My first trip to China
After planning my trip to China for almost three months and documenting my preparation in my blog post “Next Destination: Shanghai - How I plan my trip to China”, I finally made it to China at the end of April. Now, did all the preparation and research pay off? Short answer: absolutely, it made it easier to relax and enjoy the trip. In this blog post I will document in more detail my experience travelling to China for the first time, before diving into Shanghai and Beijing in the next blogs.
Getting there
As China Eastern Airlines was the only airline flying direct from Madrid to Shanghai it was quite clear for me that I would fly with them. I booked through trip.com as the airline’s foreign website didn’t suite my needs. Trip.com is the competitor of Expedia from China and therefore, has some of the best offers for your trip to the Chinese mainland. The flights were between 12hrs (there) and 13hrs (return). Flying there we left around midnight and that gave me plenty of time to sleep, that helped a lot to minimize the Jetlag. China Eastern’s service and food is very similar to European carriers, but not as good as Middle Eastern or Asian carriers. If I have to complain about something it’s the lack of foreign entertainment, but I knew this before and downloaded content on my phone and brought some books. Overall, I had smooth flights and would fly with them again.
China Eastern Airlines plane and waiting hall of Pudong Airport in Shanghai
Once we arrived in Shanghai Pudong the immigration was quite straight forward. Everybody must fill an arrival form, which is quite common and nothing special for Asian countries. Then you move to a self-service machine to get your fingerprints taken. With the printed paper slip you then go the actual counter with the immigration officer and as usual get your photo taken and your passport stamped. Overall, nothing special and fairly quick compared to other countries, in 20-30mins I was through. Which was perfect as the luggage was just arriving when I got to the belt.
Shanghai airports and most of the airports in China are new and massive, not surprising with the amount of people travelling through them. At the airport you’ll notice that opposite to Europe and North America, most planes are big double-aisle ones, which means more space and better service. In general China is a very digital country and almost everywhere you’re faced with digital surveillance. Airports are not different and nearly all departure gates now are biometric and there’s no opt-out option. I must admit the biometric gates are quite convenient and efficient.
Even though I love trains, as mentioned in my initial planning blog I decided to fly from Shanghai to Beijing. The main reason was because of the public holidays around the 1st of May. And I was right. If you can, avoid visit China during their public holidays, almost half of the country is travelling, especially to Beijing. It was so crowded that even I got claustrophobic. Also, it makes it more difficult to get tickets to major sights like the Forbidden City or the Great Wall. Furthermore, try to take advantage of the 15 days visa-free travel (now extended to end of 2025) if you can. 3 days each in Shanghai and Beijing as I did are definitely not enough. I would recommend 5-6 days per city.
While you are there
Accommodation in China is not very different than in other countries. You have the major international chains that meet the common standards. You can stay as well in Chinese chains that also adhere to international standards, but are a bit more difficult to book, unless you go through a travel agency (online or brick-and-mortar). I stayed in Novotel hotels always close to the main sights and around the corner of metro stops. I was very happy with my choice, in particular with being close to metro stops as it made exploring the city so much more convenient.
My main concern visiting Chinas was around how to be able to pay there. Keep in mind that still today Western credit-debit cards only work with merchants serving tourists, with the little convenience stores or restaurants you’ll struggle. Therefore, before heading there I setup WeChat and Alipay at home as you need your mobile number to do so. Additionally, I made sure to have enough funds on my Wise Yuan-account. Wise worked very well and is now my preferred credit card for travelling. All together I had no problems paying anywhere. When paying with WeChat or Alipay there are two ways of doing so: either you scan the QR code or barcode, or the merchant scans yours. If you scan, then normally you must enter the amount. I always double checked with the cashier to make sure I entered the correct amount. By the way having both apps setup is essential as some places take one or the other. Personally, I used more WeChat (also seems to be the preference of merchants in China), but there is no obvious reason for that. Foreigners I met in China seemed to prefer Alipay as for them it was easier to navigate. For setting up WeChat check “Next Destination: Shanghai - How I plan my trip to China“ where I explain the different steps.
In my planning blog I mentioned that I would use an eSIM but wasn’t sure yet which one. After doing some more research and looking at various providers like Holafly and Nomad, I opted for Airalo. They offered the best package for me, 5GB for $16.50 valid for 30days (5GB were more than enough for 10 days). An added plus was that I could use all my apps and didn’t have to worry about a VPN. Which helped to save some money and hassle. One thing to I learned with eSIM’s and you should keep in mind is to switch off automatic network search as you can lose connection if your network is not the strongest. With manual network search you don’t have this issue, and all works fine. Another small drawback with eSIM’s is that you don’t get a Chinese phone number, which is not an issue unless you want to buy metro tickets in Beijing (only possible with a Chinese number, workarounds are either Cash, buying at the Kiosk or multiple trip tickets).
One thing I highly recommend particularly if you go during public holidays is buying tickets for major sights well in advance. I booked the Forbidden City (Beijing), Tiananmen Square (Beijing), Temple of Heaven (Beijing) and the Great Wall (Beijing) months/weeks before and had no problems. Some travellers I met couldn’t go on the desired days as the places were sold out. For all sights you need to provide your passport details, as this is the identifier for your ticket, and you won’t be able to get in without it. For less crowded sight like Yuyuan Garde (Shanghai), Jing’an Temple (Shanghai) or Lama Temple (Beijing) you don’t need to buy tickets in advance (you still need your passport though). National museums and the Jade Buddha temple (Shanghai) are free, and no worries at all.
Metro system in Shanghai
Metroman app
Getting around
Public transport in China, especially in big cities is very good and convenient. The best to get anywhere fast is the metro. Only in Beijing you have some challenges as you need a Chinese number to be able to buy tickets at the machine with WeChat or Alipay. As I didn’t have one, I was looking for other options, the first time I bought the ticket at the kiosk in the station (but that got too cumbersome). Another alternative is to use cash at the machine, but I didn’t have small change (biggest note the machine accepted was 20 Yuan). So, I decided to get a multiple trips card that you can reload with money for the fare. You can buy and reload it at the kiosk, but you pay 20 yuan for the card itself. This is the better option if you stay few days and want to explore the city by metro.
The most efficient app to manage the itineraries with the metro is Metroman as mentioned in “Next Destination: Shanghai - How I plan my trip to China”. You enter the leaving station and your destination. It gives you multiple routes, the travel time, and the prices. It makes it very easy to navigate the metro systems. Additionally, when you click on the station name it provides more information incl. the name in Chinese which helps a lot if you look for direction and need to ask locals. Signs for station names and the line details show the English names too. One thing I got used to is to look up the exit for the destination I want to go. Stations can be very big and have up to 20 exits, choosing the right one is crucial. For directions besides the metro, I used Maps.me, as it shows as well all the exits for the stations. I could have worked with Google Maps too, with Airalo I had no problem accessing it, but it is not as accurate as in other parts of the world and was only my fallback option.
Another convenient way to get around, even though I only used it at the end of my trip is Didi (the Chinese equivalent of Uber). Alipay includes it as a Mini-App in English. This makes it a lot less painful to book the ride. You choose your location and address you want to go to, then choose the type of service you want (best are Express and Premium) and then you book it. As with other ride haling apps you see where the driver is and when he/she will arrive. These days the app is quite safe and includes some security measure like a direct link to the police in case you need it. Once you arrive at you destination you pay and add a tip if you wish, if you booked through Alipay it’s straight forward.
One thing I thought about but didn’t really setup before was a translator app. I must admit it makes getting around and communicating with locals much easier. At some points it was a life saver as people understood what I was asking, and I got the help I needed. Google translate or Bing translate work both very well. Tough for Google you would need a VPN or Airalo.
Food & Tea
Chinese food was one of the main reasons for me to visit China. And the food is extraordinary, nothing compared to what we get in Western Chinese restaurants. Doesn’t matter if you go to traditional restaurants, food courts in malls or buy from street vendors everywhere the food is delicious. An absolute must are Dumplings and you should try all the different varieties, but keep in mind that the portions come in bigger numbers: 5-15 per order. Another favourite of mine is Sizzling Eggplant, which is minced meat with eggplant and chillies. Shanghai has more spicy food than Beijing. The soups and noodles you should try as well, there are so many types you can eat for months. Initially I planned to take a cooking class, but in the end, I had no time as there was too much to see in Shanghai and Beijing. That’s for next time.
China is the country of tea and in restaurants you get tea all the time for free instead of water. I wanted experience the tea ceremony while in China and bring back home some tea like Oolong or Pu’er that you don’t find in Europe. Therefore, I planned to visit Tianshan Tea City in Shanghai (one of the biggest tea markets in the country), but unfortunately again I had no time to go there. Instead, I found a nice shop called Yanle Tea (there are three of them) in Tianzifang and there they took some time to give me a great introduction (in English) to Chinese tea, Yasmine tea in particular. I learnt that the older the tea the better the healing powers, best when the tea is older than 7 years. The tea can be re-used 4-5 times, even up to 7. I bought some Jazmine tea, Oolong and Pu’er. Chinese tea normally comes as loose leaves, but you can also buy tea bags (Chinese obviously wouldn’t). In Beijing you have two great chains if you look for good tea, one being Wu Yu Tai Tea (I bought some tea there too) and the other is Ten Fu Tea (more high-end tea, great as souvenir or gift).
Restaurants and dishes in China
Tea ceremony and tasting at Yanle Tea in Tianzifang in Shanghai
Final words
Well, coming back to the question at the beginning: did all the preparation pay off and was it necessary. In my opinion it did, and it made the whole experience more enjoyable. But strictly speaking you don’t need to prepare so well, especially if you want to be a bit more spontaneous. Only if you go during Chinese Public Holidays some extra preparations are necessary. If you don’t plan too much ahead make sure you get a VPN or use Airalo to be able to do some research while in China.
For more information about Shanghai and Beijing read the dedicated blogs.
