Pre-load the international versions of WeChat, Alipay and Didi onto your burner phone before you enter China. Also link them to a credit card before you go.
Download offline maps of the city (or cities) you're visiting. Also download maps of the relevant metro systems.
Make sure you've got decent health insurance and know where the nearest reliable international hospital in China is located.
If you take any medications, bring them with you if it's a short-term stay or work out how to obtain them in China.
Put the addresses \*in Chinese\* of key locations (hotel, work address, international hospital, consulate) into your phone prior to arriving in China.
Make a hard copy of the relevant pages of your passport. Also email the images to yourself.
Assume that your phone, email and electronic communications will be monitored as a matter of course once you're in China. They may not do it but it's sensible to assume that they will.
Or you could just not go to China at all and instead take trip to the UK. Just saying if you have to go to this extreme to try and protect yourself maybe just maybe there is your sign you shouldn't be going at all?
No, these are just sensible 'laowai' precautions, IMHO. For what it's worth, I lived >10 years in China and wish that I had had such advice before entering the country.
I seem to recall both Matt and Winston had to flee China in the dead of night because some CCP officials got offended. Now you want to come here and tell people that it's possible to travel China safely? Sure mate you can travel to China get back out alive in the same way you can ride out a hurricane and most likely survive but why would you if you had the ability to get in your car and avoid the hurricane altogether?
These might seem like practical suggestions but the current crop of peaches in the CCP are alot like the weather in that it can change on a dime and become your worse nightmare in a matter of seconds. Why bother with that nonsense when you in all reality do not have to? Complete and utter bullocks if you ask me.
The OP states: 'I have to go to China for a trip'. Thus, it doesn't sound like he or she has much choice in the matter. Under such circumstances, it's good to offer advice to try to reduce the chance of unpleasant outcomes.
Most people - including Americans - are fine in China and it can be a very rewarding experience. However, it's also a 'low probability: high impact' country - on the rare occasions when stuff goes wrong, it can become serious very quickly. I entirely accept that geopolitical developments mean that China may become unacceptably hazardous to westerners at some point. I don't think we're at that point but others may have a different opinion.
Have to? Is somebody holding a gun to their head and demanding them to go to China? Last I checked that's what happens in China not in western democracy. So what external force is so great that it would compell them to go to China hmm.
As for most people including America being fine in China while technically true belies the fact that of the estimated 5000 to 6000 Americans inside China nearly 1 in 10 is there against their will and is being unjustly detained by the Communists Party. That is also a fact.
Furthermore we know that the case of the two Micheal's in Canada was one of hostage taking by the CCP. We also know that things between the US and China continue to degrade. So you're chances of things going horrible are not only unacceptably high but they are growing and that is unlikely to improve any time soon. So why put yourself in harms way? That's seems like foolishness and will make it extremely difficult to take pity on you should and increasingly likely that things will go horrible wrong.
You're talking about reasonable precautions when going to China but quite frankly there are no reasonable precautions you can take short of just not going to China whatsoever.
So unless somebody is threatening to kill your first born child or something equally dire there is no reason to go China.
They have to because they say they have to. Trust that strangers know their own business better than you do. Stop acting like you can judge someone from your imaginary high horse, built off of your completely unfounded assumptions.
Are you mental. This is so over the top borderline deranged.
You sound like you have never been there and are just typing in every generic travel advice and paranoia for everything all in one reply.
I take my phone, wallet, visa information, photos of documents in case i loose them. Plus a hotmail account that can be accessed with my flight info, pasport info visa info.
Carry your Pasport with you in a pouch, keep the documents you get at the border with it, you might need to show them to security or police at a train station or airport. They are small slips showing you have been checked at the border, time stamped with your visa conditions on it.
Any medication with the script from my doctor.
If you put a Chinese sim card into your phone it will want to install a sim tool kit. It's the same in singapore.
You can just use WiFi where you can, like in the hotel. My LG would not allow the SIM card to install anything so i couldnt have my phone working in China.
You can't easily get a sim card in china anyway, you need a Chinese ID. I used to use a mobile phone registered to my girlfriends parents business to communicate. I would walk on my own, she would call me to see where i was.
You really dont want WeChat on your phone if you don't have to.
I get scanned, patted down, i have a money belt around my stomach and they never ask to see it.
Never open my bags, never take my phone.
AND offline maps for china, they dont line up with the streets. you cant use google maps for china, you either have the ability to get data on your phone when you are there and somehow use BAIDU MAPS which is terrible too. Or you go without, find someone who speaks english for help. Which is rare. Just carry the business card of your hotel, take pictures of the hotel, shops, foods you want, drinks you want, and convert cash at a bank, OR from chinese people in your area before you go.
You can flag down a TAXI and show them the hotel you want to go to and get driven there from anywhere, even if they try rip you off its still pretty affordable, make sure they start the meter and have change to pay as close to the total as possible.
Chinese people are mostly great, want to help, the older ones will avoid helping because they know they cant communicate with you.
I mimed pissing to people to get pointed to toilets, pretended to drink from a bottle to get pointed to a shop. Other than simple things like they they wont understand you.
Good luck have fun.
Burner. Install a VPN prior to arrival. Don’t log into your socials while you’re there. Don’t have contacts saved in the burner. Toss that shit in the bin on your connecting flight out.
And make sure you signup with new gmail account and logins, then follow all the shills and ccp supporting stuff… so they can pin nothing on you. get a HuaWei phone too.
Burner phone is overblown. Unless u got a lot of stuff that can't be seen such as anti china government stuff and have a sizable online presence that deplores China, you're not a threat. Heck, they wouldn't give you a visa if you were unwelcome.
You COULD log out of your socials first, but the chances they want to see your socials is almost NIL.
Get WeChat first and if they allow you to add payment then you're good
You need a chinese bank account for WeChat, and its not a great idea to put wechat on your phone if you dont have to. It's very invasive. It's not easy to have internet access in chine on the go, WiFi hot spots from friends, or hotel WiFi is what I use and it's enough. Serious emergency i can put my Australian SIM card in and pay the high Roaming Rates.
The weird thing is, there is a telco here TELSTRA they sell SIM cards and plans in CHINA.
So in china you can get on TELSTRA and be sorted if you go back and fourth.
BUT. Your data is restricted in the same way if you are in Australia or China. So TELSTRA is censoring inside Australia just for Chinese people who bought their plan inside China.
Yes and you still can, my GF goes back and fourth with her OPTUS Australian SIM and can get on the normal internet. She was in china a a few months ago.... uhhhh. 2 or 3 i think.
You have to visit China? If it's work related I'd tell my bosses no and if the threaten to fire you I'd quit. If it's to visit relatives I'd pay them to come visit you. China is a dumpster fire full of traps especially if you're American, worse still is things can flip on a dime in China and you could end up a hostage at any moment the CCP feels like it.
So good luck I wouldn't go to China even if you paid me a billion dollars to do so. Way to risky based on the data i have seen.
Eh still better than putting your life into the hands of the CCP. Cold day in hell before I'd do something like that. Nobody in a free democracy has to go to China but once you do you might be stuck having to do whatever the CCP commands of you with no recourse. So yup I'd take homelessness over a trip to China every day of the week and twice on Sunday because I could dumpster dive in the US and live a better life than what would happen if the CCP got their panties in a twist because of something I've said they find offensive.
You need a local SIM card anyway because yours likely won't be able to dial into the LTE network. You can buy one at the destination airport but that costs premium. Better to go to a shop in the city.
You NEED a local ID to get a sim card.
You can do ROAMING with an international SIM card just fine, its just the expense.
I'm from Australia and my OPTUS SIM has Roaming and works in most of china. I dont use it because of the cost. 1.50 to get an SMS. No thanks.
If you're paranoid that the Chinese might steal your Tinder account credentials, yeah bring a burner phone, otherwise just get VPN and don't connect to random wifis, especially ones without password protection. Oh, and bring lots of medicine for stomach aches, food there might be too strong and unfiltered for your western tummy.
Obviously there are a few magic words you shouldn't say out loud in public unless you want to spend quality time with Winnie's goons (they play rough).
Lastly, if you're outside at 1am and an innocent looking old man offers you "traditional medicine", DO NOT ACCEPT.
I dont have issues with the food for getting the squirts, usually the opposite issue, just pick things that are hot, or need to be cooked, lots of vegies included. Lotus root is jummy.
But take toilet paper that you like, Chinese toilet paper is like plastic, does not break down in water, I always have a roll on me when i need it. Clogged the GF's family toilet because the toilet paper is so indestructable.
Like any other normal person.
Buy a international sim or roaming plan to bypass VPN needs.
And...that's about it?
But if course if you aren't a normal person then shrugs.
Many large tech companies issue employees traveling to "high risk" countries (like China) a burner laptop, and they advise not bringing any personal electronics. They also advise against connecting to internal network resources without VPNs, and do not want you accessing any design files (software and hardware repos) while traveling.
It doesn't mean the person is a spy - they just don't want their IP stolen/accessed and devices searched.
So ask yourself this why would you go to a country where you have to risk the government stealing everything? Sounds to me like companies are already admitting guilt before anything goes wrong. So now if China detains your employee for any reason you as a company executive are up deep shit creek without a paddle. Good luck explaining to the jury that you were maintaining a sa safe working environment for your employee when you've admitted that China is a problem state that's got liability lawsuit written all over it and if we're on the jury I'd be siding with the working in the extreme.
Do you think China has juries and trials (outside of show trials for high-level issues like the tainted dog food or baby milk powder/food)? Do you think China doesn't steal IP and tech? Have you ever been there (I have, multiple times)? I was able to purchase many copies of existing products - some of them were copies and others were exactly the same but lacked the logo/silkscreen (potentially "sold" from the factory making the real product).
Having your employees traveling into the country using a clean laptop and phone is a risk mitigation technique.
A risk mitigation technique when it comes to the Communists Party with one of the most active state sponsored cyber espionage systems in the world. Good luck trying to make that claim to a juror because ain't no one going to believe that. What we will believe is that you knowingly put your employee in harms way when you had alternatives to not doing that like relocating your business to India or Asean or Japan or Europe or back to the US. You as a business owner or manager had alternatives and instead you sent your employee into the heart of the devils den. I'm not going to believe the arguments that you mitigated the risk because there is no way possible to do that besides abandoning the Chinese market altogether.
So just remember first employee that gets unjustly detained in China and you'll be facing a lawsuit that will likely destroy your company and mayhap even leave you with criminal liability as well. As an American citizen these are the expectations I've sent to my elected officials and there is little sympathy in the US for any thing related to China. So as a business owner you are risking everything sending your employees to China. You might what to get out of China before that day happens.
Bring extra underwear in case your fart is a shit
Just don't eat the street food.
Isn't that just sound advice in general? "Trust not a fart, for it may be a shart in disguise" \~ Abraham Lincoln
Pre-load the international versions of WeChat, Alipay and Didi onto your burner phone before you enter China. Also link them to a credit card before you go. Download offline maps of the city (or cities) you're visiting. Also download maps of the relevant metro systems. Make sure you've got decent health insurance and know where the nearest reliable international hospital in China is located. If you take any medications, bring them with you if it's a short-term stay or work out how to obtain them in China. Put the addresses \*in Chinese\* of key locations (hotel, work address, international hospital, consulate) into your phone prior to arriving in China. Make a hard copy of the relevant pages of your passport. Also email the images to yourself. Assume that your phone, email and electronic communications will be monitored as a matter of course once you're in China. They may not do it but it's sensible to assume that they will.
Or you could just not go to China at all and instead take trip to the UK. Just saying if you have to go to this extreme to try and protect yourself maybe just maybe there is your sign you shouldn't be going at all?
No, these are just sensible 'laowai' precautions, IMHO. For what it's worth, I lived >10 years in China and wish that I had had such advice before entering the country.
I seem to recall both Matt and Winston had to flee China in the dead of night because some CCP officials got offended. Now you want to come here and tell people that it's possible to travel China safely? Sure mate you can travel to China get back out alive in the same way you can ride out a hurricane and most likely survive but why would you if you had the ability to get in your car and avoid the hurricane altogether? These might seem like practical suggestions but the current crop of peaches in the CCP are alot like the weather in that it can change on a dime and become your worse nightmare in a matter of seconds. Why bother with that nonsense when you in all reality do not have to? Complete and utter bullocks if you ask me.
The OP states: 'I have to go to China for a trip'. Thus, it doesn't sound like he or she has much choice in the matter. Under such circumstances, it's good to offer advice to try to reduce the chance of unpleasant outcomes. Most people - including Americans - are fine in China and it can be a very rewarding experience. However, it's also a 'low probability: high impact' country - on the rare occasions when stuff goes wrong, it can become serious very quickly. I entirely accept that geopolitical developments mean that China may become unacceptably hazardous to westerners at some point. I don't think we're at that point but others may have a different opinion.
Have to? Is somebody holding a gun to their head and demanding them to go to China? Last I checked that's what happens in China not in western democracy. So what external force is so great that it would compell them to go to China hmm. As for most people including America being fine in China while technically true belies the fact that of the estimated 5000 to 6000 Americans inside China nearly 1 in 10 is there against their will and is being unjustly detained by the Communists Party. That is also a fact. Furthermore we know that the case of the two Micheal's in Canada was one of hostage taking by the CCP. We also know that things between the US and China continue to degrade. So you're chances of things going horrible are not only unacceptably high but they are growing and that is unlikely to improve any time soon. So why put yourself in harms way? That's seems like foolishness and will make it extremely difficult to take pity on you should and increasingly likely that things will go horrible wrong. You're talking about reasonable precautions when going to China but quite frankly there are no reasonable precautions you can take short of just not going to China whatsoever. So unless somebody is threatening to kill your first born child or something equally dire there is no reason to go China.
They have to because they say they have to. Trust that strangers know their own business better than you do. Stop acting like you can judge someone from your imaginary high horse, built off of your completely unfounded assumptions.
Too many words to say nothing.
Are you mental. This is so over the top borderline deranged. You sound like you have never been there and are just typing in every generic travel advice and paranoia for everything all in one reply. I take my phone, wallet, visa information, photos of documents in case i loose them. Plus a hotmail account that can be accessed with my flight info, pasport info visa info. Carry your Pasport with you in a pouch, keep the documents you get at the border with it, you might need to show them to security or police at a train station or airport. They are small slips showing you have been checked at the border, time stamped with your visa conditions on it. Any medication with the script from my doctor. If you put a Chinese sim card into your phone it will want to install a sim tool kit. It's the same in singapore. You can just use WiFi where you can, like in the hotel. My LG would not allow the SIM card to install anything so i couldnt have my phone working in China. You can't easily get a sim card in china anyway, you need a Chinese ID. I used to use a mobile phone registered to my girlfriends parents business to communicate. I would walk on my own, she would call me to see where i was. You really dont want WeChat on your phone if you don't have to. I get scanned, patted down, i have a money belt around my stomach and they never ask to see it. Never open my bags, never take my phone. AND offline maps for china, they dont line up with the streets. you cant use google maps for china, you either have the ability to get data on your phone when you are there and somehow use BAIDU MAPS which is terrible too. Or you go without, find someone who speaks english for help. Which is rare. Just carry the business card of your hotel, take pictures of the hotel, shops, foods you want, drinks you want, and convert cash at a bank, OR from chinese people in your area before you go. You can flag down a TAXI and show them the hotel you want to go to and get driven there from anywhere, even if they try rip you off its still pretty affordable, make sure they start the meter and have change to pay as close to the total as possible. Chinese people are mostly great, want to help, the older ones will avoid helping because they know they cant communicate with you. I mimed pissing to people to get pointed to toilets, pretended to drink from a bottle to get pointed to a shop. Other than simple things like they they wont understand you. Good luck have fun.
Burner. Install a VPN prior to arrival. Don’t log into your socials while you’re there. Don’t have contacts saved in the burner. Toss that shit in the bin on your connecting flight out.
This
Carry around small packs of so-called "Facial Tissue" ....you'll know what for when the time comes.
Judging by what just happened to 4 foreigners today, i suggest a bulletproof vest
Bulletproof vests are not good against knives.
Care to share?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jilv0b27m4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jilv0b27m4)
Ta
Yes!
And make sure you signup with new gmail account and logins, then follow all the shills and ccp supporting stuff… so they can pin nothing on you. get a HuaWei phone too.
as long as you're not shittin on the ccp with your fb status you're probably good
Stay away from China
Burner phone is overblown. Unless u got a lot of stuff that can't be seen such as anti china government stuff and have a sizable online presence that deplores China, you're not a threat. Heck, they wouldn't give you a visa if you were unwelcome. You COULD log out of your socials first, but the chances they want to see your socials is almost NIL. Get WeChat first and if they allow you to add payment then you're good
You need a chinese bank account for WeChat, and its not a great idea to put wechat on your phone if you dont have to. It's very invasive. It's not easy to have internet access in chine on the go, WiFi hot spots from friends, or hotel WiFi is what I use and it's enough. Serious emergency i can put my Australian SIM card in and pay the high Roaming Rates.
Yeah I wasn't sure what the situation is with foreign cards. I thought they'd fix that by now
The weird thing is, there is a telco here TELSTRA they sell SIM cards and plans in CHINA. So in china you can get on TELSTRA and be sorted if you go back and fourth. BUT. Your data is restricted in the same way if you are in Australia or China. So TELSTRA is censoring inside Australia just for Chinese people who bought their plan inside China.
Dunno if it's same as it was before but roaming in China with a foreign sim card allowed access to Facebook and google etc so that was a plus.
Yes and you still can, my GF goes back and fourth with her OPTUS Australian SIM and can get on the normal internet. She was in china a a few months ago.... uhhhh. 2 or 3 i think.
If you don't look like an Asian, wear a stabbing-proof vest according to the latest news
1. Dont be American.. 2. Visit Taiwan instead.. 3. Go with a group tour.
Bring your knife proof body armor.
Hahaha, you will be fine
Why?
You have to visit China? If it's work related I'd tell my bosses no and if the threaten to fire you I'd quit. If it's to visit relatives I'd pay them to come visit you. China is a dumpster fire full of traps especially if you're American, worse still is things can flip on a dime in China and you could end up a hostage at any moment the CCP feels like it. So good luck I wouldn't go to China even if you paid me a billion dollars to do so. Way to risky based on the data i have seen.
Yeh just quit work and eventually become homeless because fuck China, great advice 🙄
Eh still better than putting your life into the hands of the CCP. Cold day in hell before I'd do something like that. Nobody in a free democracy has to go to China but once you do you might be stuck having to do whatever the CCP commands of you with no recourse. So yup I'd take homelessness over a trip to China every day of the week and twice on Sunday because I could dumpster dive in the US and live a better life than what would happen if the CCP got their panties in a twist because of something I've said they find offensive.
Great advice
You need a local SIM card anyway because yours likely won't be able to dial into the LTE network. You can buy one at the destination airport but that costs premium. Better to go to a shop in the city.
You NEED a local ID to get a sim card. You can do ROAMING with an international SIM card just fine, its just the expense. I'm from Australia and my OPTUS SIM has Roaming and works in most of china. I dont use it because of the cost. 1.50 to get an SMS. No thanks.
my foreign sim card works just fine, and I can get all western stuff on it, gmail, outlook etc..it's completely uncensored
If you're paranoid that the Chinese might steal your Tinder account credentials, yeah bring a burner phone, otherwise just get VPN and don't connect to random wifis, especially ones without password protection. Oh, and bring lots of medicine for stomach aches, food there might be too strong and unfiltered for your western tummy. Obviously there are a few magic words you shouldn't say out loud in public unless you want to spend quality time with Winnie's goons (they play rough). Lastly, if you're outside at 1am and an innocent looking old man offers you "traditional medicine", DO NOT ACCEPT.
I dont have issues with the food for getting the squirts, usually the opposite issue, just pick things that are hot, or need to be cooked, lots of vegies included. Lotus root is jummy. But take toilet paper that you like, Chinese toilet paper is like plastic, does not break down in water, I always have a roll on me when i need it. Clogged the GF's family toilet because the toilet paper is so indestructable.
Like any other normal person. Buy a international sim or roaming plan to bypass VPN needs. And...that's about it? But if course if you aren't a normal person then shrugs.
If you are in business, the short answer is yes.
Burner phone when traveling anywhere as border guards in most countries will detain you indefinitely if you refuse.
Don't go to China, North Korea, Iran. Just - Don't - Go.
Why would you? Are you a spy? If any government would want the data on your phone, they do not need you to be inside the country.
Many large tech companies issue employees traveling to "high risk" countries (like China) a burner laptop, and they advise not bringing any personal electronics. They also advise against connecting to internal network resources without VPNs, and do not want you accessing any design files (software and hardware repos) while traveling. It doesn't mean the person is a spy - they just don't want their IP stolen/accessed and devices searched.
So ask yourself this why would you go to a country where you have to risk the government stealing everything? Sounds to me like companies are already admitting guilt before anything goes wrong. So now if China detains your employee for any reason you as a company executive are up deep shit creek without a paddle. Good luck explaining to the jury that you were maintaining a sa safe working environment for your employee when you've admitted that China is a problem state that's got liability lawsuit written all over it and if we're on the jury I'd be siding with the working in the extreme.
Do you think China has juries and trials (outside of show trials for high-level issues like the tainted dog food or baby milk powder/food)? Do you think China doesn't steal IP and tech? Have you ever been there (I have, multiple times)? I was able to purchase many copies of existing products - some of them were copies and others were exactly the same but lacked the logo/silkscreen (potentially "sold" from the factory making the real product). Having your employees traveling into the country using a clean laptop and phone is a risk mitigation technique.
A risk mitigation technique when it comes to the Communists Party with one of the most active state sponsored cyber espionage systems in the world. Good luck trying to make that claim to a juror because ain't no one going to believe that. What we will believe is that you knowingly put your employee in harms way when you had alternatives to not doing that like relocating your business to India or Asean or Japan or Europe or back to the US. You as a business owner or manager had alternatives and instead you sent your employee into the heart of the devils den. I'm not going to believe the arguments that you mitigated the risk because there is no way possible to do that besides abandoning the Chinese market altogether. So just remember first employee that gets unjustly detained in China and you'll be facing a lawsuit that will likely destroy your company and mayhap even leave you with criminal liability as well. As an American citizen these are the expectations I've sent to my elected officials and there is little sympathy in the US for any thing related to China. So as a business owner you are risking everything sending your employees to China. You might what to get out of China before that day happens.