No crowds or over-tourism
There are 1.4 billion people in China and major cities are huge. Most tourists are domestic, from China. We, a European-South Asian couple wearing colourful wind breakers, got spotted as tourists from a mile away.
In some locations around the world over-tourism is a serious problem. Not in China. There were days in a row that we saw zero foreign tourists. Nobody. People were trying to talk to us and take pictures with us, as if we were the first foreigners they had seen in a very long time (in fact China was closed for 3 years during COVID-19). Welcome, welcome! That was a strange, but very pleasant experience anno 2025.
Comfortable High Speed Electric Trains
Travelling in China is very rewarding. And it is so easy to get around. China has without any doubt the largest, most modern and best functioning electric high-speed railway network in the world. It covers 45,000 km. Europe and Japan can learn from it to improve, while the USA have not achieved anything whatsoever in this regard yet…
• Train Bookings are usually done online. An application like 12306 or trip.com makes booking really easy and comfortable. Some trains need be booked 1+ week in advance (certain date-time), others can be on-the-spot. The system uses your passport as identification and you’ll have to show it when boarding. All trains leave exactly on time, and boarding is only allowed 15-5 minutes before departure. Some stations are enormous.
• High Speed Train tickets are quite affordable and may cost between 10 and 30 USD per hour of travel. Trains travel at a speed between 140 and 290 km per hour and are clean and very comfortable.
Electric mobility everywhere
While in China we noticed the advancements in electrical mobility. Maybe it is not the same in all major cities, and maybe it is different between cities and rural areas, but we saw a lot of electrical buses, taxis, cars, scooters and bicycles. Combustion engines were in the minority. Even though there was a lot of traffic, it was relatively quiet and the air felt clean. From the plane and train we saw large fields with solar panels and wind turbines. This is probably also an area where China leads the world.
• We asked ourselves several times, why things work so well in China and not in India? They are neighbours and the most populated countries in the world. Both have very smart and hard-working people. But the trains in India are still the old, heavy, bumpy kind of adventure trains without any comfort that take forever to get somewhere. The country still depends heavily on oil for everything. Electric mobility in India has not even started yet. China has achieved so much more.
Best time to visit China
The best time to travel to China depends on where you go. China is the size of Canada, or the USA and the weather varies through the regions. Winter should be avoided as well as the periods that the Chinese themselves travel (especially Golden Week and Chinese New Year). Summer in Chongqing can be really hot (40°C and more). We travelled late October what is considered low-season end encountered a bit of everything. We enjoyed a warm 31 degrees in Chongqing, fog on Fanjing Shan, pleasant 22°C near the Huangguoshu Waterfall as well as wet snow on Mount Emei.
Hotels during low-season are abundant and excellent value for money. We stayed in nice 3-4 star hotels and hostels for 30-50 USD per night. This sometimes even included a bath tub or breakfast buffet. Depending on our schedule we stayed close to the railway station or down-town, where the action is. Public transportation is easy. Major cities have good navigable metro systems that take you close to your hotel. Taxis and Didi’s (private rides) are very affordable as well and could take you from the airport or train station to wherever you want to go. Be aware of independent drivers who offer their services at the airport for 2-3x the actual rate! Buses can be tricky for foreign tourists because of the language issue.
Good vs bad: Free Toilets vs Smoking
One more plus that China offers compared to many countries: there are free-of-charge, clean toilets everywhere. This may not be a deciding factor when looking for your next travel destination, but it certainly helps. In Europe there are also many toilets, but most of them cost money and only few free ones are clean. Free toilets mean that the streets are clean as well and don’t smell awful.
There is one minus that I also like to mention here: a lot of people in China smoke. Cigarettes are on sale everywhere, out in the open, as if they are healthy products and don’t cause any harm. People smoke in hotels and restaurants, what can be a nuisance for non-smokers like myself. Fortunately smoking in public transportation is prohibited.
Challenges while travelling in China
China does have its challenges and the three most obvious ones are language, food and internet.
• The language can be a problem when travelling independently as a non-Chinese speaking person. Very, very few locals speak some English. All signs, restaurant menus, entrance tickets, tv-programs, etc are in Chinese only. Of course there are translation apps nowadays, but they are tiring if you have to use them all day, every day. Note that we cannot blame the Chinese for not speaking English in their own country: why don’t we learn Chinese?
• Chinese cuisine in China is different from Chinese food in another country. Vegetables are easy, but meat may come with a lot of bones. Once we ordered pork-without-many-bones and got awful pork belly… Breakfast is served mainly warm with vegetables, salads, porridge and noodles. Some can handle it, some cannot. I lost weight – again.
• The Great Firewall of China is another issue. Some common websites, social media and major news portals have been blocked. This includes Google (Search, Maps & Translate) and Facebook/Instagram and CNN.com. As a foreigner there are ways to get around it though, for example by installing an e-sim before arriving in China (eg. Airalo, Saily). Herewith you will access the Internet from another country while in China. Alternatively you can sign-up for a temporary data-roaming package with your home-service provider. Ideally you’ll get both. WhatsApp sometimes works by using the hotel Wi-Fi, but sometimes only as text without pictures. Getting a local sim-card may not be possible for a short vacation.
Useful Web and Phone Applications for Travellers
Common web applications in China are WeChat, Alipay and Didi. Alipay is used for payment only while WeChat is also used for communication and GPS (similar to WhatsApp). All Chinese use these applications for example for payment in a restaurant or for entrance tickets. We also installed WeChat, but only for payment and linked to an online wallet (not a credit card or bank account, see https://you.co). WeChat Pay and Alipay are supposed to be 100% safe, but still Chinese companies under Chinese Law and therefore privacy and data protection is not guaranteed. Do not upload or share too sensitive information.
• For payments foreigners should not depend on WeChat or Alipay only. The internet in general is not 100% reliable and mobile payments may not always work. Major credit cards may not be accepted, so having some extra cash at hand is the safest thing to do. There are many banks and cash withdrawal with a debit card is easy.
Didi Chuxing is the largest ride-hailing platform in China, the Chinese equivalent of Uber or Grab. You can contact private drivers, who will take you from A to B at a fixed and prepaid rate. On the mobile app this is a bit complicated if you do not know exactly where to go, or likely misspell the destination. You may find Didi-drivers on the road where you are, and then of course it is easy through verbal communication. Online you may have to connect your Didi-account to a credit card or bank account, something that few foreigners are willing to do.
Have patience or join a group tour
As an independent traveller you will need to plan ahead and have patience. Things take time, things go wrong. We did notice several group tours (from Malaysia, Poland and other countries) and especially in China this makes a lot of sense. The tour organisation will plan your itinerary, get your tickets in advance, organise transportation and accommodation. They can speak the language and know good places to eat. It makes travel so easy and enjoyable. Travel for disabled people in a wheelchair is not yet a viable option everywhere. There are lots of stairs.
China travel in the Past and Now
I already travelled through China years before the Internet. Of course things changed. Everyone depends on the Internet and China is no different from the rest of Asia, Europe or the Americas. Many years ago people tried to communicate with hand-and-feet because it was the only possible way. Tickets were bought in person at the railway station or attraction. Now all information is online. Travel to China is so different compared to years ago, but remains a challenge.
One more thing: China is safe to travel! It may have something to do with civil liberties, a watchful public eye and human rights, but there are few countries in the world, where you can really feel as safe as in China, including seniors and single women. It was safe in the past as it is safe now.
Blog Perjalanan Serupa
Silakan lihat blog-blog berikut untuk informasi lebih lanjut: