In summer 2024 I spent 4 weeks touring China.  From Shanghai to Bejing via Chengdu, Xi’an and a few other destinations.  I brought my old Canon 6D, two zooms and an 85mm lens.  I also had an old £10 eBay-bought EOS300 and a few rolls of film to keep up to date on the Frugal Film Project 2024.   

Before the photo posts, I thought I’d give a few thoughts on the logistics and planning I undertook for the trip.  I don’t claim that this is the essential must-do list for going to China, but it worked for me and there’s also a few lessons to be learned for when I inevitably return. 

IT Prep – an old iPhone and a Holafly eSim

Nothing Google related will work in China.  NordVPN doesn’t work.  XpressVPN worked maybe 5% of the time but dropped out after a few minutes.  No Facebook, Instagram, Yahoo, WhatsApp or most western news sites.  (Though RTE.ie was fully functional and accessible – grand job, lads.). And we are a family of Android users – all without eSim and that’s what we had on the hotel wifi. 

The solution to be connected on mobile ? –  a 110 quid iPhone Se (2nd gen) off eBay with an eSim from Holafly bought the week before travelling.  

I did all my travel bookings with an iCloud email – all worked.  

Apple maps works though there were a few accuracy issues. 

I installed the eSim pre-travelling and activated when the plane landed in Shanghai.  I’d unlimited data for the 4 weeks and as Holafly state, there was no loss of service – everything worked, Google apps, news sources and social media.    Without an eSim, prepare to be limited in what you can do .  It also eliminates the potential faff involved in getting a Chinese SIM on arrival. 

Trains. 

We used China Highlights.  They were great.  We booked most of the trains well in advance of the trip – and in advance of the tickets going on sale – but they were prompt at buying the tickets, the email communication was excellent and the small booking fees were well worth it.  It’s all e-ticketing with your passport effectively your ticket linked to a ticket number. 

Chinese train stations get very busy.  So turn up early, go to the ticket office or desk if you want a paper copy ticket (you don’t need one).  The screens (all in Chinese) have the train number and the boarding gate.  There wasn’t a lot of queuing – just gathering and bunching so keep cool and go with the flow. 

Each departure gate has a manual lane with a staff member – this is for passport-based tickets.

You’ve a reserved seat.  There’ll either be a food trolley or dining car – we stocked up at a convenience store before travelling.  There’s also plenty of cafe’s and restaurants at the main train station. 

The bullet trains are clean, extremely fast and quiet, comfortable and seemed to have enough space for luggage each time we were on. 

The overnight slow sleepers are a bit of a different experience – less formal, smoking in the space between carriages and much, much slower. 

People tend to wander around a bit – the China Highlights site said some locals who speak English will start a conversation and ask for a selfie.  On the overnight from Shanghai to Guilin we were joined by Persephone and Lee.  Delightful young students.   

China Highlights also say if there’s an issue with the train – don’t panic and ask for help.  We had an evening train (Pingyao to Beijing) cancellation.  Despite an unhelpful ticket clerk, two other passengers and a station manager were very helpful, we got sorted for  the next morning and our guest house host in Pingyao got a room ready for another night.  China Highlights were quick at issuing a refund. 

Money 

Holiday Inn Express, the airport, Disneyland and Univeral theme parks – these were the only places I used a Visa card.   The rest of the time it was Alipay.  Generally very few places take Visa or Apple pay. 

I’d some difficulty getting WeChat set up even with some local assistance, so I eventually gave up.  Alipay however was set up before departure, my mobile number being the login, and then it was linked to a Revolut card for the default payment and then a credit card as backup. 

On arrival, our first Alipay purchase was metro tickets from Shanghai airport to the city.  After that it was Alipay for everything – from a bottle of water to accommodation costs.  Either scanning the vendor’s QR and manually entering the amount and verifying by my passcode or my QR code being scanned by the shop’s POS.   I’d a record of spend both in the Alipay and the Revolut app.    

The only time it didn’t work was getting a refund for a trip that got cancelled which we booked through a hostel.  They tried to refund me via Alipay but without a Chinese bank card or Alipay wallet, it didn’t work.  I got cash instead.  Apart from that it was easy.  Of course you need to be online to pay – hence the importance of the eSim and unlimited data. 

Trip.com is embedded within the Alipay app in English – you can book entry tickets and travel on here ( though the one time I used for train didn’t work out, hence using China Highlights). And make sure you book everything in advance. Things in China tend to sell out quickly – trains, entry to Forbidden City, Theatre tickets, boat trips… whatever.

Photography 

I’ve travelled around a number of east Asian countries – Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and never once had an issue taking pictures of people, buildings or landscapes.  China is no different.  Obviously like anywhere, I didn’t point a camera at security installation or police etc but street photography is going on all around all the time.  Phones, mirrorless and a pleasing amount of DSLRs and film cameras being used by all ages.   

Outside Beijing and Shanghai, there are fewer western tourists and many locals will take a sneaky shot and ask for a selfie.  This is the point where you fully join in, pose like an influencer, do a cheesy smile and peace sign – and then ask to take a photo of them.  A sort of fleeting celebrity status. 

Street photography goes unchallenged and when I wanted to take a portrait of people   who were doing things like playing music or dancing or the many people dressed up in traditional clothing, I smiled, pointed to the camera and asked.  I was never refused once and most engaged and got into a posing vibe.  China is a good place for street photography. 

Food 

I always go to the cafe or restaurant that’s quite busy, has a menu on display and isn’t too dear.  Nearly all menus were in Chinese-only, so it was guesswork or Apple translate (not a lot of use due to some very poetic dish names).  Also for street food – if it was a kiosk in a tourist area with queues and you could see the food being prepped and cooked, then I was happy enough to try whatever was being offered.  Luckily there were no issues on this front.  Common sense at all times.  If you don’t want to try things, there are McDonalds and KFC everywhere, unfortunately. 

Taxi. Didi.

Didi is the main Chinese app for booking taxis. It’s cheap and reliable. At most venues – theme parks, railway stations etc, there’s an area for these taxis well signposted. It works in English and you simply link to Alipay or a payment card. The iPhone somehow linked the Booking.com accommodation address to Apple maps and then Didi. It had accuracy issues – in Chongqing, Apple Maps put the hostel in the middle of the Yangtse river. The driver though found it funny and asked for a selfie with us.

So that’s my basic travel guide.  The trip was a blast with no issues.  Go to China – you’ll love it.