FREEChina travel guides · no paywall, no sign-up
Your first trip to China, made simple.
- 沪
Shanghai上海 - 黑
Harbin哈尔滨 - 桂
Guilin桂林 - 京
Beijing北京 - 藏
Lhasa拉萨 - 粤
Guangzhou广州 - 琼
Sanya三亚 - 新
Altay阿勒泰 - 晋
Pingyao平遥 - 粤
Shenzhen深圳 - 云
Dali大理 - 京
Great Wall长城 - 川
Chengdu成都 - 浙
Hangzhou杭州 - 陕
Xi'an西安 - 湘
Zhangjiajie张家界 - 渝
Chongqing重庆 - 苏
Suzhou苏州 - 皖
Huangshan黄山 - 闽
Xiamen厦门 - 甘
Dunhuang敦煌 - 川
Jiuzhaigou九寨沟 - 云
Lijiang丽江 - 豫
Luoyang洛阳 - 鲁
Qingdao青岛
Day-by-day city guides and a practical handbook, tested on the ground. 100% free to read: no account, no ads, no sponsored rankings.
23 cities80 free chapters0 sign-ups
CITY GUIDES
Start with a city
What to see, what to eat and how to get around, with day-by-day plans built for walking and the metro.
FREEBeijing travel guide
Six centuries of imperial capital, with the Great Wall an hour or two away.
FREEChengdu travel guide
Pandas in the morning, teahouses in the afternoon, hot pot at night.
FREEGuilin travel guide
Karst peaks rising out of rice fields along the Li River.
FREEHangzhou travel guide
West Lake, tea hills and temples, an hour from Shanghai.
FREEShanghai travel guide
Colonial-era banks on one bank of the Huangpu, a skyline of towers on the other.
FREESuzhou travel guide
Classical gardens and canal lanes, half an hour from Shanghai.
FREEXi'an travel guide
The old capital at the start of the Silk Road, with the Terracotta Army just outside town.
Beijing photos via Wikimedia Commons contributors, credited in each guide.
BEFORE YOU FLY
Five things to sort before you land
The order most first-timers wish they had followed.
- T–60 DAYSCheck entry rules
Visa-free, transit or visa: it depends on your passport and route.
- T–14 DAYSSet up mobile pay
Link a foreign card to Alipay or WeChat Pay. Carry a little cash.
- T–7 DAYSGet connected
A roaming eSIM keeps Google, WhatsApp and Instagram working.
- T–7 DAYSBook the trains
High-speed tickets open weeks ahead and sell out on holidays.
- T–1 DAYDownload the maps
Amap or Apple Maps for the metro; Google Maps is unreliable here.
THE MODEL
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Read everything free
Every guide on this site is free, forever. No paywall, no account, no "premium tier" holding the good stuff hostage.
The offline pack
The same guide as a printable PDF — day plans, phrase cheat-sheets, emergency numbers. For the days in China with no signal and no VPN.
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Pay what you want, from $2.99. Your support — not advertisers — keeps every guide free and independent.
Made by Dan Liu, a Guangdong-born developer living in Canada who wants you to love his home country. Read my story →
CHINA HANDBOOK
Before you book anything
The unglamorous stuff that decides whether your trip works: money, visas, connectivity.
Your first 24 hours in China
Make your first day in China easy with a practical sequence covering immigration, internet, payments, transport and hotel check-in.
Read the chapter →Visa and visa-free entry to China
Check whether you need a visa for China, how 30-day visa-free entry works, and when transit or regional exemptions may apply.
Read the chapter →Paying in China
Use Alipay, Weixin Pay, international cards and cash in China without relying on a single payment method.
Read the chapter →Getting online in China
Choose between roaming, travel eSIM, local SIM and Wi-Fi so your maps, payments and messaging work from the moment you arrive.
Read the chapter →Booking trains in China
Book Chinese trains through the official 12306 system or a third-party platform and understand passport-based ticketing.
Read the chapter →The full China handbook
Trains, hotels, food, etiquette, safety and where to go, in 10 parts plus an appendix.
Open the handbook →QUESTIONS
What people ask before their first trip
Do I need a visa?
Many passports now get visa-free entry for short stays, and some routes qualify for 240-hour transit. Rules change often, so check the Chinese embassy for your country before booking.
Can I pay with my own bank card?
Yes, through Alipay or WeChat Pay: both accept international Visa and Mastercard. Set them up at home, and keep some cash for small vendors.
Will Google and WhatsApp work?
Not on local Wi-Fi or a Chinese SIM. A roaming eSIM from outside China routes your data abroad, so your usual apps keep working.
Are the guides really free?
Every guide is free to read online. The PDF is pay-what-you-want from $2.99 and is there for offline days.