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10 Things You Need To Know Before Traveling To China

10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Hit The Silk Road

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Aug 28, 2019
in China, Travel
0
Historic town of Xian in China ancient walls and temple

Image Source: iStock/ebenart

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Our two-week Silk Road trek this month could be considered a trip of a lifetime.

In fact, though, Lief and I are thinking we’d like to plan a Stage 2 of the adventure.

We have 9 years remaining on our 10-year multi-entry China visas… and our son Jackson has 3 years remaining at NYU Shanghai.

We hope to take full advantage of this window of opportunity to continue to discover this part of the world.

This month we traveled from Xi’an to Urumqi. Next year we’re thinking of starting in Urumqi and traveling to Kazakhstan and beyond.

We’ll be better prepared for our next visit to China’s wild west.

Here are the top 10 things we’ve learned about traveling in the Middle Kingdom:

#1: Always carry toilet paper…

Even when using the bathroom in the lobby of a five-star hotel.

Beyond the top-level international-standard hotels, for sure, you will not find toilet paper in the toilet areas. Bring your own.

#2: Download a VPN…

Google, Facebook, Skype, Netflix, and more are banned in China. Meaning you cannot access them…

Unless you download a virtual private network (VPN) onto your devices (laptop, phone, iPad, etc.) before arriving in the country.

Many options are available; we used Express VPN, which worked every time we needed it.

#3: Download a voice translation app…

Outside major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, you’ll find that few people speak English. In rural areas of the country (like the wild west of the Silk Road), no one speaks English.

You can get by (as we did) using hand gestures, pantomime, and lots of smiles and bows.

For numbers, you can use the calculator on your phone.

However, if you need to have a conversation (with a pharmacist, for example, or a clerk in a shop), you can use a voice translation app. Many locals you encounter will have one downloaded on their phones. You should download one, as well. I used iTranslate.

#4: Make sure your taxi driver turns on his meter…

Taxi drivers will try to take you for a ride.

Often, our driver would not drop his flag but quote a flat rate when we’d arrived at our destination. At first, not knowing better, we paid it… overpaying sometimes by 5 or 10 times the actual going rate for the distance traveled.

Then we learned that not turning on the meter is against the law… and the Chinese are very keen not to run afoul of any law. So, if your driver doesn’t flip on his meter, you don’t have to pay. Definitely don’t pay an inflated flat amount. Know what the ride should cost and pay no more than that.

#5: Consider travel health insurance…

I caught a food-borne virus and needed to see a doctor before leaving the country. We were able to make an almost immediate appointment at a private clinic with all English-speaking doctors and staff. The visit was great. Labs were run and prescriptions were filled efficiently on-site.

All great… until the bill was presented. The cost was about US$800.

Public health care is a bargain. If you want to go private, not so much.

If I’d invested in travel health insurance (which can cost just a few dollars a day), I could have submitted these charges for reimbursement.

#6: Your lighter will be confiscated…

If you’re a smoker, carry back-ups. One friend traveling with us lost two or three lighters per day (they’re taken away by security when entering public buildings, museums, shops, etc.). Finally our friend began hiding his lighter in a crevice or crack just before going through security… then retrieving it on the way out.

He worried, though, that his actions might appear suspicious on video…

#7: Cameras, cameras, everywhere…

Which leads to an important point to remember:

Everything you do everywhere is videoed.

#8: CNN, et al., are censored…

Higher-end hotels have cable TV that includes stations like CNN International. However, when an international news station begins to report on a topic or in a manner that the Chinese don’t like… they cut it off.

Don’t be surprised if your television screen suddenly goes dark. This happened during our visit every time the reporting turned to the protests in Hong Kong, for example. As soon as the objectionable reporting is finished… the feed returns.

#9: Tipping is generally considered rude…

Our son finally cued us into this.

#10: Hepatitis vaccines are a good idea…

Especially if you’ll be traveling in remote regions, as we were this month.

Kathleen Peddicord

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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