Next Destination: Shanghai - How I plan my trip to China

I am a seasoned traveller that works in the travel industry and it`s fairly rare these days that I think about planning a trip extensively. Normally, I book the flights and accommodation and play it by the ear when I arrive. Obviously, I do some basic research about what to see and do.

This time it`s a bit different because the destinations are Shanghai and Beijing in China.

I always wanted to go, but I have a basic rule that I only go if I don´t have to pre-arrange visa`s with consulates.  It`s true there was always the possibility to stay on lay-over visa-free up to 72 hours, but for some reason I wasn`t able to use that. This changed in November last year when China announced that for a list of countries (here the current list) their citizens can stay up to 15 days visa-free. And with this the idea to visit China took roots.

One thing I had to get over was the mental block: going to China involves a lot of planning and it will be not as easy as usually, at least from what I heard over the past years. But as taunting and scary as it sounded, I wanted to take advantage to go and visit a country with a history and culture of China. I need to emphasize even though it feels different to go, I know it will be a lot of fun, I will see and experience a lot of things that will broaden my horizon. And obviously there will plenty of opportunities to take great photos for my website.

Shanghai Skyline

With this I embarked on doing some research online and had also the chance to talk to friends and colleagues that are from China or been there. All this helped me to make the whole experience less scary.

I started looking for flights and fairly quickly found a direct flight from Madrid to Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines. But as I wanted to see not just Shanghai, but also Beijing it got a bit more complicated. All of the sudden it`s not a normal round-trip anymore, but a multi-stop which is not easy to book on the foreign language website of the airline. I prefer booking on the airline`s website, because it makes it easier to manage if something goes wrong. So, I had to fallback on an online travel agency (or any travel agency for that matter). Comparing prices, it turns out that trip.com had the most competitive prices, most likely because it`s a Chinese agency with access to local fares (as I said travel geek speaking here).

Next was looking into how I can travel from Shanghai to Beijing? Well, I love trains and obviously with the extensive high-speed network, I wanted to try the Chinese trains. One thing I forgot to mention is that I will be travelling during one of the biggest public holidays in China. The sale for train tickets starts 30days before travel date, but with the millions of travellers to be expected the chance of me as a foreigner to get a ticket is slim. I could rely on an agency but even that sounded a bit to risky for me. So, I opted for flights. I started looking and the flights were quite expensive, and here again it comes in handy working in the travel industry for some time: having multiple destinations of one airline in one booking can be cheaper than booking individually. And indeed, that was the case! That means the train experience has to wait for the next trip to China. And I booked my flights from Madrid to Shanghai, then Shanghai to Beijing and back from Beijing via Shanghai to Madrid.

For the accommodation I am not to worry to be honest, I am a frequent traveller with various hotel chains and all of them have properties in Shanghai and Beijing. I still haven’t decided yet where to stay, but definitely it will be in the city center and close to the sights for convenience.

But hotels pose a next challenge: paying for your stay and with payments in general. True you can pay the room before arrival, but after Covid I prefer to have flexible fares and pay at check-out. Paying with foreign credit cards can be a hit and miss, so you`ll have to rely on local payment methods. Good news here: recently WeChat and AliPay allow you now to link a foreign credit card to them. This will make it much easier to get around and pay, without relying on cash (which is disappearing). Here some guides how to link cards to WeChat and AliPay. According to a Skift article it should be easier in the future to pay with your home country`s credit card in the coming months.

One thing to keep in mind with the apps (especially with an Android phone): Google services don`t work in China, so download the apps and link the cards at home. If you have an iPhone, you should be fine.

I do rely heavily on Google Maps when travelling (for me the best maps app there is, but eager to hear of better ones), so I had to look into alternatives. From some research maps.me seems to be a good alternative, with having location names in English as well. That should help navigating the big cities. For talking to friends and family I will rely on some Microsoft services like Skype and Teams. For data in general I will search for a decent eSIM provider (will let you know after the trip which one I chose).

As mentioned before most of my time preparing a trip goes into looking for what to do and see. The Travel China Guide website is a great source, with plenty of suggestions for Shanghai and Beijing. With all the uncertainty and the little concerns flying around in my head I decided to do more of organized activities, rather than do the solo traveller things, I normally do. I already decided on a tour for the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square and also for the Chinese wall. Both I booked with GetYourGuide. And believe it or not it provides a certain piece of mind.

Food in Hong Kong

One of the reasons I want to go to China is the food. So, I decided to do a food tour in Shanghai and Beijing. I haven`t really decided yet which to book, but I am looking for something like I did Hong Kong during one of my last trips there (Secret Food Tours). Another thing that`s on the list is a cooking class. I had some great experience in Bangkok with Sompong Thai Cooking School.

Well, it started of as a very scary and taunting trip planning but now I feel confident with what to do in Shanghai and Beijing. I`m really looking to the experience. I hope this helps you a bit with how to plan your trip to China. I`ll keep you posted and will share my experience after my return.

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UPDATE – 18 March 2024

After publishing the blog post a friend of mine was so kind to provide me with another useful app to install before heading to China: Metroman China . It provides an easy tool to plan your trip with the metro and public transport in the bigger Chinese cities.

In the meantime, I also installed AliPay and WeChat. Even though AliPay was easy to install and to setup, WeChat turned out to be a bit more complicated. Once I installed the app and created my user, I struggled a bit to activate WeChat Pay as it´s not activated by default. To do so you need to do the following: go to “Me”, then “Settings”, “General” and “Tools”. Once you´re in “Tool” go to “Weixin Pay” to enable WeChat Pay. Here some screenshots.

How to activate WeChat Pay

To link a card you need to follow these steps: after you activated WeChat Pay, go to “ Me” and then you´ll have the tab “Services”, clock on it and you´ll see the different services, similar to what you see in AliPay. Click on “Wallet” in the top right corner, then “Cards”. Here you can easily add your credit card you would like to use. BTW: if you want to pay in China, you go then to “Money” (the button next to “Wallet” and there you then get the QR-code you share with the cashier/merchant).

How to add a credit card to WeChat Pay