel that we were staying in in Nanjing recommended to go there because again, it's a place that um Chinese go to. It was only an hour from Nanjing, and it's actually a UNESCO gastronomical town. Okay. So something I'd never considered before, but it's um famous for its fried rice, and it's where I think where fried rice originated from, and the recipe is very, very old. So I'm assuming it was good. Hundreds of years old, but that's but yeah, so to be given UNESCO status for its food was a huge draw. Huge, huge draw, and again, a smaller city, um lots of like the castle walls again, ancient town to little uh streets to walk down, a beautiful river, and because it was summer, you get the light nights and you get people uh gathering on the side of the river in the parks to just spend time with their friends in the evening, and so beautiful river walk. Um, there was lots of lights that uh they have a river cruise that we did actually do, um which again shows the history of Yangzhou, and it takes you down the river, and at certain points there are other barges with performers on which will um tell you a little bit about the history of the area and things, but the light show was really, really pretty.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Um light shows seem to be really pretty. They love their light shows.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yes, and I don't know whether it is because it it was summer or it's something that they do all the time. I don't know. But just walking along in the lovely balmy evenings along the side of the the river, seeing the groups dancing and singing, and yeah, it was just it was just lovely.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Sounds really nice. And how long did you spend um eating your way through that particular destination?

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Um I think that was only two nights because I think we're running out of time by then, but um again, we would have stayed an extra night if we could have. Um it was a very easy city to walk around, um, very easy to find places, lots to see, nice parks, more kind of outdoor things, not a lot of shrines and kind of historical things, but just nice place to wander around and and then you headed to And then we went to Shanghai.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Back to Shanghai. No, so Beijing to Shanghai, I shouldn't go back to you. You didn't know because I'm guessing you're flying out of Shanghai and then we fly. Right, so into Beijing, out of Shanghai, that works really well.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

So what were the highlights for you? Because we've kind of done a quick pot of history of what you did, but what were the things that you know, because it's it's a few months ago since you went, so I always think a few months after is when you kind of reflect on one of the things that you're still going, oh that was amazing, loved that.

Costs, Seating, And Station Protocols

SPEAKER_01 26:46

Yeah, I I mean standing on top of the Great Wall and just looking at this thing that has been created and built, just going on and on and on and on and on. So that that was a real highlight and I think a bucket list kind of thing. The other highlights when I was thinking about this were I think the people that we met who just were so open and interested in seeing in talking to people who weren't Chinese. Yeah. Because again, places like Ping Yao and Yangzhiao, although they have they're touristy places, they don't get a lot of Westerners.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

So we're still a novelty, and so they're interested. If you are watching them singing, if you're watching them dancing, they uh it's fascinating to them why you would want to do that. Yeah, you're interested. So they want you to join in or they want to come and talk to you. And so that for me was yeah, just seeing how people were so open and friendly and interested in other people.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Oh, it's really I I love that when you go to a destination and you can talk do people come and ask you and welcome you basically as well. Um I remember that very much so in India. That was for me, it's been that was probably the the the destination I've been so to so far, where I felt so welcome and and so interested in finding out about about us and what we're doing, and uh yeah, that was that was lovely. So I'll look forward to that in China as well. What what surprised you about China?

SPEAKER_01 28:23

I think how technologically advanced the cities were, um, and how they you know the efficiency of the transport, the um the ease of pay, paying for things. We did not use cash at all. Um one of the really important things to know is everything is done through Alipay or WeChat. Um it's a really really efficient system, it's really easy. Every storeholder, every taxi, every tourist site, and even individuals use Alipay.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

So did you have that set up before you went? Did you download them before you went? Yeah.

Xi’an Surprises And Flexible Bookings

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Some things that you really need to do before you go are set up the Alipay, set up the WeChat and set up Diddy.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Uh for the ride share.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Good tips.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Um, because that's what we use for taxis, and that they're really quite reasonable and cheap. Um, but yes, setting up Alipay and we and WeChat because um there is no alternative. That that's the only way to do it. You can't just do credit card and tap and things, it's much more complicated. Uh and doing it on your phone before you go to check it works and check your bank will let you do it.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Okay, so it's not something you can kind of it's not like you know, I'm thinking about this the secret card in Japan where you can load it with them out and then you use it.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

No, you just it's it works like Google Wallet. Right. And so you attach your bank card before you go, yeah, or whatever way you're doing it before you go to make sure it works. Um, and then we had access to our um local Australian SIM card because occasionally Ali Pay will say a code, and so we had to switch between SIM cards. Right. So having a SIM card with a VPN included is essential. Okay. Because you cannot go around China without your phone. Right. You have no access to Google, you have no access to your email because they don't, it's all blocked. Some sites say, yes, you can use like the the VPN, the Express VPN and the Nord VPN and things, they work sporadically, right? They're not reliable because they get blocked all the time. So having a SIM card that has a VPN attached to it.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

So what did you use that what did you find that worked for you? So Because I think this is essential because I mean we're in a day and age where we have to be connected.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

So yeah, so luckily Joe is all over this, and we use Global Starlink because many s many companies sell eSIMs for China, but very few of them have them with the VPN. Okay. Uh when he me when he contacted some, they said use your own VPN, but we know that that doesn't right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

And you need to be guaranteed.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Um because that is something that we take for granted because we use it, everything is Google, or we've got our Yahoo or Gmail or whatever. You cannot access any of that unless you've got a VPN. Right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

And as you say, some of the others not necessarily a bit patchy. And that that that's a bit terrifying for somebody like me who spends most of the time online, do you know?

SPEAKER_01 32:08

So we we had emergency sims that we bought from Aldi just in case anything happened to our own, so that we could log into our accounts and do things. Um we had a spare phone just in case, because if you lose your phone.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

That's anywhere in the world. That's my I'm terrified of that. If I lost my phone, what would happen? Um because everything's on it. And we're all the same with that these days.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

We all back up via Google or anything. So and if you can't access that, then you can't access anything. So it's being aware of that. It sounds scary, but if you're aware and you've got a spare phone, you've got a spare SIM card, you've got you know about the VPN, yeah, then you're fine, you're fine, you've you're prepared for it, you're covered.

Nanjing To Yangzhou For Food

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Yeah. So, and I know we're gonna talk a lot about kind of some of the the kind of challenges and some of the lessons learned because you've been and done that now, and you were kind of, you know, you you can prepare as as much as you can, and then there's always gonna be a couple of things that pop up that you don't you're not necess necessarily kind of expecting. I guess uh a couple of questions. I'm gonna ask the kind of the practical stuff because we've kind of covered the fact that you didn't use any cash and you you booked through this kind of uh trip.com. Um, how did you find it culturally? That kind of cultural expectations, I know that's something that we were very conscious of like when I wasn't traveling in India and Japan, always trying to kind of have an awareness of cultural expectations. How did you prepare? How did you find that?

SPEAKER_01 33:37

That was actually okay, and people were generally happy to help. Um, I especially in the bigger cities, they were so used to Shanghai. They've got the European connection, they're used to seeing foreign faces. So that one felt a lot more European and a lot less Chinese to me. But Beijing, again, they're used to having foreigners around, so they will help you, they will be eager to you went to some of the kind of lesser known.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

So I guess those places, I'm kind of interested at how much you could get by, not I guess in that you don't speak Chinese. I mean, I don't know, you and Joe may surprise me that you do, but no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

I speak no well. Uh She She is about my thing. Um translation apps are absolutely essential. A lot of gesturing, uh, a lot of laughing. But people uh we found were generally really uh happy to help. Um they liked when you engage them and ask them questions, what is this? How do I do this? We didn't find so many people who wanted to know anything more from us. We found a couple, but mostly it was the transactional things.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

It was are there any signs in English? For example, you've got a train station.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

So some train stations, yes, some no. Okay. Beijing, the airport, Shanghai, the airport, everything was really easy, really efficient. Um I don't remember having trouble in the metro systems, so I'm thinking that yes, they were in English. Whenever we went to shops with menus, we would take a photo, use Google Lens because we had our VPN. Um that was essential. Yeah. We did that a lot.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

I was gonna ask you about the food. Like, how would you know what you what you were eating and ordering if you yeah, Google Lens is absolutely uh crucial for that.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

So we use we used our cameras and Google Lens a lot to navigate around. Uh yeah, we used to communicate with drivers in cars and uh train stations and different things. We used our translation apps, they worked really, really well and were really helpful. We just made everything a bit easier.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Yeah, I love it where you can actually speak the words in and then it it it comes out in and I i I was even in uh I'm trying to think where I was recently, which have a country in South America, I can't even think it at the moment. Ecuador. And I was at the airport and I was gonna buy it was a fringe magnet, you know. And uh that there was a special on the fringe magnet, and the the lady was trying to explain it to me, so she just asked for my phone, spoke it in that, and then it came back to me, said there's a special offer on, and I was like, No, it's okay. But it's like everybody knows these days, like you can do it on my phone and and we can translate it.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

I mean, some of the things that we did find a little bit strange was the spitting in the street.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Everybody spits everywhere, and yeah, you'll just be walking, they'll be walking next to you, and they'll just spit in your direction. You're like, because there's they don't it's just I've got to do it, so we everybody else has to get out of the way. It's up to them to get out of the way. Um be getting out of the way.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

That kind of noise and that kind of thing was that's a different, yeah, that's a bit confrontational, I think, for uh for culturally for for us, Western, I think. Being aware.

River Nights, Light Shows, And Vibes

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Um the other thing is, you know, there's loudspeakers everywhere. In in the parks and the big cities and different things, but yeah, you'd be in a national park or at a shrine, and there's all these loud speakers um just barking instructions or things at you, so you're in this really serene place, and then there'll be something comes across on this loud speaker. Like an announcement or music or something. So, but again, you just go, okay, that's just yeah how they do it. And we think that they were just gentle reminders, but nobody whispers in China. Right. Everybody talks loudly, and again, once you just get used to that, yeah, it's okay, but because I think it's the the volume of people you just have to talk loud to be heard. And so they do. There's yeah, and they will talk over you, and they will just push in front of you, and they will just because it's about them getting the thing. And you know, we might be queuing to get into a lift, or you might be in a lift, and you've left a a person space between you because that's what you do. No, somebody will come into the middle of that because that's a space, yes, yeah, and they will fill that space, and that was a little bit interesting.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Yeah, I remember I remember we'd be told that in uh in India by our guard as well, don't leave any space because somebody will stand between it in that little bit of space. And I think that again is that's also a kind of a Western culture that we used to, and we're we're we're British, Lucy, so we like to have the kind of arm width between ourselves and other people. So that that's something I guess again, just adjusting to and and having the expectation to know that you're potentially going to find that uncomfortable, but it's just a cultural thing. Before we kind of pop into the the the kind of tips for first-time visitors on anybody's planet, I have to ask you about the food because you've mentioned the food, you've you've you talked about it, you've talked about UNESCO City that's known for his gastronomical delight. So tell me about some of the amazing food that you ate.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

It was, and one of the astounding, that's astonishing things was we didn't actually have much rice. Okay. We had noodles a lot. Uh we had soup, we had dumplings, we had soup dumplings, we had rolls of different um with different fillings, we had some bread rolls? Had some bread rolls, like kind of bread rolls, more kind of like um a rotti with filled with meat or vegetables. Um different places had different um types of food, um, different types of soup. But yes, rice was very limited. We did not see much rice on any menus. And what about the city that you went to that you think you invented? We tried the rice.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yes, that was it good.

Highlights: People, Safety, And Hospitality

SPEAKER_01 40:05

Oh, we just think we went to a bad place. Look, it was very average, it was just fried rice for me. Okay. But we did try things like um, I had an ice cream made of uh peas. Okay. Yeah, it was an like an ice block. Green ice cream. Green ice cream. Have you got a photo of you with this? Oh, we'll be putting that in the show notes because I wanna I want to see that. Um they like to put little funny faces on their packaging. Yeah. Uh there's some really odd looking uh sweets and lollies and different things and you with baby fat baby faces and diff things that we find a little bit strange, but they obviously find enticing. Yeah. Uh look, we found access to fresh food that was cooked there and then with really fresh, tasty vegetables everywhere. Yeah, that's great. Everywhere. You know, even when we went into a little um kind of juice bar that was a chain, uh juice tea bar that was a chain, we saw them delivering the fresh fruit and vegetables on a trolley coming. Whereas here, we don't necessarily see that all the time. So we knew if we ordered something like that, it was absolutely fresh. Um, any of the smaller little kind of family restaurants and local restaurants that we went into, you can see the kitchen, you see how clean it is, you can see that it's been prepared as you are ordering it. Um a lot of chili. Okay, didn't expect you to say that. So you can and so ensuring that if you do not like your head blown off, that uh you get literally talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Yeah, make it milder.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

There is an option to eat a lot of offal. Uh we opted not to. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Um you know, when I think about China, when I think about food, apart from really good food, the one thing that always strikes me is those those eggs that are supposed to be like, I don't know, 10,000 year old eggs that look a bit gross. You didn't see any of those.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

We didn't see any of those. We didn't see any of those. But yeah, anything that kind of looked a little bit interesting or a bit different, uh, that was a roll or a dumpling or noodles, then we would sample it. Yeah. And seriously, everything was delicious.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Oh, that's good. I'll look forward to that. Because I I I love Asian food anyway, so I I it it's something that uh it definitely tastes a week in China.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Nothing like the Chinese food that we experience over here. Nothing. So really lovely.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

Okay, now um I'm sure, like me, if you're listening to this podcast, you're thinking, ah, quite fancy this. And I know somewhere that Doug and I have been talking about because we are really interested in a visit in China. But if somebody's listening, if you're listening and you feel a little bit nervous about visiting China, and I think a lot of this is because we don't know a lot about China, what would you say, Lisa?

SPEAKER_01 43:05

I would say that if you are a bit nervous going on a tour, because a lot more tours are starting to go to give you your first taste, but once you've been, it really is easy to navigate if you've got a good translation app and you've fairly competent at catching public transport and you can book a hotel on the internet, you're aware, you'll find it really, really easy. And the other thing is because of the government and the way the government um uh monitor everything, it's really safe.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

Right.

Living Cashless With Alipay And WeChat

SPEAKER_01 43:48

So in the big cities, you we didn't feel like you have to keep your hand on your bag or watch where your money is all the time or your phone. Didn't feel anything. Like that. I think the only time we were advised to potentially keep um an eye out was in the book on the bunt in Shanghai. But everywhere else there are cameras everywhere. Your uh whatever transaction, your phone is tracked, your um your money is tracked, everything. So they know where you are. So nobody's going to do anything because they can all be tracked. Yeah. And they can be found. So walking around at night, walking around during the daytime, tourist places, we felt really, really safe and didn't feel like you had to look over your shoulder or anything.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

So now you you guys are kind of experienced independent travellers, both you and Joe. Um, so what would you say? I mean, obviously Doug and I as well, we we prefer to to plan and ship if we can independently, though I have recently done group tours in uh in both Morocco and India because I felt that was the best that best introduction to those particular countries. What would you say about China? Because you did this independently.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

We did this independently mainly because there weren't any tours that went that fitted in with the time that we needed to be there or could be away. So we did it just evolved. Um I know people who have done tours, and the common route is either between Shanghai to Beijing or Beijing to Shanghai. Uh it's a very established tourist route and it allows a couple of days in each place, hopping on a couple of hours on the train, so you can kind of work. So that that's pretty straightforward, and a lot of tours do um follow that route. But it for me, I think if you have got somewhere to stay for the first night and you know how you want to get from the airport, it was actually really straightforward. Uh, and really because everything was in English and signposted, it was easy to get to our hotel. But if you're a person that would you can get it organized for a driver to pick you up or the hotel to pick you up, yeah, and once you're there, it really is pretty straightforward to navigate around.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

And I think um for Australians, I'm not sure about everybody else, I should have checked this, but I think the visa has just changed. I think it's 30 days, is it?

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Yes, yeah, it was 30 days when we were there, so you didn't need a visa. Yeah. Um, and you just fill in the form at the airport when you arrive. Yeah, it was very, very straightforward. You would get off the plane, you there's fingerprint machines and a ticky box, which is in English, but take your glasses because the print is very small.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

That's always good to know. Or take a photo of it and expand it so you can be there.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

Yeah, because that that was one of the things was I had to find my glasses to fill it in. Um, but yeah, it very efficient getting through customs, very efficient getting our bags, and then getting the train into the city again, really easy. And it if you've got as long as you've got your Alipay set up, because you have to get your ticket.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

And you don't actually have to say where you're going, so you can have some flexibility in that 30 days that you're there. So that's good. So you can arrive and kind of make it all.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

As all countries do, say where are you going to be staying? So you just give the hotel address as long as you've got that, and then yeah, pretty straightforward.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

That sounds really good. Now you've been once, would you go again? And if you did, where would you go? And what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_01 47:38

So yeah, I would go again. Um, maybe not just yet, but I would definitely I think if we'd had three weeks, it would have been really good. So a bit longer because there is so much to see, and the distances between places are really big. And we don't tend to like to travel just two days here and two days here, we like to have a bit longer.

SPEAKER_03 48:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

Um, so you can meander and see a bit further than the immediate area. Um, I'd really like to go back and see the Avatar Mountains.

eSIMs, VPNs, And Essential Apps

SPEAKER_02 48:17

That would be so big, China as well. It's like you can go to a different area and spend three weeks just in that area without, you know, so there's so much to do and see.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

There's some of the lakes that were nearby with islands and different different, I think more of the national parks and things. I mean, we were put off going there and including that in our trip because we had seen videos of crowds where people had waited for four hours, and it's not something we expect in a national park to have to cue for four hours to go and summer view. Yeah, so that's it.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Is there a better time of year? Because I know you went in the summer then. Would you say maybe like sort of heading towards more September?

SPEAKER_01 48:57

I think later.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Um, yes, September, October, or May, April, May seems to be a good um temperature, and there's always going to be crowds, yeah, but lesser ones. And I mean, we didn't feel that we were always in crowds. There was plenty of time when we weren't around other people because of the places that we chose.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Yeah, because you kind of chose a little bit more kind of off, I guess, off the beaten path. And then I I know I didn't when I gave you the questions, I probably didn't put this in there, but I'm gonna ask you anyway. Um, kind of a rough guide in terms of a budget, because you were there for two weeks. Have you got any idea? Uh Lucy's shaking her head, she doesn't know. I can't remember. I'm gonna have to ask Joe and then maybe he'll share that and I can put it in the show notes because I'm kind of interested. Is it, you know, because I think, you know, is it is it is it a cheap destination? Is it an expensive destination? Is it one in the middle?

SPEAKER_01 49:52

I think it's in the middle. Yeah. Um, it wasn't cheap. Some things were cheaper than we would have here, some things were a little bit more expensive. We found hotels to be reasonable, and in our budget, we kind of budgeted somewhere between 100-150 um Australian dollars a night, and we could have reasonable accommodation. Um it we didn't feel that it was expensive. We didn't feel it was a cheap, cheap holiday, but okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

That's good because I think it's always good to have kind of those expectations of you know where when you're choosing a destination in terms of what can you actually afford to do and see. Um did you have to pay, you know, uh you mentioned going to the Great Wall, and I just just just something that's kind of crossed my mind. Um is there an entrance fee to go in to see the Great Wall? Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

There is, so and you can buy that there. Right, okay. They take you, the driver will direct you to where you go and buy your ticket. If you go with a tour, they will do all that for you. Um, but yeah, it was pretty straightforward what kind of ticket you wanted, whether you wanted a some people went up and down in the gondola, some people um went down. I think at one of the places you can actually go down by Luge. Okay. Not before. You go up by gondola and down by Louge. I quite like that, yeah. Uh and some hardy people climb.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Oh no, I wouldn't be doing that. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 51:18

I know that yeah, where we went, it was probably a 40-minute 40-minute walk after we finished climbing the wall back to the and I was like, if we'd done it the other way around, we would have been doing it in the heat of the day. Yeah, no, that doesn't sound like going uphill. And so I was really happy that we didn't have to do that.

SPEAKER_02 51:40

So uh that doesn't sound fun. Anyway, I'm gonna I'm gonna uh wrap up and I always end the podcast with the one question, um, unless there's anything in particular that I have missed out, and then you have to tell me, Lucy. But um, what would be the one tip you would share with anyone who planning to visit China for the first time?

Language, Translation, And Menus

SPEAKER_01 51:56

So make sure you have a SIM card with a built-in VPN and lots of data because yeah, apps and things that we are used to don't work. So I haven't mentioned we used AMAPs, we didn't use Google Maps, right? Because Google is useless. AMAPS was really good, really efficient, but had to download that. And the other thing I forgot to talk about was the toilets. Right, okay. I need to tell you about the public toilets. Okay. Finding a public toilet was hit and miss. Right. Being able to guarantee it had a Western style toilet in there was very hit and miss. And no public toilets have toilet paper or soap.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Right. So take that with you.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

So take tissues with you. I couldn't I found it hard to find tissues even in supermarkets and things. So take tissues, take hand sanitizer, and be aware because that was a little bit of a shock. Oh no, that's useful. That's good to know.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

But I remember in China there was no not in China, in Japan, um, to to dry your hands. So I took a uh a little um cloth that I could wash my hands, which I didn't expect in in Japan. I mean the toilets in Japan are like absolutely you know, we were sad to leave because we had to leave the toilets behind, but I was quite happy to know that I need to take a yeah, it was always a highlight of the day if we found a toilet that A was Western and was clean and sometimes, but see, I think those are two amazing tips. So one, you make sure you've got your VPN, your VPN built into your SIM card, but second, make sure that you you take tissues with you and hand sanitizer and probably uh uh a funnel or cloth to dry your hands on afterwards as well, because it's essential, you know. You need to these are these are important things to know. Um, I'm really excited to visit. I'm not sure when we're gonna fit it in, but I uh it's definitely somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

Well, talking to you guys about it is is definitely kind of yeah, there's a lot more to China than we ever knew, and I think because we don't know a lot about it kind of makes it a bit more exciting.

Cultural Quirks And Crowd Dynamics

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm gonna share some of your photos in the show notes. Um so do check those out, especially if you want to see the um the green ice lollies made up of peas, which I'm fascinated about. Um but yeah, thanks very much, Lucy, for coming on the podcast. It's great to chat to you. Really good to catch up and and uh learn all about your um tips for China and we'll share um we'll share the the the in particular the apps that Lucy's talked about for you to download, and we'll also share the name of the sim card with the VPN as well. Um, so you can check that out if you're planning to visit China. But thanks, Lucy, great to chat. Thank you. Uh thanks again to Lucy for coming onto the podcast. It was great to chat with you all about your trip with Joe to China. And um actually, after we finished recording, Lucy just wanted to say a couple of other points that she kind of forgot. It always happens when we do a podcast, there's always things that people remember afterwards. One is that make sure you take medication with you, for example, antihistamines, because I think they struggle to get them in China. And the second one is to make sure when you're booking your accommodation that you check very carefully reviews. What they ended up doing was uh making a reservation and then going and checking at the hotel before deciding about whether they wanted to stay in that particular um uh accommodation option. Apparently, in China, um leaving negative reviews just doesn't happen. Um, and the hotel will do everything they can to uh mitigate against that. Uh so I would they that was just the advice that came from both Lucy and Joe to make sure that you absolutely check 100% when you are booking your accommodation and to do it through tripgot.com. Okay, so I will put links uh to the different apps, tools, and resources that Lucy mentioned in this episode show notes, which are globaltravelplanner.com forward slash episode 93. Um, I'm sure, like me, you found this episode absolutely fascinating. China is definitely in our sights to visit in the next year or two. Um, also do check out the show notes for Lucy's photos of a trip. I'm particularly interested to see the one of that uh pea iced ice lolly. Anyway, thanks very much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please follow the podcast and consider leaving a review in your favourite podcast app. It really does help more travelers find our show. But until next episode, as usual, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com. Remember if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favourite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me today, as always, happy global travel planning.