Planning & Tips

Tencent's new TenPayGo app lets foreign tourists pay at any WeChat Pay merchant using Apple Pay. Complete 2026 setup guide and comparison.

Getting money to work in China used to mean bank wires with invisible exchange-rate margins and slow arrivals. The Wise app (formerly TransferWise) fixes the two biggest frustrations: you pay the real mid-market exchange rate plus a small transparent fee, and transfers usually arrive within a day. For international travelers, the app is a practical bridge between your home bank and the Chinese payment ecosystem — especially when you need to top up a local balance or send money to a Chinese accou

A week in China's karst country: the Li River, Yangshuo's villages and caves, the Longji terraces, and the Zhuang and Dong craft country further north.

Two very different Guangdong days: dim sum and markets in Guangzhou, then the concrete watchtowers and village mansions that returned emigrants built around Kaiping.

A week in Hunan: the pillar landscapes of Zhangjiajie and Tianmen Mountain, the old town of Fenghuang on its river, and Changsha for food and museums at the end.

Shanghai in three days and the canal country in two: the bund and old city, then Zhujiajiao, Suzhou's gardens and a water town that is best after the day-trippers leave.

Four days for two imperial cities: Beijing's palaces, hutongs and Great Wall, then Chengde's mountain resort and temple clusters an hour or two away by rail.

Six days across Guizhou: the great waterfall at Huangguoshu, Miao and Dong villages, batik and silver workshops, and the green karst country that connects them.

A week and a day through Yunnan: city markets and karst near Kunming, the lake and craft villages of Dali, Lijiang's old town, and the plateau climb to Shangri-La.

Five days through Fujian's coast and hills: island lanes and seafood in Xiamen, the old trading port of Quanzhou with its puppets and temples, and the earthen tulou of the Hakka interior.

The classic westward line: Xi'an's imperial core, then the Hexi Corridor by high-speed rail through Lanzhou and Zhangye to Jiayuguan and Dunhuang — history with landscapes between.

A week across the eastern heartland: Nanjing's walls and brocade, Suzhou's silk and gardens, Hangzhou's lake and tea hills — arranged so the craft workshops fit the sightseeing.

Shanghai is China's best layover city — two airports close to a real downtown and a visa-free transit window that turns waiting time into a city visit. The honest plan for 8, 24 and 72 hours.

China's mega-stations are airports in size — multi-level, security-gated and built for tens of thousands of passengers an hour. A station navigation guide: the layout logic, arrival and departure flows, and the habits that make big-station days painless.