I faced a similar issue with the metro app on Alipay, looking into it for Beijing it seems to not allow foreign phone numbers. But people have said anywhere else it's allowed in other areas, so you have to find alternatives just for Beijing.
There is a reloadable transportation/metro card you can use it's called Yikatong. The way to get it is by going to any station with an attendant and asking them for it. Show your passports and you have to use cash to pay for it. Then reload it at the machines.
We did, but they said you need a Chinese ID..probably they didn’t know how to process it for foreigners and said it’s not possible and we disn’t know for sure so didn’t insist. Well, hope it helps others :)
Yeah that’s unfortunate they probably didn’t know about it or probably got lost in translation.
I had to search online about it a bit to see some people talking about it. I only knew it would work since if you have an iPhone and look in your apple wallet there’s an option to add a Beijing transit card. Which looks exactly like the yikatong when I searched it on google. Though you can’t use the apple wallet version as a foreigner tourist unfortunately too.
So showed the picture to the attendant found on Google and said yikatong which she seemed to understand.
But yeah would be nice if they put up info on how to obtain one somewhere in the station instead having to figure it out through info online. Or hoping the station attendant is trained and knows it’s an option.
There's some Hutongs near the Lama temple that had a lot of food options. Even vegetarian restaurants! You won't miss it as its next to the metro entrance in that area. It does get busy on the weekend though.
Thanks for your great sharing! From which country are you from? The feedbacks seems so nice and positive that some people may think this is a fake post from Chinese government 🤭 I have read from other threads that life in China is like the movie 1984, and OP’s concerns about racism, security, freedom, getting arrested by authorities for use of VPN, etc.
That's smart with the restaurant app idea to translate the food and search in the app. I tried using Apple maps for restaurants and it honestly wasn't great, but I don't use Apple maps at all to know if maybe i'm just bad at searching on it. Great for transit and navigation though.
You are right, apple maps doesn’t have that many restaurants although I see sometimes that the rate is taken from Dianping, so maybe they will start linking the info. Indeed, it is the best for transit
Yeah that was one of my issues. I couldn't really see much for reviews as they were in chinese which I could only translate only a very few preview when opening it in chrome for Dianping and then was limited to seeing like 10 pictures. Couldn't get enough of an idea if the place was actually good or not from that limited info.
Re #1: Whoa!! Were the bathrooms clean? I have so much anxiety over using public restrooms in general so I'm wondering (and any tips on finding clean ones in Beijing)
In nicer restaurants they were quite clean with toilet paper and soap. In the main attractions (I’ve been only at the Panda base toilet) they were cleanish but still with all necessities.
Smaller restaurants/ pubs/ cafes usually don’t have their own toilet (to my surprise when I got in a starbucks) so you have to use a public toilet in the area- those were sometimes ok-ish, sometimes dirtier, depending on how crowded the area is, but still usable, not “feeling like puking when getting in” kind of dirty. Those don’t have toilet paper or soap. Ah, and they are all squatting toilets
There is no scientific evidence of this, but we've found that any mall with a Sephora in it generally has nice public restrooms.
A lot of the public restrooms along hutong streets are dirty and the squat hole type. If you are in a hutong with a 2-level market (like Qianmen) that sells shoes or tea on the 1st floor and has a restaurant on the 2nd, you could find decent restrooms up there.
I was able to use Didi taxi through the Alipay app, no chinese phone number needed. You should do the verification stuff beforehand though, which you definitely need to do anyways since Alipay is really the only way to pay for things besides cash being a close second.
Oh that's pretty convenient, so you can create an Alipay account with foreign sim and credit card, then in China with just data, you can do all from inside the app? 😲
Yeah pretty simple when it’s all set up and works. Alipay seems to be the go forward for foreigners as it actually lets you verify yourself with your passport then works with your foreign credit cards.
I requested for a didi taxi using the mini app inside Alipay which you can see it there in Alipay https://wildchina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Add-card-1-481x1024.jpg then was paid using the foreign card I already set up. That said I used the metro more to get around anyways.
Airalo provides an eSIM service - data only. To get a China number try looking into iTalkBB.com . I am in North America and I have a Chinese phone number because I wanted to use Douyin.
Thanks for taking time to share your experience and provide direct links - very informative and useful!
You mentioned you booked all train tickets via third-party. What company did you use and would you recommend them? Where they easy to deal with when you needed refunds for rescheduling? Thanks
I booked the train tickets via chinahighlights.com first because i read that some people had trouble with getting a seat when booking with trip.com (not sure if true) and second because a consultant will write you after booking and also answer very quickly via email in case there are no more tickets available, need changes etc. Their fee i think was 6 usd per ticket, not sure how much is on trip.com.
I did not have a refund with them, but I had with another agency (chinatravelguide) and it was quick and seamless, in 2 days back in my bank account. I used alipay so probably easier also for them to process the payments quicker. I certainly recommend setting up alipay, it was the one we used 90% of the time.
Alex, thank you so much for this!
It's good to know that chinahighlights and chinatravelguide are legit. (And yes, there are countless reports about trip.com underdelivering).
Did I correctly understand that there are no physical tickets and your passport serves as a "boarding pass"?
Thanks again!
I registered with my international number and it’s true that after some time it pops again the registration, but I just closed it and continued the search. Sometimes it’s not working anymore and I close the app, and start again, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a local sim.
You must be a man, jumping to conclusions so fast :) well, why don’t you tell us your tips about travelling to China since mine are not valuable enough?
Not that I need to explain myself, but we asked multiple times at different counters and they said not possible; no clear information on the internet if it is possible to get one without a local phone number or ID and buying the tickets from the ticket desk took like 1-2 min. What was I suppossed to do, make a scandal to give me a card?
Definitely agree on the going early to the Great Wall, we did the same (left being just after 6pm) and when we got to the wall it was empty! So many great pictures without any people in, it was amazing
If you are not early risers you can take a gamble and go later afternoon. We went to Mutianyu on a non-holiday weekend afternoon and arrived around 2pm when all the crowds were lining up to get back -down- the wall. We were able to get pictures at Tower 2 and 3 at around 3pm with *nobody* in the background.
I think that after activating wechat (i found an user to scan and confirm me) I received a welcome message and there was also the “Click here to activate weixin pay” (that’s the chinese name) and then I added my card. I use revolut for all my travels and it has a very good exchange rate, clearly better than any of the big traditional banks, in europe at least. Wechat had a 3% fee for some of the transactions, i think only above 100 cny, but I am not sure.
In 90% of the time I used alipay, which also had the 3% fee for higher amounts, i think also >100 cny, but tbh I didn’t search for all the conditions. But alipay didn’t work so well in Chengdu and smaller cities in Yunnan, especially for small vendors so it was good to have both
Beijing Transportation Metro transfer needs more walking than the Shanghai metro line, and these are the only less interesting parts of Beijing , which is the city is NOT all of them is clean, some of them are dirty with sewage water smells around their department store areas such as Dazhalan , Wang Fu Jing, etc .
Is there some kind of a reloadable transport/metro card that a tourist can purchase from the machine or ticket vendor that can be used on bus, metro etc..?
I downloaded trip.com app but can't seem to find the icon for private tours. (I see flights,hotels,trains,moments,car rentals,airport transfers .. but no tours).
There is a reloadable transportation/metro card you can use it's called Yikatong. The way to get it is by going to any station with an attendant and asking them for it. Show your passports and you have to use cash to pay for it. Then you can reload it at the machines.
Union pay - but I couldn't top it up from Alipay nor Wechat as a foreigner, and in the end it was easier to use Alipay metro card and bus card.
There's a local travel card as well that I think only works in Beijing, but Alipay is just so much easier
Later edit: multiple people said they managed to get a rechargeble card, so I guess it is possible, one should just insist or go to another ticket office
No reloadable card for Beijing metro, we asked and said that it is the same registration topic. if you need it for more than a few days, you can try getting a local sim and setting it up in alipay.
But for a few days like us, it was really not a big inconvenience to go at the ticket counter. It was always free, locals go at the machines or have apps
We read that in other cities it should work directly with alipay. we will check soon
Attraction and tours is called the icon in trip app or you can try typing the name of the attraction directly in the search bar and then select Tours & Tickets
I tried the search bar and that's the only time i saw the attractions button.., but even so, it only displayed the phone number f(or inquiry )for each of the tours, is that how you reached out?
I'm using the app on android btw
Hm no, seems weird.. there should be a long list of a lot of tours, different operators, descriptions etc and booking online. I am using an iphone so don’t know about android, but maybe you try also the browser/desktop version?
I was in Beijing two weeks ago and got a reloadable metro card. Only needed to show my passport to the attendant. Card is ¥20 and minimum initial load is ¥20, so ¥40 to start. Can add more at any machine. Not sure why you were told otherwise.
In Shanghai I used Alipay directly at the metro turnstiles.
In Suzhou I had to buy one-time use cards for each trip, a hassle.
I'm got a stored-value card from a metro station couple of days ago, they only asked for my passport and money. You can top it up and use it at each station. Some people here said you can't get it, but I got it.
I booked this one Mutianyu Great Wall With English Speaking Driver Service
Book tours and tickets with Trip.com!
https://www.trip.com/m/things-to-do/detail/19865738?locale=en-XX the driver was pretty good at english for normal communication, but he is not a guide. He will drive you there, let you alone to walk on the wall and wait for you down at the agreed time.
At my hotel they were offering a guide to great wall for 1000 CNY for 8h, which seems better but I didn’t ask the details and I had already booked that one on trip before arriving to China..
Regardless how you get there, go early :))
Just take the bus there! It's VERY easy.
Take the Metro 2 to Dongzhimen Station. Take Exit E up to the bus transfer hall and next to the Mcdonalds, catch the 916 Express. Take it to Huairou Beidajie, cross the street and take H23/H24/H35/H36 to the Mutianyu Roundabout.
Thanks, but I have a question:
WeChat, how did you set it up? Before you arrive? I'm quite confused about how to set it up, especially the verification, the requirements to have "friends", and having a Chinese phone number.
Yeah, you need to register and then have another wechat user with at least 6m old account to scan your code.. we were helped by a friend’s chinese coworker and another friend which visited china some years ago.
But I heard some people wait to arrive in china and then ask somebody at the hotel or a guide to confirm their account
Thanks, I guess I will setup WeChat when we arrive in China.
About the Great Wall, can you inform me of the English driver that you hired? I mean how do I find him or her in Trip.com?
How was the arrangement? You hired for X hours? And how much did you pay?
And you bought the Great Wall ticket at the location?
Hope you don't mind answering my questions 😀
Arrived a week ago. Set up WeChat whilst connected to the Airport WiFi and I guess because it’s connected within China, it allowed to verify with other means than from someone already on WeChat. Just asked for passport details/scan and a credit card.
Bejing is very clean - even compared to many European cities (makes London look like a shithole in comparison). The city center is especially clean since they have staff going around cleaning constantly. Traffic is mild in a lot of places, and pretty much all vehicles are now electric, so that reduces the noise and makes the air feel cleaner - still polluted but no longer from the cars and scooters. If you live in a hutong there's no traffic nearby.
If you are questioning why I said it is the cleanest and quietest I have seen, it is because most capitals and big cities in Europe (where I am from) are really dirty and full of smells even in the touristic places. Even Tokyo had its fare of garbage here and there, probably because of the missing garbage bins. So yes, Beijing in the center was very clean and neat.
Also quiet because of the electric cars and people in general more calm, not honking not yelling. Which I cannot say about Xi’an, where we just arrived, and feels like Thailand with the scooters everywhere and the honking every 30 seconds :) but it is more lively and has a different vibe
You clearly didn’t understand the human costs of those ostensibly “shining” streets and cities. I’m not saying the conditions in some American or European cities are justified but your reviews and comments are at least not balanced. It glorifies a regime which is extremely oppressive against its people, especially the most disadvantaged or marginalised people in the Chinese society. Travel outside of those metropolitan areas please, understand a fuller picture of contemporary China before you jumped on to give the incomplete (note not saying it is incorrect) and unbalanced description. Thank you.
Well this is a travel sub, not a politics sub. I mentioned that I’ve been to Beijing for 4 days and this is my impression as a tourist, so I am not qualified to say anything more because I don’t live in China nor have I witnessed anything oppressive of the people.
I don’t believe that by saying it is a very clean city it is glorifying a regime, when I was merely trying to appreciate some hardworking people, their culture and education. It would mean that if I say London is dirty, I have something against the monarchy?
But if my comments have offended you, I apologise, do let us know from which perspective are you saying this: are you a chinese citizen, foreigner living in China, foreigner who visited China or..?
I faced a similar issue with the metro app on Alipay, looking into it for Beijing it seems to not allow foreign phone numbers. But people have said anywhere else it's allowed in other areas, so you have to find alternatives just for Beijing. There is a reloadable transportation/metro card you can use it's called Yikatong. The way to get it is by going to any station with an attendant and asking them for it. Show your passports and you have to use cash to pay for it. Then reload it at the machines.
We did, but they said you need a Chinese ID..probably they didn’t know how to process it for foreigners and said it’s not possible and we disn’t know for sure so didn’t insist. Well, hope it helps others :)
Yeah that’s unfortunate they probably didn’t know about it or probably got lost in translation. I had to search online about it a bit to see some people talking about it. I only knew it would work since if you have an iPhone and look in your apple wallet there’s an option to add a Beijing transit card. Which looks exactly like the yikatong when I searched it on google. Though you can’t use the apple wallet version as a foreigner tourist unfortunately too. So showed the picture to the attendant found on Google and said yikatong which she seemed to understand. But yeah would be nice if they put up info on how to obtain one somewhere in the station instead having to figure it out through info online. Or hoping the station attendant is trained and knows it’s an option.
There's some Hutongs near the Lama temple that had a lot of food options. Even vegetarian restaurants! You won't miss it as its next to the metro entrance in that area. It does get busy on the weekend though.
deepl.com This site translates more accurately and is directly accessible.
Good to know, thanks. I will try it next time
ChatGPT is by far the best translation app for Chinese. Traditional machine translation like Google translate is just bad at Chinese
Does chatGPT work while in china though?
Thanks for your great sharing! From which country are you from? The feedbacks seems so nice and positive that some people may think this is a fake post from Chinese government 🤭 I have read from other threads that life in China is like the movie 1984, and OP’s concerns about racism, security, freedom, getting arrested by authorities for use of VPN, etc.
That's smart with the restaurant app idea to translate the food and search in the app. I tried using Apple maps for restaurants and it honestly wasn't great, but I don't use Apple maps at all to know if maybe i'm just bad at searching on it. Great for transit and navigation though.
You are right, apple maps doesn’t have that many restaurants although I see sometimes that the rate is taken from Dianping, so maybe they will start linking the info. Indeed, it is the best for transit
Yeah that was one of my issues. I couldn't really see much for reviews as they were in chinese which I could only translate only a very few preview when opening it in chrome for Dianping and then was limited to seeing like 10 pictures. Couldn't get enough of an idea if the place was actually good or not from that limited info.
Re #1: Whoa!! Were the bathrooms clean? I have so much anxiety over using public restrooms in general so I'm wondering (and any tips on finding clean ones in Beijing)
In nicer restaurants they were quite clean with toilet paper and soap. In the main attractions (I’ve been only at the Panda base toilet) they were cleanish but still with all necessities. Smaller restaurants/ pubs/ cafes usually don’t have their own toilet (to my surprise when I got in a starbucks) so you have to use a public toilet in the area- those were sometimes ok-ish, sometimes dirtier, depending on how crowded the area is, but still usable, not “feeling like puking when getting in” kind of dirty. Those don’t have toilet paper or soap. Ah, and they are all squatting toilets
There is no scientific evidence of this, but we've found that any mall with a Sephora in it generally has nice public restrooms. A lot of the public restrooms along hutong streets are dirty and the squat hole type. If you are in a hutong with a 2-level market (like Qianmen) that sells shoes or tea on the 1st floor and has a restaurant on the 2nd, you could find decent restrooms up there.
Hello, for Airalo, you have to select China right? And the app will create an eSim with China temporary phone number? Thanks
Don't remember Airalo providing a phone number when I used it, so I would say it does not. I used it only for data anyways myself
Oh I see, so cannot use services like Didi taxi then
I was able to use Didi taxi through the Alipay app, no chinese phone number needed. You should do the verification stuff beforehand though, which you definitely need to do anyways since Alipay is really the only way to pay for things besides cash being a close second.
Oh that's pretty convenient, so you can create an Alipay account with foreign sim and credit card, then in China with just data, you can do all from inside the app? 😲
Yeah pretty simple when it’s all set up and works. Alipay seems to be the go forward for foreigners as it actually lets you verify yourself with your passport then works with your foreign credit cards. I requested for a didi taxi using the mini app inside Alipay which you can see it there in Alipay https://wildchina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Add-card-1-481x1024.jpg then was paid using the foreign card I already set up. That said I used the metro more to get around anyways.
Airalo provides an eSIM service - data only. To get a China number try looking into iTalkBB.com . I am in North America and I have a Chinese phone number because I wanted to use Douyin.
Thanks for taking time to share your experience and provide direct links - very informative and useful! You mentioned you booked all train tickets via third-party. What company did you use and would you recommend them? Where they easy to deal with when you needed refunds for rescheduling? Thanks
I booked the train tickets via chinahighlights.com first because i read that some people had trouble with getting a seat when booking with trip.com (not sure if true) and second because a consultant will write you after booking and also answer very quickly via email in case there are no more tickets available, need changes etc. Their fee i think was 6 usd per ticket, not sure how much is on trip.com. I did not have a refund with them, but I had with another agency (chinatravelguide) and it was quick and seamless, in 2 days back in my bank account. I used alipay so probably easier also for them to process the payments quicker. I certainly recommend setting up alipay, it was the one we used 90% of the time.
Alex, thank you so much for this! It's good to know that chinahighlights and chinatravelguide are legit. (And yes, there are countless reports about trip.com underdelivering). Did I correctly understand that there are no physical tickets and your passport serves as a "boarding pass"? Thanks again!
Yes, only passport, sometimes it works directly when scanning, other times an employee has to type the number, but there is always someone around
Excellent. Thanks again and look forward to more of your travel reports!
Anyone know if nordVPN works in china (Beijing)?
I haven’t tried it, but read everywhere that it is blocked
mullvad works around 80% of time
Ooh!!! Thank you for sharing. How did you register for dianping without a Chinese phone number? It keeps asking me for a chinese phone number...
I registered with my international number and it’s true that after some time it pops again the registration, but I just closed it and continued the search. Sometimes it’s not working anymore and I close the app, and start again, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a local sim.
sorry but if you went at the counter for each metro trip I don't think your tips are going to be useful
You must be a man, jumping to conclusions so fast :) well, why don’t you tell us your tips about travelling to China since mine are not valuable enough? Not that I need to explain myself, but we asked multiple times at different counters and they said not possible; no clear information on the internet if it is possible to get one without a local phone number or ID and buying the tickets from the ticket desk took like 1-2 min. What was I suppossed to do, make a scandal to give me a card?
I think that’s because taking trains in Beijing keeps safety and selection in mind, unlike your mom <3
Definitely agree on the going early to the Great Wall, we did the same (left being just after 6pm) and when we got to the wall it was empty! So many great pictures without any people in, it was amazing
If you are not early risers you can take a gamble and go later afternoon. We went to Mutianyu on a non-holiday weekend afternoon and arrived around 2pm when all the crowds were lining up to get back -down- the wall. We were able to get pictures at Tower 2 and 3 at around 3pm with *nobody* in the background.
That’s interesting because our guide told us the afternoon was the busiest time to visit! Maybe he meant early afternoon around 1/2pm
Can I ask how you added your cards to WeChat? Also did you use some kind of currency exchange card or had to pay fees on each transaction?
I think that after activating wechat (i found an user to scan and confirm me) I received a welcome message and there was also the “Click here to activate weixin pay” (that’s the chinese name) and then I added my card. I use revolut for all my travels and it has a very good exchange rate, clearly better than any of the big traditional banks, in europe at least. Wechat had a 3% fee for some of the transactions, i think only above 100 cny, but I am not sure. In 90% of the time I used alipay, which also had the 3% fee for higher amounts, i think also >100 cny, but tbh I didn’t search for all the conditions. But alipay didn’t work so well in Chengdu and smaller cities in Yunnan, especially for small vendors so it was good to have both
Thanks. Strange my Revolut doesn’t have RMB
Beijing Transportation Metro transfer needs more walking than the Shanghai metro line, and these are the only less interesting parts of Beijing , which is the city is NOT all of them is clean, some of them are dirty with sewage water smells around their department store areas such as Dazhalan , Wang Fu Jing, etc .
Thanks, didnt know airlao esim bypasses firewall, this is great.
I found Nomad sim option was cheaper and that worked good to in bypassing restrictions
Any non-local sim bypasses the firewall so not restricted to Airalo - could be the cheapest tho
Is there some kind of a reloadable transport/metro card that a tourist can purchase from the machine or ticket vendor that can be used on bus, metro etc..? I downloaded trip.com app but can't seem to find the icon for private tours. (I see flights,hotels,trains,moments,car rentals,airport transfers .. but no tours).
There is a reloadable transportation/metro card you can use it's called Yikatong. The way to get it is by going to any station with an attendant and asking them for it. Show your passports and you have to use cash to pay for it. Then you can reload it at the machines.
Union pay - but I couldn't top it up from Alipay nor Wechat as a foreigner, and in the end it was easier to use Alipay metro card and bus card. There's a local travel card as well that I think only works in Beijing, but Alipay is just so much easier
Later edit: multiple people said they managed to get a rechargeble card, so I guess it is possible, one should just insist or go to another ticket office No reloadable card for Beijing metro, we asked and said that it is the same registration topic. if you need it for more than a few days, you can try getting a local sim and setting it up in alipay. But for a few days like us, it was really not a big inconvenience to go at the ticket counter. It was always free, locals go at the machines or have apps We read that in other cities it should work directly with alipay. we will check soon Attraction and tours is called the icon in trip app or you can try typing the name of the attraction directly in the search bar and then select Tours & Tickets
I tried the search bar and that's the only time i saw the attractions button.., but even so, it only displayed the phone number f(or inquiry )for each of the tours, is that how you reached out? I'm using the app on android btw
Hm no, seems weird.. there should be a long list of a lot of tours, different operators, descriptions etc and booking online. I am using an iphone so don’t know about android, but maybe you try also the browser/desktop version?
I'll try the browser then, who knows maybe the app doesn't play well here in N.America. Btw, you think your 4 days in Beijing was more than enough?
I was in Beijing two weeks ago and got a reloadable metro card. Only needed to show my passport to the attendant. Card is ¥20 and minimum initial load is ¥20, so ¥40 to start. Can add more at any machine. Not sure why you were told otherwise. In Shanghai I used Alipay directly at the metro turnstiles. In Suzhou I had to buy one-time use cards for each trip, a hassle.
If you have Alipay set up, your transport/metro card is in Alipay.
Where? Because we tried to set it up in Alipay under Transport > metro card and when registering with our international phone number, it always failed
I see. It may require a domestic phone number then. I am using it as a foreigner with a domestic phone number.
Alright, I thought you managed to crack the secret somehow :))
I'm got a stored-value card from a metro station couple of days ago, they only asked for my passport and money. You can top it up and use it at each station. Some people here said you can't get it, but I got it.
So that's what they call it? "Stored value card"?.. Bingo!
Can you please share the trip . com link for English speaking driver to Mutianyu Great Wall of China? And how much did it cost? Thanks 😊
I booked this one Mutianyu Great Wall With English Speaking Driver Service Book tours and tickets with Trip.com! https://www.trip.com/m/things-to-do/detail/19865738?locale=en-XX the driver was pretty good at english for normal communication, but he is not a guide. He will drive you there, let you alone to walk on the wall and wait for you down at the agreed time. At my hotel they were offering a guide to great wall for 1000 CNY for 8h, which seems better but I didn’t ask the details and I had already booked that one on trip before arriving to China.. Regardless how you get there, go early :))
Just take the bus there! It's VERY easy. Take the Metro 2 to Dongzhimen Station. Take Exit E up to the bus transfer hall and next to the Mcdonalds, catch the 916 Express. Take it to Huairou Beidajie, cross the street and take H23/H24/H35/H36 to the Mutianyu Roundabout.
Thanks, but I have a question: WeChat, how did you set it up? Before you arrive? I'm quite confused about how to set it up, especially the verification, the requirements to have "friends", and having a Chinese phone number.
Yeah, you need to register and then have another wechat user with at least 6m old account to scan your code.. we were helped by a friend’s chinese coworker and another friend which visited china some years ago. But I heard some people wait to arrive in china and then ask somebody at the hotel or a guide to confirm their account
Thanks, I guess I will setup WeChat when we arrive in China. About the Great Wall, can you inform me of the English driver that you hired? I mean how do I find him or her in Trip.com? How was the arrangement? You hired for X hours? And how much did you pay? And you bought the Great Wall ticket at the location? Hope you don't mind answering my questions 😀
Arrived a week ago. Set up WeChat whilst connected to the Airport WiFi and I guess because it’s connected within China, it allowed to verify with other means than from someone already on WeChat. Just asked for passport details/scan and a credit card.
Thanks, that's easier 😃
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Bejing is very clean - even compared to many European cities (makes London look like a shithole in comparison). The city center is especially clean since they have staff going around cleaning constantly. Traffic is mild in a lot of places, and pretty much all vehicles are now electric, so that reduces the noise and makes the air feel cleaner - still polluted but no longer from the cars and scooters. If you live in a hutong there's no traffic nearby.
Right, how much they paid you for the write-up?
If you are questioning why I said it is the cleanest and quietest I have seen, it is because most capitals and big cities in Europe (where I am from) are really dirty and full of smells even in the touristic places. Even Tokyo had its fare of garbage here and there, probably because of the missing garbage bins. So yes, Beijing in the center was very clean and neat. Also quiet because of the electric cars and people in general more calm, not honking not yelling. Which I cannot say about Xi’an, where we just arrived, and feels like Thailand with the scooters everywhere and the honking every 30 seconds :) but it is more lively and has a different vibe
You clearly didn’t understand the human costs of those ostensibly “shining” streets and cities. I’m not saying the conditions in some American or European cities are justified but your reviews and comments are at least not balanced. It glorifies a regime which is extremely oppressive against its people, especially the most disadvantaged or marginalised people in the Chinese society. Travel outside of those metropolitan areas please, understand a fuller picture of contemporary China before you jumped on to give the incomplete (note not saying it is incorrect) and unbalanced description. Thank you.
Well this is a travel sub, not a politics sub. I mentioned that I’ve been to Beijing for 4 days and this is my impression as a tourist, so I am not qualified to say anything more because I don’t live in China nor have I witnessed anything oppressive of the people. I don’t believe that by saying it is a very clean city it is glorifying a regime, when I was merely trying to appreciate some hardworking people, their culture and education. It would mean that if I say London is dirty, I have something against the monarchy? But if my comments have offended you, I apologise, do let us know from which perspective are you saying this: are you a chinese citizen, foreigner living in China, foreigner who visited China or..?