Ten Things First-Time Visitors Get Wrong About China
Most first trips to China are spoiled by the same handful of small mistakes. None of them are expensive to avoid.
After thirty years of taking international visitors around China, the same avoidable problems come up again and again.
1. Trying to see too much
Five cities in ten days means five airports or stations, five hotel check-ins and no memory of any of them. Two or three cities in two weeks is usually the right ratio.
2. Underestimating distances inside cities
Beijing's ring roads are vast and a museum and a temple on the same map page may be an hour apart in traffic. We group each day geographically.
3. Arriving without payment set up
See our guide to Alipay and WeChat Pay. Sort this before you fly.
4. Assuming English is widely spoken
In hotels and airports, yes. In restaurants, taxis and shops, usually not. A translation app and a local guide solve most of it.
5. Booking the famous Great Wall section
Badaling is the most visited and the most crowded. Mutianyu is better; Jinshanling is better still.
6. Traveling during a national holiday
The first week of October and Chinese New Year turn every landmark into a queue. Check the calendar first.
7. Forgetting that museums close on Mondays
Most Chinese state museums — including the Palace Museum and the National Museum of China — close on Mondays. Timed online booking is now required at many of them.
8. Drinking tap water
Do not. Bottled water is cheap and available everywhere, and hotels provide kettles and often bottled water.
9. Ignoring altitude
Shangri-La at 3,300 m and the Jade Dragon glacier park at 4,500 m are not places to arrive and rush about. Build in a slow first day.
10. Leaving the visa question until the last minute
Visa-free policies change. Confirm the current rules early, then book flights.
Every itinerary we design is built around these realities, because we run the trips ourselves rather than reselling someone else's program.
