Travel: Seven Things to Consider Before Visiting China

1. Check the weather

Beijing is a city with four seasons. Check the weather first. I like to check it in http://www.timeanddate.com/. It will determine what kind of clothes you have to pack. The temperature was 7 Celcius degree when I was visiting on November 2015.  

2. Bring wet tissue or bottle. 

The toilet only provides water from the faucet, it often runs out of tissue and the people hasn’t been aware much of hygiene. It is dirty and smells so bad. Bring extra wet tissue or small bottle to fill it with water so you can wash anything you have under there. Avoid using public toilet, take hotel’s toilet first instead before you go out.   

3. Back up your file to China’s allowed platform. 

Back up your files to the platform that aren’t blocked by China’s government before you go. Google’s and Facebook’s group are banned so my hotmail account really useful here. Or you have to buy VPN to un-blocked it. The alternative search engines are Bing, Yahoo, and of course Baidu.  

4. Bring universal travel adapter. 

China electric socket usually use Type I plug with its two flat V shape.  

5. Install online dictionary. 

Most of the people can’t speak English even they understand of what’s being said. Surprisingly only few hoteliers can speak with it. It will take long time explaining what you want by gesture so install online dictionary to save time. And no, not Google translate. Remember it’s banned. Try something like http://translate.naver.com/#/zh-CN/en

6. WeChat over Whatssapp

Whatsapp isn’t being banned but sending chat message through WeChat is faster than Whatsapp. 

7. Mask 

I’ve read that Beijing has worse air pollution but the weather was so cold when I got there so that I think the haze I was seen is some kind of dew. But no dear it’s pollution, very bad one. Wear mask to keep it less inhaled. 

Forbidden City in pollution. (Photo: Personal doc)

That's what i've remember and hope it will be useful. (***)