China travel tips for first-timers (2026): the apps, the arrival card and the stuff nobody tells you
Updated Aug 26, 2026
China in 2026 is easy once you accept one thing: it runs on your phone. Payments, taxis, train tickets, museum entry and the entry declaration itself all happen in apps, most of which you can't set up properly once you're behind the firewall. So the real preparation is an evening at home with your passport and a charger. Here's that evening, in order, plus the on-the-ground habits that keep a first trip smooth — checked 26 August 2026.
Install and verify these before you fly
- Alipay — payments, transit, taxis, mini-programs for tickets. Verify with your passport and link a card at home (details in the payments guide).
- WeChat — messaging, payments, and the mini-programs many attractions and restaurants use. Also where half of China will want to add you.
- Amap (Gaode) or Apple Maps — Google Maps is blocked and its China data is poor anyway. Amap's English mode handles walking and metro directions well; Apple Maps uses Amap's data.
- Didi — ride-hailing, with an English interface; also reachable inside Alipay. Cheap and everywhere.
- Trip.com — the easiest English-language booking app for hotels, flights and trains (it books rail for a small fee, which beats fighting the official 12306 app).
- A translation app with the Chinese pack downloaded for offline use — Apple Translate, or Google Translate's offline mode, which keeps working even though Google's servers don't.
- A roaming eSIM, installed before departure, so all of the above (and WhatsApp, Instagram and Gmail) work the moment you land — see the internet guide.
The arrival card is digital now
China replaced the paper arrival card with an online declaration in late 2025; the National Immigration Administration published its how-to on 22 December 2025. Most foreign nationals arriving by air, land or sea complete it — including visa-free visitors — and it isn't a visa, just the entry form. Fill it in before you fly, keep the confirmation on your phone, and if you forget, the arrivals hall has QR codes and kiosks for doing it on the spot after an eleven-hour flight, which is the worse option.
Registration: hotels do it, hosts don't
Every foreigner in China must be registered at their place of stay within 24 hours of arriving. In a hotel this happens automatically when you check in with your passport — you'll never see the form. If you stay with family or in a rented apartment, you or your host have to register you with the local police station. Since 20 March 2026 that can be done online in seven pilot regions (Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing and Sichuan) through the NIA's website, its 12367 app, or WeChat and Alipay mini-programs; Beijing, Shaanxi and Shanghai aren't in the pilot yet, so it's the station or the host there. Skipping it is a fine under Article 76 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, and it's the question you'll be asked if anything else goes wrong.
Everything is real-name. Your passport is the ticket.
Train tickets are sold against your passport number and checked against the passport at the gate — there's no paper ticket, the document is the ticket. The big sights work the same way: the Forbidden City sells its daily allocation by real-name reservation, with bookings opening seven days ahead at 20:00 China time, and the foreign passport is your ID on the day; the National Museum and other headline museums run similar windows and sell out in peak weeks. Two rules follow. Carry your passport everywhere, every day. And enter your name exactly as printed — a missing middle name is a refused gate. On our trips the tickets are booked for you; the passport-in-pocket rule still applies.
Water, tipping, plugs, toilets
- Tap water: don't. Bottled water is everywhere and cheap; every hotel room has a kettle, and boiled is fine.
- Tipping: not expected in restaurants, taxis or cafés, and often refused. Private guides and drivers on tours are the customary exception — we'll tell the crew what's normal before the trip.
- Power: 220 V. Sockets take a mix of flat two-pin (Type A), European two-pin (Type C) and the angled three-pin (Type I) — one universal adapter covers it. Phones and laptops handle the voltage; hair tools often don't.
- Toilets: hotels, malls and big sights have Western toilets; metro stations, parks and older restaurants may not. Carry tissues and hand sanitiser and the problem disappears.
Etiquette that actually matters
- Chopsticks never stand upright in a bowl of rice (it's the incense of a funeral offering), and they don't point at people.
- Shared dishes are the norm; use the serving chopsticks or spoons when they're provided, and take from the side of the dish nearest you.
- Business cards, gifts and passports change hands with both hands. It costs nothing and reads as respect.
- Queues and crowds are dense; patience gets you further than visible frustration. Nobody is being rude to you personally.
- Ask before photographing people, especially older people and anyone working. A smile and a raised camera is a question most will answer with a yes.
- Haggle in markets, not in shops with price tags. And when a stallholder says a price in Alipay's scan screen, that's the price.
What changed in 2025–26
- Late 2025: the arrival card went digital (NIA how-to published 22 December 2025).
- 3 November 2025: the unilateral visa-free policy — 30 days for Canadian, British, Australian, New Zealand and 40-plus other passports — was extended to 31 December 2026.
- 20 March 2026: online accommodation registration launched in seven pilot regions for non-hotel stays.
- 26 March 2026: WeChat Pay's 60-day fee waiver for newly linked international cards was confirmed.
- Ongoing: more museums and headline sights have moved to reservation-only, passport-linked entry — walk-up tickets are less and less a thing.
Day-one checklist
- 01Passport with six-plus months' validity, visa-free eligibility or visa confirmed, arrival card submitted.
- 02Alipay and WeChat verified with a card linked; a roaming eSIM installed; one VPN tested.
- 03Offline maps and an offline translation pack downloaded.
- 04Forbidden City (and any museum you care about) reserved the moment the window opens — or, on our trips, already done.
- 05A universal adapter, a small stash of renminbi, tissues, and a photo of your passport's data page in your phone.
Read the sources
Related reading
Tickets, trains and registration are handled; the app setup is on the pre-trip checklist and the group chat has walked plenty of people through it.
