5 preparations for independent travelers to China

High-speed trains are a means of transport for many tourists.

International tourists often have difficulty traveling to China independently because English is not widely used, except in some major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. In addition, tourists cannot access popular social networks such as Facebook, YouTube or Google.

Therefore, to have a smooth independent trip to China, in addition to buying plane tickets and planning an itinerary, tourists need to prepare the following 5 things.

Visa application

If you travel in a tour, you can apply for a group visa, but if you travel independently, you must apply for a tourist visa for each individual. Vietnamese tourists go to the Chinese embassy or consulate or apply for a visa through designated travel agencies.

A Chinese tourist visa is valid for a minimum of 15 days, with one entry. For longer stays and multiple entries, you should contact the visa agency directly for specific information. The visa processing time is from 3 to 5 working days. Visa fees at embassies and consulates start from about two million VND per passport.

Book hotel rooms, buy train tickets, and sightseeing tickets early

Running out of hotel rooms and not being able to enter tourist attractions are all things that can happen when traveling to China, even during off-peak season. You can meet tourists anywhere because the number of both domestic and foreign tourists is very large.

Many museums and entertainment venues only accept online bookings because these places limit the number of people per day. In fact, visitors must book a few weeks or months in advance. Similarly, high-speed train tickets, if not booked in advance, will be sold out, leaving only undesirable seats or bad hours because Chinese people travel by high-speed train frequently.

These services can be booked on the Trip.com app.

Buy a phone SIM card that can access social networks

Tourists should buy a 5G data SIM card in advance to access popular applications in Vietnam but not in China such as Google, Facebook, Youtube. This is a SIM card for tourists from popular Chinese telecommunications companies such as China Mobile, China Unicom.

The capacity of the SIM card is optional to suit the needs and length of stay in China. Tourists can choose the total capacity for the whole trip (for example, 10 GB for 7 days) or by day (2-3 GB per day). There are two types of SIM cards: physical SIM (removable and installed in the phone) and eSIM (can be activated online). SIM card prices range from 100,000 VND to 500,000 VND, corresponding to 1 to 15 days.

Note, if you buy a physical SIM card in China, you can still access the internet and make calls, but you will not be able to access the above social networking applications.

Install payment apps

Alipay payment app is now the most popular in China

If you don’t have Alipay and Wechat installed, you can still use cash or credit cards, but these methods are not popular, some places refuse or don’t have change to give. Therefore, installing a payment application for tourists limits the difficulty of shopping in the market from the common market to the high-end restaurant, by scanning QR codes.

Alipay is available in multiple languages, including English and Vietnamese, and is activated using a passport and a credit or debit card, without requiring a Chinese phone number or ID. Users can transfer money into their Alipay account to spend in China or pay directly from a linked credit card. Meanwhile, WeChat requires users to be invited by an existing account, have a Chinese phone number and ID, and have a domestic bank account when activated.

Language support tools

Not knowing Chinese is a barrier when traveling independently in China. However, there are many software and supporting applications, the most popular of which is Google Translate. Some other options are iTranslate Translate, Chinese Translate, Interpreter. These applications can all translate in the form of photos, handwriting, voice or offline (no need to be online).

At many famous tourist areas, staff often proactively use these applications to communicate with tourists by speaking Chinese to translate to English and vice versa.

TH (according to VnExpress)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/5-chuan-bi-cho-nguoi-du-lich-tu-tuc-trung-quoc-399281.html