A few years ago I went to China for the first time and I didn't know much about the country. I'm traveling to China again this week and I've got to arrange a few thing and at this time I won’t have any surprises. Here follow 10 things you must know before traveling to China:
- Contract a VPN service. First of all and most important for me, Google, Instagram, Netflix, Blogger, Youtube, Gmail and all those google stuff are blocked in China. I’m quite used to google maps while I’m traveling. And I felt very lost and dependent of others without a map. As I went to non-touristic cities, I just found maps in Chinese. Not very helpful. So get a VPN service before you go. For what I’ve searched it’s not forbidden to use VPN in China, although once you are in China, the access of VPN websites are blocked. And if the Chinese government wants to know what you’ve been doing online, they can request it for the VPN company that you hired. I'm using ExpressVPN because I’ve read that the service is very good and they cover China. Let’s see it.
- Get your tourism visa in advance, after buying your ticket and reserving your hotels you can apply for a visa. But it depends on what country you are from.
- The toilet is usually a hole on the floor. Exactly! And when I first went to a toilet in China my reaction was: “Really?! How do I do that?” Because you have to manage your pee in a way that it doesn’t come back to your legs or foot in the shape of drops, if you know what I mean. Ok, I’m gonna stop it.. this is disgusting..
- People in China don’t ask for individual meals. Usually they ask lots of food and everybody eat from the same bowls. Like, they ask a bow of rice, some of veggies, of meat and everybody has it. But you can find some restaurants in occidental style as well.
- People in China smoke, burp and spit everywhere. So don’t make that face and try to act normal when someone does it around you. This smoking thing is very annoying in restaurants if you are not a smoker.
- They don’t respect queues. So I spent a while in the queue in front of the train station before getting in and when they opened the gate, I saw people emerging from nothing and I was taken by the crowd.
- Things are only cheap if you go to great markets. If you go to malls or regular stores, you won’t find a great difference in the price. Also the Chinese regular supermarkets have so many different kind of stuff, so it’s a good thing to spend a little time in any supermarket you find.
- Chinese people eat everything. When I was there I was told by a Chinese fellow that they eat everything, but people. Ok, now I’m relieved.
- The TV is only in Chinese, even the cable TV. But if you have a VPN service you can use Netflix or Youtube.
- If you are going to a non-touristic city, prepare yourself to feel like a celebrity. Because people will ask to take photos of you all the time. And as I have curly hair, some asked to touch my hair as well.
More pics on my instagram @cynthianvn.
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