China Solo Travel Blog (Pt.2): Shocking Facts About China
- Phung Tien Tai
- Apr 6, 2019
- 6 min read
It’s Tai Again!
Welcome back to my China Solo Travel Blog, where I share all of my tips of travel solo to China, as well as some of the experiences and thoughts I had after the trip. In the first part of my China Solo Travel Blog, I have shared my valuable 5 SURVIVAL HACKS for a smooth-sailing solo trip to China. I have talked about overcoming language barrier through Baidu Fanyi, discussed whether VPN actually worked in China, Necessary Apps and so on.
Continuing from the useful preparation for a solo trip to China, this next part of the blog I will talk about 5 FACTS THAT SHOCKED ME when I went to China for the first time. This is going to be a fun blog, so prepare to be blown away!
#Fact1 Nobody uses cash or cards in China
In China, you don’t need a wallet. All you need is your smartphone!
What does that mean? Instead of paying by cash or credit card, China uses phone payments through the QR code. All you have to do is a simple scan of the QR code provided by shop owner/restaurants/merchants by your smartphone and voila, you’ve just paid 6 kuai for your Jianbing. The most prominent mobile payment app in China is Alipay and WeChat pay, whose logo you will encounter at every single restaurant, or even just street vendors in China.
It does not end with just buying stuff. If we’re in 2019 and still have to top up our public transport card for the subway, Shanghai China is already in 2029 as commuters scan the QR code to pay their ticket! 😱😱😱😱
China has become so “cashless” that I heard that even street beggars, instead of a bowl of coins, they would just carry around their own QR code so people can easily scan lol. Of course, this is just a rumor, can someone confirm it for me
It is a huge convenience for locals but it’s the other way around for travelers or short-term expats like us.
After a day in China, I instantly wanted to use WeChat pay, but the trouble was that you need to connect your WeChat or Alipay with an existing Chinese bank account.
The good news is that getting around by cash is not necessarily that troublesome and you will get your changes back!
That said I still faced situations where not having Alipay or Wechat pay is a burden. For example in a food stall in a mall in Beijing, literally nobody brings cash, even the shop owner, so I had no choice but to asked a fellow Chinese man to pay for my noodle by his Alipay and I would pay back by my cash. Another story was that I wanted to top up my Metro Card in a station in Shanghai, but the machine only accepted payment through Alipay :(((
#Fact2 For Asian: You are not foreigners. You will be seen as a Chinese :)))
I know that Asian don’t look the same, but you gotta admit we do have a lot of similarities. And if you are an Asian traveling to China, especially as a solo traveler like me, there is no way Chinese people could recognize you as a foreigner. They would just automatically assume you are one of them. Now, this has both a good and bad side.
On the good side, you can avoid being invited for foods or merchandises by Chinese vendors on the street.
I went down the street of Beijing and Shanghai and nobody knew I was a foreigner, thus no troublesome of being annoyed by these “invitation”. Also if you can speak a little Chinese, there is little chance that you will get scammed or receive a crazy high price at the first trial (this is before you bargain. ALWAYS BARGAIN!). Actually, I am not sure about this one, just based my own experience!
So what’s the bad side? This is what will shock you.
Chinese people are usually very kind to foreigners (especially white people because they are obviously foreigners), but they could be extremely rude to their own people.
For example, there was one time I had to top up my Metro card in Shanghai. I asked the police officer how to do so in Chinese and was told to do so by a machine. But the problem was that the machine only accepted payment in credit card or Alipay (I know, the whole cashless thing I told earlier). So I came back and said that I only had cash on hand, and he was screaming at me. I didn’t really understand what he was saying but overall he told me that “What kind of Chinese are you that don’t have a card to pay”. And he was apologizing profusely right after I disclosed that I was not a Chinese.
I guess the moral of the story is that don’t speak Chinese right away. Only speak Chinese when nobody understands your English lol
#Fact3 Chinese people spit everywhere at any time!
Yep, it’s true. Spitting might be a taboo thing to do in public for a lot of places, except China. Everywhere I go, from walking on the street to waiting at train stations, you can hear a strong gargling sound and an intense spiting action. Arrrrrrkkkk, PHEW! As for myself at first, I found it quite irritating that I had to suffer that sound every few seconds, but then I got used to it along the way (I guess :v). I am not sure why Chinese people like to do it though. All you can do is to … live with it :v
Even my friend who lives in China for a long time told me to ignore it and take it as cultural stuff.
Just want to point this out to you guys so you can prepare yourself for all of those spitting lol.
#Fact4 In China, you can rent … power bank
I don’t know if I am old-fashioned or not but never in my life would I have thought that power bank rental was a thing lol. I was shocked as my friend, who’s been living in Shanghai for 5 years told me to rent a power bank when my phone was about to die. And another shocking fact is that you don’t have to go to a specific place to rent. They are everywhere, mostly in big shopping malls and restaurants in Shanghai. Let me elaborate more for you!
The product is called AnkerBox and they allow people to rent a portable charging pack. Go to any shopping mall and find the AnkerBox like in the video picture below. Then use your WeChat account to scan the QR code on the power bank. Don’t worry as there are different power banks to suit your smartphone type (Android or iPhone).
China is really stepping up its game when it comes to technology. Now if you go to China and your phone is dying and you forget your own power bank, remember what I just told you 😂😂😂😂😂😂.
#Fact5 It’s a different China when you move from one city to another
I don’t think that this is a shocking fact but I still want to put it on my list. Everybody knows that China is a vast and big country with cities’ economies being as big as countries, thus you can expect huge differences when you go from one city to another. I myself have not yet traveled to all corner of China, but I can confirm this based on my experience in 3 cities: Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai.
First, why did I choose these 3 cities to go, and why should you? Being the Golden Triangle of China Travel, these 3 places are not only convenient to move around, but they also offer the best of China: a mixture of history of the Great Wall of China (Beijing), The Terracotta Warrior (Xian) and modernity of The Bund (Shanghai).
I want to talk a little bit about my feeling about each of these 3 cities and hopefully, it will give you a glimpse of how different they are.
When it comes to the atmosphere, while Beijing is a bit more chilled, quieter and more tranquil due to having many temples and historical landmarks, Xian takes you back to the Old China since it used to be the capital . On the other hand, Shanghai is way more upbeat, fast-paced coming from it being the financial center and Shanghainese being more energetic.
For food, Beijing likes to use a variety of sauces such as brown sauce in its Peking Duck and the extremely spicy chili oil in its noodle. Shanghai’s food is a bit milder and neutral. But Xian’s food, it is a different story. For your information, Xian has a large Muslim population and the Islamic influence translates into its dishes. Definitely try Biang Biang Mian, Roujiamo (Xian burger) and Yangrou paomo to understand the distinctive Xian cuisine.
Thank you so much for reading this article. I hope it will give you a picture of what it feels like to travel to China so you can understand it more <3. I will try to write a detailed itinerary on the 3 cities I went in China.
Please give me some support by comment down below what you think!
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