An English field guide to China
China,
made navigable.
The visas, the firewall, the payments, the trains — explained plainly and kept current, so you arrive knowing exactly what to do.
Fig. 01 — Guilin · Li River, Guangxi
01 / The Guide
Seven things to settle before you land
01 
Visa & Entry 签证与入境 Officially sourced 240-hour visa-free transit, the 10-year tourist L visa, and the exact forms you fill at the border. 02 
Safety 安全 What is actually risky and what isn't — scams, solo travel, women travellers, and the numbers that matter. 03 
Internet & VPN 网络与 VPN China-tested Getting online past the Great Firewall — which VPNs and eSIMs work right now, and which quietly don't. 04 
Pay 支付 Alipay and WeChat Pay with a foreign card, when cash still rules, and what to do when nothing scans. 05 
Stay 住宿 Which hotels can legally register foreign guests, the police check-in rule, and where to book. 06 
Cities 城市 Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an — what to see and exactly where to sleep, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. 07 
Culture 文化 Etiquette, food, a little language, and the unwritten rules that make the difference on the ground.
Start here Official sources only
Why you can trust what you read
Visas, safety and payments are decisions you can't afford to get wrong. Every page here cites its source, shows when it was last checked, and is written by people who have actually crossed the border — not scraped from forums.
Rules change without notice. Transit-visa eligibility and entry requirements are set by the National Immigration Administration and can shift overnight. We check the visa pages against the official source and timestamp every update.
Primary sources we cite
- NIANational Immigration Administration
- MFAMinistry of Foreign Affairs visa centre
- EMBEmbassy & consulate advisories
- CRChina Railway 12306 timetables