China travel checklist
A trip to China is mostly won before you leave, because several things are far easier to sort out at home than on the ground: a mobile payment account, a data plan, access to the services you are used to. This list walks through them in the order you actually do them. Tick what is done: your browser remembers, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Your ticks stay in your browser, on this device. Nothing is sent to the site, there is no account and no sign-up. In private browsing, or if you clear your browsing data, the list starts over.
On entry paperwork this page never states the rule: it sends you to the official source. Entry conditions for China have changed several times in recent years, and a page six months behind would do more harm than a page that refers you on. The links below are British; if you hold another passport, use your own consular service. Official links checked on 10 September 2026.
Paperwork
This is the part with a lead time: start it as soon as your dates are roughly fixed. Nothing below is a rule stated by us, and that is deliberate.
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The remaining validity required on entry and the number of blank pages are set by the Chinese authorities, and they are not the same everywhere. Check before you buy tickets, not after.
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Entry conditions, exemption schemes and permitted stays have changed several times in recent years. We do not copy them out: they are read at the visa service, which is the only place that states them in the present tense.
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Form, photo in the required format, proof of travel and accommodation, appointment: the exact list and the lead times are those of the centre you fall under.
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The government China page brings together safety, health, entry and stay, and it is dated. It is the document to reread in the week before you go.
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Check what your bank card already covers before buying: the number that matters is the medical expenses ceiling and whether repatriation is included, not cancellation.
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For your trip
A minor travels on their own passport, and what is asked when they are not travelling with both parents depends on the authorities of both countries.
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Passport, visa, tickets, insurance, prescriptions. One copy in your mailbox and one on paper at the bottom of the bag: both get used, and not in the same circumstances.
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Address and phone number of the consulate covering the cities you will be in, written somewhere other than the phone that can go missing.
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For your trip
Every address you will sleep at, in characters, on paper and on the phone. It is what you will show a driver, and what you will be asked for at check-in.
Paying on the ground
This is what surprises visitors most, and what is best sorted out before leaving: China pays by phone, and a foreign card mostly serves to feed an app.
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Install the app, create the account and link your card at home, on your usual phone number: this is the step that fails most often, and it is far easier to unblock before departure.
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WeChat is a messenger as much as a wallet, and some places take nothing else. Creating an account sometimes needs an existing user to vouch for you: do it beforehand, not in a ticket queue.
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Refusals happen, and they announce nothing: the same card works elsewhere the next day. Carry a second card on a different network, and know in advance what you will turn to.
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For your trip
Cash is legal tender everywhere and becomes genuinely useful the moment you leave the big cities. Bring enough to last a few days without any app.
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Give the dates and the country, check the overseas withdrawal limit and the per-transaction fees. A card frozen for suspected fraud on day two is an avoidable breakdown.
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Before you leave, find out which machines at your arrival airport take foreign cards. The first withdrawal is the one you need most and the one you look for worst.
What works, and what fails
The mainstream route covers the great majority of payments, and it is what almost everyone does: a foreign card linked to Alipay or WeChat Pay. When it fails, two official fallbacks exist and neither is ready. TenPayGo, Tencent's app that pays WeChat merchants without a WeChat account, has been in closed testing since June 2026 and many cannot even sign up. Nihao China, UnionPay's app, does not link Visa and Mastercard for everyone, and is only really worth it if you carry a UnionPay card. Paying WeChat merchants through PayPal, opened in May 2026, is offered to American accounts first. So we have no digital fallback to recommend, and we would rather write that than pick one at random: the real plan B is cash. It never goes down, it has no security review, and it is legal tender everywhere. Carry enough for a few days, and withdraw from a machine rather than hunting for a backup app once you are there.
These services are not lifted from a comparison site. Each is here because recent users report on it, and each carries what fails as well as what works. None of these links earns us anything.
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The most widely accepted wallet in the country. You link a foreign card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Discover, Diners, UnionPay) and pay by scanning the merchant code. It is also the way into the metro, ride-hailing and food delivery without installing anything else.
- Cost
- Not checked
- What fails
- The wall is not the card, it is passport verification: it often fails, and it is the single most common complaint. A mismatch between the name on your passport and the name on your card is enough; a debit card fares worse than a credit card; switching cards mid-payment gets the account restricted. And small businesses refuse foreign cards whatever the app.
- Reported by
- A dozen travellers on r/travelchina in early September 2026, and app store reviews from February to September 2026.
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The second wallet, needed wherever the first is refused, and a messenger at the same time. Same principle: a linked foreign card, a code to scan.
- Cost
- 3% per payment above 200 yuan, nothing below (official Beijing municipal portal, 28 May 2025). Tencent announces 90 fee-free days up to 1,000 yuan a day on a first linked international card (statement of 27 May 2026). An international UnionPay card is exempt outright.
- What fails
- The WeChat balance cannot be topped up with a foreign card, and never will be: only a Chinese bank account does that. Paying a merchant works, sending money to a person does not. The test that reassures before you fly: if your payment code displays, the card will go through.
- Reported by
- Beijing's official portal and Tencent's statement for the fees; travellers on r/travelchina in late August and early September 2026 for the rest.
Staying connected
Some of the services you are used to are not reachable from China. Everything here is prepared BEFORE you go: once on the ground, downloading the missing tool is precisely what gets hard.
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An eSIM bought and installed before departure gives you a signal the moment you step off the plane, with no counter to find. Check your phone supports eSIM: not all do.
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A VPN is installed, configured and tested at home. Take two rather than one: what works in a given month may not work the next, and you cannot install a new one once you are there.
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Home roaming sometimes routes through your own operator network. Look at what it costs and what it allows: it is a safety net, rarely a solution.
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Many accounts send their code by SMS to your home number. Keep that number reachable, or move to an authenticator app before you leave.
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For your trip
Maps, translation, transport, payment, messaging: install them all and open each one at least once at home. An unreachable app store is the kind of detail that ruins a first day.
What works, and what fails
Two very different things are sold under the same heading. A roaming eSIM forces nothing: it takes your data out of the country, and the usual services answer. A VPN fights the filtering, and the outcome depends on the province, the network and the day. That is why we name no VPN: the accounts from August and September 2026 flatly contradict each other about the same services, a fortnight apart. Treat the eSIM as the solution and a VPN as the spare wheel, because there is one case the eSIM does not cover: hotel wifi, which puts you back behind the filtering. Finally, check that your phone takes eSIMs and is not locked to your operator.
These services are not lifted from a comparison site. Each is here because recent users report on it, and each carries what fails as well as what works. None of these links earns us anything.
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A roaming data plan for mainland China, bought inside the Trip.com app. Traffic leaves the country through Singapore or Hong Kong, so the services you are used to answer, with no VPN.
- Cost
- Not checked
- What fails
- TikTok does not always get through, and Chinese apps turn slow because their data goes round by Singapore: it is WeChat and Alipay that lag, which is to say the ones you need most. Several buyers also report never finding the install code after paying.
- Reported by
- Four separate travellers in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai on r/travelchina between 3 and 8 September 2026; app store reviews for the failures.
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A data eSIM on the China Unicom network, routed outside mainland China. Its help centre is the only official source we found that explains this and states plainly that the usual services answer.
- Cost
- From 6 Canadian dollars depending on length, read on the China page on 10 September 2026.
- What fails
- It only holds on the eSIM's own data. The moment you join the hotel wifi you are back behind the filtering, and Airalo says so itself. One traveller also reports Alipay timing out on load about a third of the time over this route.
- Reported by
- Airalo's help centre, and a traveller back from two VPN-less trips, r/travelchina, 5 September 2026.
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An unmetered data eSIM, routed outside mainland China.
- Cost
- Not checked
- What fails
- Only one recent account covers China, and it describes the same slowness on Chinese apps. The service's overall rating is high, but it is built from reviews written elsewhere: it proves nothing here.
- Reported by
- One traveller, r/travelchina, 5 September 2026, and one review dated 6 September 2026 on the service's review platform.
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An unmetered data eSIM for China, up to six months, tethering allowed, sold by an Australian company. It can be bought months ahead of departure.
- Cost
- Not checked
- What fails
- Our editor tested it and it worked: that is the only evidence we have. We found no other account of it being used in China, and Simify nowhere claims access to the filtered services, unlike Airalo. So we do not claim it on their behalf.
- Reported by
- Our editor's own test, September 2026.
Getting around
China's high-speed network is the best way between two cities, and seats go early on busy lines.
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How many days per city, and in what order. Our planner draws the route on the map and gives the travel times.
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Tickets are bought in advance, and collection requires the passport the booking was made with. Check the station: large cities have several, and they are far apart.
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For your trip
Beyond eight hours by train, flying wins again, especially westwards. Count the trip to the airport, which is often longer than the flight makes it look.
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Almost every large Chinese city has a metro, signposted in characters and in the Latin alphabet. Our maps give the lines and the stations.
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Ordering a car from the app saves you having to explain an address, since it is already entered. It also leaves you a record of the ride.
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For your trip
How you will get from the airport to your bed on the first night, written down in advance. That is the moment you will be most tired and least equipped.
What works, and what fails
Know first that there is no ticket: your seat is attached to your passport number, there is nothing to print and no code to show. Then know the thing that costs people a train when they do not: foreign passports do not read at the automatic gates. You need the lane where someone checks by hand, and the gates only open fifteen minutes before departure. Lastly, the station counter takes a passport, charges no commission, and is the only place that unblocks a stubborn account.
These services are not lifted from a comparison site. Each is here because recent users report on it, and each carries what fails as well as what works. None of these links earns us anything.
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12306, the official ticket officenew tab
China Railway's own booking service, in English, app and site. It takes a passport as identity document and international cards. Sales open fifteen days before departure.
- Cost
- The fare, with no commission.
- What fails
- Registration is the wall, and it often fails: activation emails that never arrive, foreign numbers refused, an identity declared already taken when it is not. One regular sums it up: it works or it does not, and you cannot tell in advance. Unblocking is done at a station counter, with your passport.
- Reported by
- App store reviews from November 2025 to July 2026, in both directions, and an r/travelchina thread of 29 and 30 August 2026.
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An agency that books the ticket against your passport and takes international cards, without going through the official registration. It is the safety net when that one refuses you.
- Cost
- A commission per ticket, which one traveller puts at around thirty euros across a whole trip, plus 15 yuan per ticket changed online and non-refundable booking fees (the service's own terms, read on 10 September 2026).
- What fails
- It is a middleman: when something goes wrong it points to that status, and this is its users' most frequent complaint. The cancellation scale stays the railway's, and these fees are added on top.
- Reported by
- Five travellers in one r/travelchina thread, 29 and 30 August 2026, all of whom arrived there after the official service refused them.
Health
Nothing exceptional for a tourist trip, but two or three things happen at the doctor and not at the airport pharmacy.
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Recommendations depend on the regions you cross, the season and the length of stay. They are read on an up-to-date health page, and decided with a doctor.
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Keep the original boxes and a prescription giving the name of the molecule, not just the brand: that is the name a pharmacist will recognise.
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Some medicines that are routine elsewhere are controlled on entry to China. The list is a customs matter, checked with the authorities and not on a forum.
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Enough for a cold, an upset stomach and a blister. Pharmacies are everywhere, but describing a symptom in a language you do not speak takes time you do not have when you are ill.
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Tap water is not drunk as it comes. Hot water is available everywhere, in hotels as on trains: an insulated flask is the most useful object in the bag.
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For your trip
It varies a great deal by city and season. If you are sensitive, or travelling with children, pack masks and check the daily readings once you are there.
The bag
What gets packed the night before, and the two or three things that cannot be improvised.
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The Chinese grid runs at 220 volts, and wall sockets do not take a round-pin European plug. Bring an adapter, and buy it before you leave rather than at the airport. Check while you are at it that your devices accept 220 volts, which almost anything charged over a cable does.
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They travel in the cabin, never in the hold, and Chinese airlines apply their own labelling and capacity rules. Check your carrier before closing the bag.
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Fresh produce, animal products, currency above a declarable threshold: the lists are published by Chinese customs and they change.
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For your trip
China holds several climates at once. Look up the averages for each city on your route rather than a national mean.
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A few passport-format photos in the bag. They cover unplanned paperwork and take no room.
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If you are visiting someone, a small gift from your part of the world is packed beforehand, not bought on arrival. It is customary, and it always lands well.
Apps that earn their place
A handful of apps replaces what you are used to. All of them install before departure.
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The maps you are used to are often imprecise or unreachable there. Take a local app, and download an offline map of each city as well.
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Translating a menu or a sign by photographing it is what gets used most. Download the offline Chinese pack: the moment you need it is the moment there is no signal.
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In China everything goes through WeChat: a hotel, a guide, a driver will ask you to add them. Without it, you are the only one nobody can reach.
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Reviews and orders go through local apps, with photos of the dishes: that is what saves you in front of a menu you cannot read.
What works, and what fails
The real divide is not "Chinese account or not", it is "Chinese phone number or not". Payment works with a foreign card; signing up to a local service often wants a code by text. So keep your home number roaming to RECEIVE messages, even with a data eSIM. Know too that most of these services are reachable as mini-programmes inside Alipay or WeChat, with nothing to install. We recommend no translation app, on the other hand: we found no recent, reliable account of one in real conditions. Download the offline Chinese pack for whichever one you already use, which depends on no service at all.
These services are not lifted from a comparison site. Each is here because recent users report on it, and each carries what fails as well as what works. None of these links earns us anything.
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China's reference mapping app, with an official English version since January 2025 and fourteen more languages since July 2025. It also books rides.
- Cost
- Free.
- What fails
- Account creation fails for some. And the real issue is not blocking but accuracy: the maps you are used to do answer over a roaming eSIM, they are simply poorer on China.
- Reported by
- Dated announcements for the translated versions; user reviews for the usage and for the fault.
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Ride-hailing, English interface, translation built into the chat with the driver. Two ways in: the app, or the mini-programme that lives inside Alipay and WeChat.
- Cost
- Free; you pay the fare.
- What fails
- The standalone app often refuses foreign cards and refuses to register a foreign number: that is an old and consistent thread in the reviews. The workaround people report is going through the mini-programme inside Alipay, where the card is already validated.
- Reported by
- Two travellers in Beijing, r/travelchina, 5 September 2026, for what works; six years of reviews for what fails.
Making yourself understood
Nobody learns Chinese before a two-week trip. But a few phrases and a dictionary in your pocket change a great deal.
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Hello, thank you, how much, where are the toilets, no chilli. Ten phrases open most exchanges, and the effort is always well received.
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Bookmark our dictionary on your phone: it searches in English, in pinyin and in characters, and it serves to read a sign as much as to point at a word.
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A notebook and a pen solve what no app solves: you write a number, you draw, you have someone point on a map. It is the universal fallback.
The night before
The last pass, the one you do with the bag closed.
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The official page is dated and it moves. Rereading it the night before takes two minutes and covers everything that changed since you booked.
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Passport, visa, tickets, insurance certificate, first address in Chinese: in the cabin bag, never in the hold.
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Enough for the first day if mobile payment or the cash machine resists you on arrival.
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Phone, power bank, and the cable in the cabin bag. Your phone is your ticket, your map and your wallet: it cannot go flat.
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Dates, cities, flight numbers and where you are staying, sent to someone at home. With the time difference it also saves you calls at three in the morning.