First Trip to China: What I Learned Before Going and Once I Got There

A personal guide to travelling through China with more confidence, better preparation and room for the unexpected.

Before my first trip to mainland China in 2025, I had already studied Mandarin for eight years. I loved Chinese culture, I watched Chinese dramas, and I had spent time working in Hong Kong. On paper, I felt prepared. In reality, I was still a little anxious.

My biggest question was simple: would my Mandarin actually be enough once I was there? The answer was both yes and no. I understood much more than I could say, and there were moments when I needed help from a translation app. Still, knowing some Mandarin made a huge difference, and having the right apps on my phone made the rest much easier.

I started in Shanghai, then travelled through Huangshan, Hangzhou, Zhouzhuang and Suzhou. What reassured me very quickly was how willing people were to make communication work. I tried to make myself understood, they tried too, and once we found a way to understand each other, everything usually went smoothly.

That first trip taught me something I still believe now. Travelling in China does require preparation, but it does not require fear. Once you understand how a few everyday things work, the country becomes much easier to navigate than it may seem from the outside.

1. Prepare your phone before you prepare almost anything else

Before leaving, I had already downloaded Alipay, WeChat, Amap and a translation app. I wanted everything ready before I arrived, especially my payment methods. I linked my cards to Alipay and WeChat in advance and checked that they worked. I also saved places I wanted to visit in Amap so that I would not have to start setting everything up after landing.

This was probably the best preparation I did. In China, your phone quickly becomes one of your most useful travel tools. I used Alipay every day for payments, transport and sometimes food delivery. WeChat was less central for me because Alipay was my main payment app, but I was still glad to have it because some people and businesses prefer WeChat.

Paying by QR code sounded slightly intimidating before I went. In reality, it became intuitive very quickly. In many shops or restaurants, I scanned the QR code, entered the amount I owed and confirmed the payment. That was it. I used an international card linked to the apps. Some additional fees can apply when using an overseas card, so it is worth being aware of that before you travel.

Amap was the other app I used constantly. I relied on it every day to get from one place to another. For me, it was far more useful on the ground than Google Maps. I had already saved some of my plans in the app before travelling, which made moving around much easier.

For translation, I mostly used the tool built into Alipay. I found it especially useful for menus and signs because reading Chinese is more difficult for me than speaking or understanding it. Baidu Translate is also a very useful option to have ready on your phone.

My advice is simple: do not wait until you land in China to discover how these apps work. Download them, add your cards, test what you can and become familiar with the basic functions before the trip. It removes a lot of unnecessary stress.

2. Getting around China was much easier than I expected

Transport was one of the things that surprised me most. I expected trains, metros and buses to be complicated, but once I understood how they worked, getting around was actually very straightforward.

For my first train journey, I bought the ticket through Trip.com and entered my passport number when booking. At the station, the ticket was associated with my passport, so I mainly needed to scan my passport at the gate. The process felt simple, but there is one detail I would never rush: check your passport number carefully when you book. A mistake in an identification number is the kind of small error that can create a lot of stress later.

Chinese train stations can be enormous. I tend to arrive early wherever I travel, so this suited me well. There are security checks at the entrance, including luggage screening, and queues can form. I would much rather have extra time inside the station than arrive late and feel rushed.

One thing I did notice is that large stations are not always full of the kind of food options I expected, so I would not assume that you can always buy exactly what you want once you arrive. If you know you will want a proper meal or something specific for the journey, plan ahead.

Distances inside cities also deserve more attention than you might expect. Suzhou is a perfect example. I loved the city and its gardens, but it is large. Places that seemed reasonably close on a map could still require more time than I expected. It is worth checking transport options instead of assuming that everything can be done on foot.

When I plan a route through several cities, I like creating contrast. One approach is to begin in a major city, travel to the furthest smaller destination you want to visit, then work your way back through other cities and towns. It gives you a mix of large urban centres and quieter places without creating unnecessary backtracking.

3. Mandarin helped me a lot, but translation apps still mattered

After eight years of Mandarin, I thought the language barrier would be manageable. It was, but not always in the way I expected.

Understanding people was easier for me than answering them. I would say I understood around 70 percent of what people told me in many everyday situations, but finding the right words quickly was harder. I still managed to make myself understood, and I never had a situation where I felt completely stuck.

In many of the places I visited, especially outside the most international areas, I could not rely on English. Younger people sometimes knew a few words, but I would not plan a trip assuming that English will always be available. That does not mean communication is impossible. It simply means that a translation app can become one of your best tools.

I used translation most often for reading. Menus, signs and written instructions were more difficult for me than conversations, so having a camera translation function was extremely helpful.

If you do not speak Mandarin at all, I would still learn a few simple phrases before travelling. Hello and thank you are obvious ones, but I would also learn how to ask what someone recommends in a restaurant, whether they have chopsticks, how to pay, and whether you need to scan a particular QR code. Even a few words can make an interaction feel much easier.

The most important thing is not speaking perfectly. It is being willing to try. I found that when I made the effort, people generally made the effort too.

4. Some of my favourite moments happened around food

Food was always going to be a big part of my trip because I already knew and liked many Chinese dishes before going. Even so, some of my favourite memories came from places I would never have found impressive from the outside.

One of the best things I ate during the entire trip was in Shanghai. We found a tiny dumpling shop that was almost impossible to notice from the street. It was very local, and there were no obvious signs telling us that this was going to be one of the meals I remembered most. The dumplings were the best I have ever eaten.

That experience stayed with me because it reminded me that the most memorable meal is not always in the restaurant with the best location or the most polished interior. Sometimes it is the small place you nearly walk past.

QR code menus were also much easier than I expected. Most of the time, I could scan them with Alipay or with my phone camera. If the digital version did not work, many restaurants still had a paper menu available, so it was rarely a major problem.

Of course, not every food moment was serious. At one point we decided we wanted pizza. What arrived was so much smaller than we expected that it became one of those silly little travel moments that you remember because it made everyone laugh.

If you have dietary restrictions, I would prepare a little more carefully. In many of the places where I ate, rice and meat were very common and vegetarian choices were not always obvious. Knowing how to explain what you do and do not eat can make things much easier.

5. See the icons, but leave room for the unexpected

I do not believe you need to avoid famous places to have a meaningful trip. If you have dreamed of seeing something for years, go and see it. The iconic experiences matter too.

For me, one of those moments was visiting the Simatai section of the Great Wall near Gubei Water Town. Seeing the Great Wall in person was already special, but this section felt much rougher and more exposed than the perfectly restored images I had seen before. In some places, the path felt narrow and the edges were not protected in the way I expected. I had to pay attention to where I put my feet, and I definitely felt the height. It was beautiful, but also a little intimidating.

At the other end of the spectrum was Zhouzhuang. I knew it was an ancient water town, sometimes described as the Venice of China, but I did not expect to love it as much as I did. Traditional buildings line the canals, little waterways run through the town, and the whole place felt completely different from the big cities I had visited.

What I loved most was that we could take our time. It was quieter than many of the major attractions on my trip, so we could simply walk, look around and enjoy being there without feeling that we had to rush to the next thing.

That contrast is exactly what I love about travelling in China. The famous places can be extraordinary, but the unexpected stops can become just as important in your memories.

Iconic China. Unexpected China. Your China.

6. Leave room for weather, crowds and changing plans

China taught me very quickly that even a carefully planned itinerary needs flexibility.

Huangshan was one of the places where the crowds surprised me most. I visited with a Chinese guide, which made the logistics easier for me, but once we reached the mountain, there were moments when it felt as if we were almost walking on top of each other because there were so many people. It was still beautiful, but the experience reminded me that timing and crowd levels can completely change how a place feels.

Beijing in July 2025 taught me the same lesson for a different reason. It was the rainy season during my stay, and there were days when it rained for hours. Plans changed several times. My visit to the Summer Palace was cancelled more than once because of the weather, and the Forbidden City was also closed during one of the periods when I had planned to go.

There is no perfect way to control weather or unexpected closures. What you can control is how tightly you build your schedule. If every day is packed from morning to night with activities that cannot move, one change can affect everything that comes after it.

I now prefer to know which experiences are priorities and which ones can be moved. That little bit of flexibility can save a trip from becoming frustrating when the weather, crowds or opening conditions do not cooperate.

7. I enjoy China more when I do less

I rarely plan more than two or three important activities in one day. The rest of the time, I prefer leaving space to walk through a neighbourhood, stop somewhere for coffee, notice a shop I had not planned to enter, or simply take a break.

This was especially important in China because the cities can be huge and the days can be tiring. There were days when I was tired and decided not to force the original plan. Sometimes we only went out in the afternoon. On another day, we went to a spa in Shanghai, which became an experience in itself.

I do not think a good travel day is measured by the number of attractions you manage to fit into it. Some of my favourite travel moments come from having enough time to actually notice where I am.

China is a country where it is very easy to feel that you should see more. There is always another city, another temple, another neighbourhood, another landscape. But trying to see everything can mean experiencing less.

For me, a better first trip is one where you choose the places that matter to you and give yourself time to enjoy them. You do not need to see China. You need to experience the China you chose to visit.

Curiosity matters more than perfection

I already knew a lot about Chinese culture before travelling there, so in many ways the trip felt like seeing something I had loved from a distance finally become real.

There were still things that surprised me. One of the small cultural details I noticed was how often young women and men were having professional photos taken in traditional clothing, especially around historic sites and traditional areas. I had seen this online before, but I did not expect to see it so often in everyday travel settings. It was one of those details that made the culture feel present rather than something only preserved inside a museum.

Your first trip to China will probably include moments when you do not completely understand what is happening. That is part of travelling somewhere that works differently from what you know. Prepare the things that matter, make your phone work for you, leave room in your itinerary, and stay curious.

You do not need to understand everything before travelling to China. You need enough preparation to feel confident, and enough curiosity to enjoy what you did not expect.

Iconic China. Unexpected China. Your China.

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