China Solo Travel Blog: 5 Survival Hacks

It's Tai Again!

I have always wanted to go to China and I figured I would do so during my time in Hong Kong. At first, I planned to go with a Chinese friend so he could take me around, but he was busy so it did not work out. I was left with a crazy dilemma. One part of me really wanted to go, but another part was telling me not to because of the fear of DYING in China if I was alone.

Travel to China is NOT EASY for sure because two of your lifesavers, English and Google, DO NOT WORK. I tried to google everything: How to use Google in China, how to go around China, what apps should I use in China and so on. Not to mention that a lot of services such as train tickets were only available in Chinese. Even my Chinese friends said that it would be a challenge to be alone in China 😂

Ultimately I decided to prepare as much as possible and would wing it if anything went wrong. I went to 3 major cities in China: Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai for 10 days in the middle of December (cold af 😂). Eventually, I didn’t die (luckily), it’s not that I don’t encounter any problems but overall it was a remarkable and amazing journey.

I would say that traveling to China is not that terrifying, but you do need to prepare before the trip.

I am here to tell you all of my 5 Survival Hacks that I use for a smooth sailing solo trip to China. If you have the same concerns as I had, this is the blog for you!

1. No more language barrier: Get Pleco and Baidu Fanyi (百度翻译)

I hate to break it to you but don’t expect using English to survive in China, especially if you are alone. You can probably use English in Tourist Information Centers I guess, but for asking direction or train information, it is not going to work even if you’re asking young people.

In my first night in Beijing, at 10:30 pm I took the Express Train from the Airport to Dongzhimen expecting to take the local Subway from Dongzhimen to my hostel. When I arrived at Dongzhimen at around 11:30 pm, I was shocked to see that there wasn’t any train at all and the officers were closing the gate (Subway in Beijing only works until 11:00 pm). I tried to ask young Chinese officers for any night buses, but apparently, they did not understand the word “bus” in English. In the end, they did help me catch a taxi because it was 12:00 pm and no public transportation was running at that time. But it was a struggle for sure.

I honestly think that you should not travel to China alone unless you have a basic knowledge of Chinese and Chinese characters. My Chinese at the time was terrible, but at least I grasped the most basic grammar structure to express what I want to say.

If you understand some basic Chinese grammar but have a poor vocabulary like me, I highly suggest you download the app Pleco. It is super easy to use, you can use it to translate English word to Chinese and the other way around, and it is available offline. Without Pleco, I would not have been able to translate the word “bus” earlier into 公共汽车.

Pleco (on the left) & Baidu Fanyi (on the right)

Okay, we get that Chinese can help make your way through these unexpected situations. So does that mean we cannot go to China if we don’t speak any Chinese?

Not Quite.

When I was asking the Chinese officers I noticed that they were using an app to translate their word in Chinese to English (my Chinese was only enough to ask them, not to understand their answer). It was Baidu Fanyi, which works just like Google Translate. I guess since it is a Chinese app, it would translate your English into a much more comprehensible Chinese. Therefore, Baidu Fanyi is definitely your go-to app (you do need the Internet for it).

2. Get as many VPNs as possible, but don’t expect too much

As we all know Google is blocked in China, from Google Search, Gmail, Google Map to Facebook and even Instagram?! How are we going to upload our Instagram Story now? Or search where to go? Well, I’m pretty sure all travelers going to China know about VPN services that will “break the wall” of the Chinese Government. You don’t really need to get into the detail of how it works, just know that a Virtual Private Network tricks your service that it is not in China, and you can use the Internet safely and privately in the region that VPN puts you in.

It seems that a VPN will solve all of your concerns but it is not that easy. Even though it is legal to use VPN in China, the Chinese Government is now very strict and only allows registered VPN Services to work. Usually, you have to PAY for these high-quality VPN Services that are guaranteed will work. For the free ones, unfortunately, they work really poorly or don’t work at all. But I don’t think that you should pay for a VPN if you only go to China for a week, because they usually only have a monthly subscription.

What I did was that I downloaded as many VPN services as possible.

Go for the free trial of the good VPN Services like ExpressVPN, NordicVPN. They usually last for 3-5 days, some even last for a week. If you go more than a week, what you can do is to use one service that has a 5-day free trial and afterward use another different service. You can also try free VPNs (such as Betternet) but as I said, they are not stable. All and all, just stock as many as possible!

However, the reality is that DON’T RELY ON VPNs TOO MUCH.

What usually happens if you use a free VPN ...

I downloaded like 5-6 VPNs and they did not work well at all. Some VPNs were connected but it slowed down the actual Internet and you could not load a single page, some just crashed after 2 minutes of connection. I would say that instead of VPN, BE FAMILIAR WITH CHINESE APPs, which leads to my 3rd hack:

3. You have to download: Baidu Maps, Dianping, and WeChat

Baidu Maps (百度地图)

Works exactly like Google Map but even better. This will help you get to anywhere in China with precision. What I like the maximum about Baidu Maps is the detail of its instruction, especially with public transportation. Baidu will take you to which side of the bus stop to go to, give you the name of the bus stop you will get off and how many stops you have to pass, and even tell you an accurate time of arrival.

Using Baidu I was never worried about getting lost in China because it was so helpful, especially using the bus because of its precision. I even used it to go from my hostel to Mutianyu Great Wall, using public bus only. However, the downside is that it’s only offered in Chinese, even the bus stops and train stations are in Chinese.

From Dongzhimen to Mutianyu by bus + Bus Stop names that you will pass

Dianping (大众点评)

When in doubts on what to eat, use Dianping. No need to prepare a list of what and where to eat in China, because Dianping has everything. Choose your current city and Dianping will locate the best nearest food and restaurants. The good thing about China is that good food is EVERYWHERE, so no need to go to a specific place just for a specific food. Other services that Dianping provide are online reservations, take-out, but for us travelers, review sections are the most valuable. Yet again, it is only in Chinese. That is why I have mentioned earlier that it is better to have a basic knowledge of Chinese.

For example, I searched Peking Duck (on the left) and review of 1 restaurant (on the right)

WeChat (微信)

WeChat is Chinese Messenger or WhatsApp. I use WeChat to communicate with my Chinese friends. I do suggest download WeChat and connect with your friends back home (ask them to have WeChat as well), in case of emergency you can contact your friends asap without having to wait for a VPN. Plus, you need WeChat to connect with your new friends in China too right!

QQ邮箱

QQ is a Chinese email, just like Gmail. For the sake of my work, I still downloaded QQ and informed everyone to contact me through my QQ account. In my opinion, in case you need to communicate through email, get a QQ account.

Metro China Subway

This is the offline version of the Subway System in China. The good thing about this app is that it’s in English, even the name of the station is in English. This would be the perfect app when you want to search for stations, but again if you can use Baidu, this app would be unnecessary.

Example of a route from Wudakou to Tian'anmen West in English

DiDi Chuxing (滴滴出行)

It is the Chinese taxi hailing application, just like Uber or Grab. The app is available in both English and Chinese with an interface similar to Uber. I would suggest this app if you go with a group of friends, but if you are alone, you are better off with subways and buses.

A recap of all the apps I had when in China

4. Taking the trains in China: Easy only if you know how to

To travel from Beijing to Xian and from Xian to Shanghai, I took the overnight train, because it was cheap and more time beneficial.

I found that checking the ticket, buying the ticket and getting to the station was difficult to understand as most information was in Chinese.

I still figured out everything, and in this section, I will tell you in detail so you can be more comfortable taking the trains in China.

I checked the train information on the official website: https://www.12306.cn/index/. No surprise, it is only in Chinese. But the interface is quite similar to other train information website of other countries, so if you can read Chinese characters, you should be fine. For those who cannot read Chinese, no worries as well because

I have found a super helpful guide on how to search and buy a train ticket on 12306 in English by China Highlight!

Even though there are other agency websites in English and you can buy train ticket through them, I don’t really recommend it because it is not the “legal” website from the government and you might have to pay the commissions. The guide by China Highlight is enough I think!

Make sure that you read carefully the information on the ticket: the date, time, type of seat and especially WHAT STATION.

In Beijing, there are 3 train stations: Beijing Railway Station (北京站), Beijing South Railway Station (北京南站) and Beijing North Railway Station (北京北站). Also, try to go to the Station 30 minutes before so you can have time to ask somebody in case you get lost.

Overall trains in China are decently clean and are rather spacious. One thing that you might want to keep in mind is that usually, only Chinese people use the train (or at least that is my experience).

Btw, Chinese people tend to chit chat and EAT in the train (who can blame them, it’s a long ride)

Don’t be irritated by such noises. As a matter of fact, just sleep your way through it (I know I did).

5. Bring your Student ID Card for discount

The Chinese Government is so generous that it gives major discount up to 50% for students to main attractions such as The Forbidden City in Beijing or The Terracotta Warrior in Xian. In these places,

Students everywhere can enjoy 50% discount to main tourist attractions!

However, in smaller tourist attractions like in Xian, I found out that they only give a discount to students studying in China, and this includes universities in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Even so, this is still a super cool hack that I discovered during my time in China. Therefore for those students who are going to China, remember to bring your Student ID Card!

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I hope that you find my Survival Hacks for Solo Travel to China helpful. These are all the hacks that I gained from asking my Chinese friends or I have learned after my trip to China.

Considering that 2 of the most useful apps: Baidu Maps and Dianping are only available in Chinese, you already know the importance of Chinese. I know that it is still possible to travel to China without speaking any Mandarin, but based on my personal experience, you will struggle A LOT if you travel SOLO to China with zero Chinese.

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below. Or if you find this helpful, please comment as well!

Next section for my China Solo Travel Blog is The Most Interesting Facts about Traveling to China. Excited? Please stay tuned.