Last Updated on October 18, 2025 by Home in the World
First things first – China is an incredible travel destination. It has SO much to offer in the way of ancient history, an exceptionally rich culture, stunning landscapes, mind-blowing modern technology, tasty food and friendly people.
I have been there 3 times since 2013 (the most recent being in 2025) and would rank it right up there as one of my favourite places to visit as a tourist.
But it is a complex country – in more ways than one. And for travellers, it can sometimes seem a bit daunting. Indeed, I know several people who have expressed interest in going there but have been put off by one or more of its apparent obstacles.
‘I can’t use social media there’; ‘I’m going to be under surveillance the whole time’; ‘It’s a complicated visa process’… The list of reasons goes on. And I get it. It can appear an intimidating country for first-timers.
So, in this post, I’m going to offer my China travel tips and recommendations based on my own experiences as a fellow tourist – in the hope they may help you with your planning and inspire you to finally visit this fascinating country for yourself.
Visas for China
Many people may be put off visiting China because of a potentially complex visa and documentation process. For my trips there in 2013 and 2014, I had to submit a detailed (and quite expensive) visa application form and wait several days for it to be approved. It’s a country I simply accepted would always require a visa because of its strict controls.
Fast-forward to 2025 and a number of passports no longer require one. Australian passports were among them, and this was definitely a factor in me deciding to return to the country over a decade after I had last visited. It made the whole process so much easier!
At the time of writing this (August 2025), ordinary passport-holders from the following countries:
Albania, Andorra, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Suriname, Switzerland, Thailand, Tonga, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Uzbekistan
can stay in the country for 30 days visa-free if visiting for business, tourism, visiting family,/friends, exchange or transit.
Other passports may be eligible for a 240-hour visa-free transit, if they can prove they are travelling onward to a third country. These include passport-holders from Canada, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.
Please be aware that this information may change in future and, while I will continue to revisit this post and update it whenever I can, make sure you check the latest details for your specific passport via your country’s embassy or foreign office (beware of scam visa sites). You might also find this website helpful.
I am fully aware of passport privilege, and it is not lost on me that I am fortunate to have a strong passport that made my most recent visit to China much more streamlined.
If your passport is not one of those mentioned above, it is still worth continuing to monitor the requirements, as China is constantly looking to encourage tourism and facilitate entry for short stays. Hopefully it will extend its visa waivers to more and more foreign nationals in future.
Internet access (including social media)
Another big concern for people visiting China is the ‘Great Firewall of China’, i.e. whether they will be able to access the internet (e.g. Google, Gmail, international news sites etc.) and social media the way they would be able to at home. The answer to this is: it depends.
In my experience, using hotel WiFi (I was staying at upscale international chain hotels) only enabled limited access. I could get into some websites and apps, but they would often be very slow or buggy.
The odd time I was even able to get into Instagram and share a photo, but there was quite a lot of lag and extremely patchy. Google Chrome did not work very well as a browser, but Firefox did. Searches were limited to the likes of Bing and Baidu.
I believe this can usually be resolved by using a VPN. But I had also read numerous things saying that VPNs are borderline illegal in China and that the Chinese government places severe limitations on them, even blocking some VPN providers.
I can’t confirm or deny this, as I thought it was too risky to bother trying, given my short stints in the country. There will be many sites online telling you it’s perfectly fine, but just check to make sure they are genuine and not simply trying to sell VPNs.
I personally found that the best option was to just use the roaming data on my Australian sim card. It cost me $AU 10 per 24-hour period for 10 GB of data, which I found well worth it, because it meant I could use the internet completely normally (I turned it off when not using my phone, so as not to chew up data unnecessarily).
And when I say normally, I mean exactly the same as if I were at home: all Google services (Chrome, Gmail, YouTube etc.), all Meta services (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp etc.), all international news sites, my Duolingo app (I had a 1500-day streak I didn’t want to lose, though Duolingo did actually work on the hotel WiFi too)… everything was fast and accessible.
And having my data on meant I could also have internet access while out and about, which is extra important in China (more on that later).
So I found that the best option for me, but I understand some phone service providers charge a lot more for data roaming. In that case, I would recommend buying and setting up a non-Chinese e-sim before arriving in China. From what others have told me, this works just as well as data roaming.
Payment methods
You may have heard that China has become a virtually cashless society, and that is largely true. I definitely noticed a big shift when visiting in 2025 compared to when I had last visited in 2014. Pretty much everyone uses their phone to pay for things.
As such, I recommend downloading and setting up an app like Alipay or WeChat Pay before you arrive in China.
One word of caution, however: I used Alipay and still had an issue when trying to pay for a taxi fare. I had set up everything correctly, and it still said it couldn’t process the payment because my linked credit card wasn’t issued in China.
It caused a bit of stress and some back-and-forth using Google Translate (see Language section below for more on that) with the taxi driver, who kindly ended up taking cash and going to a nearby stallholder to get the correct change for us.
That’s why I do still recommend having some cash on you. It doesn’t need to be a lot (though petty crime in China is not very common), and cash is still legal tender; merchants are always obliged to take it. The reason some are hesitant to do so is because they don’t always have correct change to give you.
But you can never count out the odd technical glitch, and being entirely reliant on technology is not something that’s ever sat totally well with me – a concern that proved legitimate with my Alipay issue –, so I would always be sure to have some Chinese Yuan accessible at all times. I actually used cash at some other small souvenir shops as well, and it was readily taken.
In terms of credit cards, all major hotel chains (and I would expect most established stores and restaurants) accept international credit cards. I paid my hotel bill on my card without any issue. I am less sure about smaller shops, street vendors or similar. For these, I would recommend the apps or cash.
Getting around
Similar to the payment system mentioned above, getting around in China – if you’re doing so by car – will likely be through a ride-sharing app. Uber does not exist in China, but I found Didi to be a perfect substitute.
Be aware that you will need to download the Didi China version of the app, not the international version, as I made the mistake of doing.
It was not until I was in China and tried to use the app that it told me it wouldn’t work in China. So I had to download its Chinese counterpart (Apple version available here or the Android version here) once in the country.
There is thankfully an option to use it in English (well, 90% of it was in English; there would still be the odd page that only seemed to appear in Chinese), and I used it many times without any issues at all.
All drivers were friendly and reliable, and there is even an option in the app to tell the driver that you don’t speak Chinese, so they are at least aware of it before you get in. Every single car I took was a spotless, brand-new BYD or Chery – quiet, electric and super efficient.
China’s major cities of course also have public transport systems that include subways. I tried Shanghai’s underground when I visited in 2013 and 2014 and found it to be clean, safe and user-friendly. I can only imagine how much more state-of-the-art it has all become now, and would certainly not hesitate to use it again.
China also has intercity bullet trains that can reach speeds of up to 300 km/h (240 mph). The only experience I have with Chinese trains was the Maglev train in Shanghai in 2013, which took me from the city centre to the airport in about 7 minutes (by road it’s about an hour).
But if I were looking to travel between major Chinese cities and wanted to avoid the hassle of flying, I would definitely consider their train system. You can read more about them here.
Language
I mentioned earlier about the kind taxi driver who communicated with me via a translation app when dealing with the Alipay issue. I found this to be very common practice, and it worked well.
The reality is that English is not *that* widely spoken. In major cities with lots of expats, like Shanghai or Beijing, you are probably more likely to find it (especially in main tourist areas). In Chengdu, the country’s fourth largest city with a population of some 22 million people, there was very little English.
Staff at major hotel chains generally have a decent level (though this is not a given) and people working at major tourist attractions will know the basics, but apart from that, do not expect to be understood by speaking English to locals.
Consider using a translation app, such as Google Translate, whose camera function is particularly handy for getting the gist of written text.
And if you don’t have a translation app, fear not – because almost every Chinese person will use WeChat’s translation feature or a similar voice-translation app that will enable you to converse with them. As a non-Mandarin speaker, I found it extremely helpful, and all the locals were so friendly and obliging with it.
So, while China may seem a bit more ‘foreign’ in the lack of familiar language and signage, don’t let it put you off, because the Chinese are aware of this and are happy to communicate through translation technology. Also, most street signs and public transport signage are written in both Chinese and English.
As a side note: I always recommend learning a few basic words of your travel destination’s local language – it’s the least we, as tourists, can do when visiting someone else’s country. It shows respect for and interest in the foreign culture. No one is going to expect you to be fluent, but a simple ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ or ‘please’ in the local language can still go a long way.
Cameras and surveillance
It’s no secret that China is known for its surveillance of citizens. Facial recognition is widely used and cameras are prevalent. Sometimes I noticed them, other times I did not (though I’m sure they were still there).
Ultimately, you know this is going to be the case before visiting a country like China. If you’re not doing anything wrong, you won’t find it an issue and will probably even forget they exist. And the upside is that crime is very low – because everyone knows they will be caught on camera.
Main squares in major cities will usually have a visible police presence. I noticed this at Tiananmen Square in Beijing (no surprises there, especially as I was visiting on an anniversary of the massacre) and Tianfu Square in Chengdu. But the police were simply keeping an eye on things. We were never approached, asked for ID or anything.
Plug outlets and voltage
Outlets used in China are are types A (two flat parallel pins), C (two round pins) and I (three flat pins in a triangular layout), and standard voltage is 220 V at a frequency of 50 Hz. In some cases, I was able to plug my Australian appliances straight into the wall because the outlet was the same.
Tipping
Tipping is not customary in China and I would recommend not doing so unless someone has gone absolutely above and beyond in providing you with a service. But those would have to be extremely exceptional circumstances, because, in the vast majority of cases, tipping will be refused and potentially even seen as insulting or rude.
Emergency contacts
The main emergency numbers to know in China are as follows:
- Police: 110
- Fire: 119
- Ambulance: 120
- Traffic accidents: 122
Best time to visit
I have visited China in the months of May, June and October, and I believe these are the best times to do so, especially if you want to maximise your chances of good weather. On all 3 occasions, I found those months to be comfortable and pleasant (June bordering on hot) and mostly dry.
April/May can sometimes bring dust storms from the desert (there was a small one when I was in Chengdu) but it shouldn’t be anything that will drastically affect your travel, unless you’re extremely unlucky.
November also looks to be a good option if you’re looking for striking autumn colours, though I have never visited at that time. Winter (Dec-Feb) is likely to be quite cold, especially in the north, with greater likelihood of air pollution, and summer (June-Sep) is likely to be hot, humid and rainy.
Major holidays to be aware of are Lunar New Year (around February, but specific dates change each year), Labour Day (late April/early May) and Golden Week (early October). These are likely to be particularly crowded and expensive times to visit, given the spike in domestic travel. Some businesses may also be closed at this time.
Obviously China is a big country and climate will vary depending on where you are, but, in general, I would say your best bet of having decent weather in most parts would be to visit in May or October, if that’s feasible for you.
Air quality
On my first two visits to China in 2013 and 2014, I admit I was extremely concerned about air pollution, especially in Beijing, and even took masks with me just in case. Fortunately I did not need them, as the air quality was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting, and we had beautiful blue skies every day (this was in June).
On my most recent trip to Chengdu in May 2025, I couldn’t believe how good the air quality was. Firstly, it is a very leafy city with lots of ‘green lungs’, but secondly – and I assume this will be the case across most major cities in China now – 95% of the traffic (cars, buses and motorbikes) were electric, making for an exceptionally quiet and clean street-walking experience.
That being said, China is a hugely industrial nation, and it is never going to win any contests for having the world’s best air. There are usually certain times of year that tend to be worse than others: peak winter, peak summer and – for dust storms – April/May (we actually experienced this a little bit during our time in Chengdu, but it was not too bad).
If you are sensitive, I would still recommend having some masks with you (since the pandemic I personally always travel with them) and perhaps also a nasal spray, but in general I would say China’s air quality is getting a lot better than it used to be, and I wouldn’t let it put you off travelling there.
Safety and hygiene
As mentioned above, China is a very safe place to visit. Its strict rules and strong police presence mean petty crime is very low. I have always found the people to be extremely honest, friendly and helpful – despite the language barrier – and all the major cities I have visited have always felt very safe to walk around, day or night.
Similarly with hygiene and cleanliness; if you’re visiting a big city, you’ll likely find the streets to be extremely clean and hygiene standards to be high. Common sense should be exercised with things like street food (as with anywhere around the world), but generally food and water are fine in major urban centres, and especially at higher-end hotels and popular restaurants.
If you’re heading to more rural areas, however, this may not be the case, so further precautions may need to be taken.
China travel tips: A summary
I hope this post has answered some of the questions you may have about visiting China as a foreign tourist. I’ve tried to address as many main points as I could think of, based on my own experience and research, but if there’s anything else specific you’d like to know, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll endeavour to help.
China is a complex country that is far from perfect, and my enthusiasm for the cultural wonders if offers as a travel destination does not mean I endorse everything about it or its policies. But this post is specifically about the practicalities of visiting it as a tourist.
It is a fascinating place steeped in ancient history and rich culture, and it would be a shame for people to miss out on experiencing that side of it. It’s not as intimidating as it may seem at first glance, and I highly recommend travelling there at least once in your life.
** This post, like everything else on this website, has been written entirely by me. No ChatGPT or any other AI tool has been used. It takes longer to create, but I value 100% human-generated content and I hope you do too! **
Before you go…
Consider following me on Instagram for more travel content from around the world!
Looking for somewhere to stay on your trip to China? Find another property suiting your needs by searching below:
Or if you’re heading to Chengdu and are looking for a solid luxury option, read my review of the Ritz-Carlton Chengdu.
For more China travel inspiration, you may want to consider some of these tours:
Ready to book your flights to China? I recommend using Skyscanner or Trip.com to find and compare the best fares.
For more Asia travel content, feel free to check out my posts from Cambodia, Japan and South Korea, plus my older travel memories (more narrative style than blog style) from Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore.
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The information you’ve provided here is invaluable, it covers every aspect and clears so many (perceived) doubts
Thank you – really hope it helps people!
I am one of these people interested in Chinese Culture and food but scared of safety and my regular internet sites being blocked… so, I have only been to Republic of China and Hongkong so far. Very interesting post. I have hovered over the “book” button for flights with longer stopovers in Shanghai but not had the courage to book yet. Would love to visit Tibet and Yunnan.
Ohh please don’t let that put you off. I know it is a bit different than other destinations, but it is worth it. China has a lot to offer. I think you’d love it. I too would love to visit Tibet and Yunnan someday. I’ve actually looked into Tibet in particular; I believe there are some additional permits required to go there.
The information you have provided here is so helpful. It is quite descriptive.
Thank you! So glad you found it helpful!
Great informative and useful post to plan a trip to China! I was very interested in reading about esim, it was complicated getting one. My dream for the next year! Saving it for the future, thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much! I really hope you can get there next year. It is a very worthwhile destination, even if it is a bit more complex than others. Let me know if you need any more help before you go!
I’ve worried about air pollution, especially when visiting cities such as Beijing. Great to hear that your experience was quite positive in this regard.
I was worried about it too, but if you go in spring/autumn, there is less chance of it being an issue. I wouldn’t let it put you off; maybe just take some face masks/nasal sprays with you if you think you may be sensitive.
I visited China over 12 years ago and found it to be a fascinating country. I’d love to go back again and see more of it.
Oh you would definitely notice a difference if you went back now! Agree, it’s a fascinating place. Hope you can get back one day.
Great tips. I wondered about desert dust storms, and air pollution the most. But as a duolingo addict, I would not want to loose my streak either. Thanks for the great info
The desert storms are usually only in April/May, and I think you have to be quite unlucky to get one bad enough to ruin a trip (but yes, it does happen to some people). I do think China is also slowly trying to improve its air quality, and the fact that so many vehicles there are now electric has helped a lot with street-level pollution. I didn’t notice any pollution at all in Chengdu, and that’s a city with 22 million people. And yes, Duolingo was important for me too, haha! I tried searching online beforehand but could never get a categorical answer, so thought I would put it here 🙂 Hope you can visit China one day!
This is a very comprehensive and practical overview. I’ve not been, although there are a few specific places I’ve always wanted to see. It seems my procrastination is working in my favour as it seems far, far easier to travel there now than before! Especially since your info that roaming data just works led me to check whether my Malaysian telco has a convenient roaming pass for China – and it does! It’s just a bit over RM100 for unlimited data for a whole month, so if just using roaming is the same effect for us, effectively there wouldn’t be an internet restriction for me!
Thank you! Glad you found it useful. It definitely seems to be easier to visit now than it used to! Your roaming pass sounds perfect. I was certainly able to access everything normally using my Australian roaming, so hopefully it’s the same for you. Hope you can get there one day soon!