When you travel to China be prepared to experience lots of new and unusual things that may seem strange to you, but are perfectly normal in China.
Here are our random list of “China things to know” to help you understand the country’s unique customs, traditions, and culture.
During our 30-day China travel, we definitely saw, heard, and smelled lots of new things!
China Things to Know
This was our first China travel experience, and these are some of the random, yet interesting China travel tips we want to share with you to assist you on your travel to China.
1. Not All VPNs Will Work in China
This is one of the most important of your China travel tips, as we learned the hard way!
When we landed in Beijing our purchased Nord VPN disconnected immediately and we were stranded within the firewall of China for the next 30 days!
Once you are in China it will be very hard to get a VPN that will work for you.
We have since been advised that Express VPN and Lets VPN work wonders in China.
2. China has Great Quality Toilet Paper
This may seem an odd entry but after our Cairo to Cape Town trip, we were very excited about the excellent quality of toilet paper in China.
3. Free Public Toilets are Available in Most Places
Sticking to a similar theme, we were also pleasantly surprised by the availability of public toilets in towns, cities, and tourist attractions.
These are well-signposted and are relatively clean, usually manned by a maintenance worker.
Just note that these will usually be squatting toilets and good quality toilet paper may not always be on offer, so always carry your own during your China travel.
4. China Doesn’t Actually Have a Lot of Rice Dishes
Residing in Thailand for 4 months before our China travel we chose to stop eating rice dishes presuming we would be inundated with rice in China. This was not the case!
You would imagine that China has lots of rice dishes on offer and we did pass by many rice fields, however, on the contrary, we found it pretty difficult to find a decent rice meal.
The main dishes on offer are noodles and noodle soups – exactly what we had been eating in Thailand – but definitely not as tasty as Pad Thai!
5. China Has Great showers
Every type of accommodation over the month of our China travel offered hot water with powerful, rain showers. We have been traveling for a long time and never take such treasures for granted!
6. You Will Always Receive a Free Toothbrush and Comb From Your Accommodation
Just in case you forgot to pack your toothbrush or wake with a bit of a bedhead, rest assured, you will be provided with these essential items in every accommodation.
We stayed in 10 different accommodations in 10 different parts of China and let’s just say we now have a fine comb collection!
7. Chinese People Love Their Tea
This may seem like an obvious China travel tip, but Chinese people really do love their tea. And not only this but they don’t seem to be too fussed about coffee.
You will spot many Chinese people going about their business with flasks infused with tea leaves.
8. There is Free Hot and Cold Water Available
In line with the previous point, in many places, you will find free water dispensers. We have seen this in many cities during our China travel but especially in train stations and on trains.
An important point in our “China things to know” is that this is perfect to top up your tea and if on a budget you can enjoy some pot noodles while embarking on your journey.
9. Food is Salty AF!
Did you know that Chinese culture loves salt? Well if you didn’t, you will soon find out when eating any of the cuisine here.
Make sure to have extra water on standby – thankfully it’s free in most places!
10. Chinese People Drink Water Warm
When you travel to China you will be served warm water on many occasions. This was surprising at first only to learn that this is the preferred temperature with Chinese people.
Even in water machines that read “cold”, the water will most often than not be warm.
11. There are no “Tourist Prices”
One of our favorite China travel tips is that the tourist prices are the same. For everyone.
After coming from Thailand, where tourist prices for certain attractions can be upwards of double the price for locals, we were very thankful that this was not the case during our China travel and everyone pays the same entry fees.
12. Chinese People are Very Honest
Another one of our favorite China travel tips we learned is that Chinese people are really honest.
We rarely came across any scammers during our China travel. Food, magnets, taxi drivers, everything was honestly priced. When travelling full time this is just the best feeling!
We did not have to waste our time and energy researching prices and arguing over costs and could trust the people around us.
This was one of the best things about our travel to China.
13. Tourist Attractions will be Crazy Busy, But There’s One Way to Get Them to Yourself
Cable cars and escalators are at almost every attraction where there is an incline – even the Great Wall has cable cars, as well as a toboggan, but we won’t even go there!
You can queue for these cars for a long time along with the rest of China or opt for another crazy option – walk!
A great tip is that If you choose to hike instead of taking cable cars/escalators you will be alone.
When visiting Zhangjiajie we chose to hike each mountain (it’s only 3km) – exercising while saving time and money – rather than taking the cable car/escalator and witnessing some of the best views all to ourselves.
It was the same with the Great Wall, though not quite on our own, we had much more space after the cable car where the majority of the crowd chose to descend.
China Travel Tip: Do not visit the Great Wall or any attraction on a Chinese National Holiday.
14. You Will Continue to be Spoken to in Chinese
Chinese people will continue to speak to you in Chinese even though you explain that you don’t speak or understand Chinese.
We don’t have an explanation for this but we did perfect the “nod and smile” look during our time in China.
15. Chinese People Love Their Pedigree Dogs
We have never seen so many purebred dogs in China, of all kinds – Alsatians, Huskies, Corgis, but mainly the small fluffy ones that are dressed in tutus.
16. Not Much Phase the Chinese People
China tested our patience when it came to crowds and queues but when looking around it never seemed to phase those around us.
Chinese people continued to smile and chat and laugh….until it came to their turn at whatever it may be, entering a bus or a viewpoint, then it is every man for themselves and you can expect an elbow in the ribs by the granny next to you!
Another thing that didn’t seem to bother the Chinese people was the rain, we noticed this particularly during photo shoots, rain was no deterrent.
Lastly, are monkeys stealing your lunch? Not a problem for the Chinese.
Instead, they responded with laughter, of course a few photos, and simply carried on their way.
17. Chinese People Love Dressing up in Traditional Clothing and Having Photoshoots
We were well aware that the Chinese people love their photos but the level of photoshoots happening in each location we visited was crazy.
Every nook and cranny you look at, there will be a photo shoot happening.
The effort they go through getting dressed up in traditional clothing is nothing less than impressive.
18. There is Always Some One Cleaning
Whether it is in a random public toilet or halfway up a forested mountain and coming across someone sweeping leaves – there is always someone tidying up.
19. You Will Most Definitely Hear People Spitting
This is one we knew about and that we thought we were prepared for, But nothing can ready you for it.
It is a sound that reaches your core and you cannot help but shudder – especially when you witness it happening indoors or by the person sitting next to you!!
20. You Will Need to Carry Around Your Passport
Remember this important China travel tip – Your passport acts as your ticket for things like transport and attractions.
You will need to scan it to enter places like railway stations, museums, botanical gardens, all tourist attractions, and basically anywhere that is of any interest!
21. You Will Get to Skip Many Big Queues by Being in the “Foreigner Lane”
Oh, we loved this one! Following on from the previous point, there may be many crowds and queues due to the Chinese people having to scan their ID cards for pretty much everything but foreigners will need to go to the manned manual machine to scan their passports.
This will be a much shorter queue. Finally!
22. Chinese People Don’t Care About Smoking Bans
You will see many no-smoking posters and signs prohibiting smoking while you are also choking on a cloud of smoke.
This will be the case in toilets, the chef (see above), as soon as Chinese people step foot off the train, and sometimes even on the train, amongst many other places.
23. China Travel is Very Reliable
Unlike our Africa adventures and learning about “Africa Time” the transport in China is extremely efficient and reliable. We always arrived at our destination on time, which felt unimaginable to us.
We could actually plan an evening after we arrived at a new destination knowing we wouldn’t be broken down somewhere, what a dream.
24. Chinese People Will Fall Asleep The Minute They are on Public Transport
A similar impressive skill we noted on our Africa trip. Once Chinese people sit down be it on a train, the metro, or the bus, it is lights out.
You will also spot many a child conked out on the back of an e-bike. How they continue to hold on and not fall off still baffles us.
25. Chinese People Show How They Feel
Chinese people will let out big audible yawns, burbs, farts. You will hear them cheering, laughing, singing, dancing, fighting – whatever the feeling is, you will know.
More than not this leaves a big smile across your face. In a world where we waste a lot of energy hiding how we feel, we can all learn from the Chinese with this one.
26. Chinese People Love a Certain Type of Karaoke
Again, this one may be obvious but did you know they engage in a kind of street karaoke? People set up their karaoke machines and the crowds gather.
27. The Chinese People Also Love Clean Ears
We didn’t see this everywhere in China, but in some cities, you will see a person sitting in the street while a professional cleans their ears!
In some cases, they even have a screen and tiny camera set up so the person who is getting their ears cleaned can see all the gunk in their ears.
Unfortunately, you too can see this screen….
However, what surprised us the most was that a lot of these ear-cleaning stalls were set up outside bars and karaoke establishments – Friday night sorted!
28. Zebra Crossings Actually Work
After our Southeast Asia travels, where this is most definitely not the case, this was another welcomed surprise in China.
Again, not having to waste our time and effort dodging vehicles and surviving a road crossing every day was a fantastic feeling.
29. Megacities are Eerily Silent
In fact, most places are creepily quiet. China is working hard to do its bit for the environment by planting trees, recycling, and E-bikes – which leads to beautiful silence.
In cities with populations of millions you will rarely hear the humming of engines or for that matter, horns, and sirens either. It’s a rather surreal feeling.
30. Chinese People Eat Salamander
Our last China travel tip is about a peculiar food.
Don’t be surprised when gazing curiously into the many containers lining the front of restaurants to see a box of salamanders.
Turns out it is a delicacy in some places in China!
Enjoy China!
There you have it, our China travel tips of things we learned as we went along.
We loved our time in China and we honestly hope, as well as getting a few laughs, that some of these China travel tips assist you on your trip.
Every day is a school day after all.
Have you learned some of these for yourself or are there more that we haven’t mentioned?
We would love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to leave us a message below or contact us through our socials.
Slán go fóil
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