Two separate visa-free schemes now let citizens of more than fifty countries enter China without applying for anything in advance, the biggest shift in decades for anyone planning an independent trip. The rest of the country has changed just as fast: it runs almost entirely on mobile payments, hides the global internet behind a firewall, and moves people on the largest high-speed rail network ever built. This guide covers the practical machinery a first trip turns on, which visa rule fits your passport, how to pay, how to get online, how to ride the trains, then where to go and when.
Do You Need a Visa? The Two Visa-Free Schemes
China runs two parallel visa-free programmes, and working out which one applies to your passport decides how you plan everything else. They are easy to confuse because both are called visa-free, but the conditions are very different.
| Scheme | Who it covers | Max stay | Main condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-day visa-free entry | Around fifty countries, including most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and the Gulf states | 30 days | Ordinary passport, for tourism, business or family visits. No onward third-country ticket needed. |
| 240-hour transit visa-free | Around fifty-five countries, including the United States and others not on the 30-day list | 10 days | You must be transiting to a third country, enter and leave through approved ports, and stay within eligible provinces. |
The simple version: most Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders, Japanese and South Koreans can now fly in for up to a month with nothing but a passport. Travellers from countries outside that list, the United States among them, fall back on the 240-hour transit rule, which means booking an onward flight to a third country and staying inside the permitted regions. If neither fits, a standard tourist visa still applies, and American passport holders are usually issued a ten-year multiple-entry one.
Both schemes run on a trial basis and the eligible-country lists have grown several times, so confirm your status on the National Immigration Administration site before you book flights, since that is the only source that stays current.
Paying for Things in a Cashless Country
China has gone further toward cashless living than almost anywhere on Earth. Street vendors, taxis, temples and noodle stalls all expect a scan from one of two apps, Alipay or WeChat Pay, and a foreign credit card on its own will be useless in most of these places.
The fix is recent and it works. Since changes rolled out across 2023 and 2024, a visitor can register either app with a foreign phone number and link an international Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB or Diners card. Payment limits were raised at the same time, with single transactions allowed up to roughly 5,000 US dollars and yearly totals up to about 50,000, and small purchases under 200 yuan no longer trigger an identity check. Set both apps up at home, before you face a queue at a station ticket machine.
Cash has not disappeared. The central bank requires merchants to accept yuan notes, which matters in rural areas and with older vendors, so carry a few hundred yuan as backup. Travellers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea can skip the apps entirely and scan with their home e-wallet.
Getting Online: the Great Firewall and Local Apps
The services most travellers depend on are blocked inside China. Google search, Gmail and Google Maps, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube all sit behind the national firewall and will not load on a local connection.
There are two ways around it. Install a paid VPN before you arrive, because the VPN provider sites are themselves blocked once you land, or buy an international eSIM or roaming SIM whose data routes through your home network and reaches the open internet untouched. Many visitors carry both.
For everything else, Chinese apps replace the ones you know, and several run in English. Amap and Baidu Maps handle navigation where Google Maps fails, DiDi calls taxis and ride-hails with an English interface, Trip.com books trains, flights and hotels, and Dianping or Meituan find restaurants. A translation app such as Pleco earns its place fast.
High-Speed Rail and Getting Around
The bullet trains are the best way to cross the country and a highlight in their own right. China has laid more than 47,000 kilometres of high-speed line, far more than the rest of the world combined, with G and D trains running up to 350 kilometres an hour. The 1,318-kilometre run from Beijing to Shanghai takes about four and a half hours, city centre to city centre, and beats flying once airport time is counted.
Book through the official 12306 app, which now has an English version, or through Trip.com, using your passport as the booking document. Arrive at least half an hour early, because every station has airport-style security, and your passport is the ticket itself, scanned at automated gates that read your face against it. Seats run from second class through first to business, and the difference in comfort is real on long runs.
Inside cities the metro systems are clean, cheap and signed in English, paid with a scan from Alipay or a QR ticket. For the far west and the longest hops, such as reaching Tibet or Xinjiang, domestic flights save days. Our city guides to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou cover local transport in detail.
When to Go, and the Weeks to Avoid
China stretches across fifty degrees of latitude, so the right season depends on the region. As a rule, spring from April to May and autumn from September to October bring the mildest, clearest weather across most of the country, the best windows for the Great Wall, the karst south and the cities alike.
Two periods are worth planning around. The National Day holiday in the first week of October and the Lunar New Year, which falls in late January or February, trigger the two largest human migrations on the planet, when hundreds of millions of people travel at once and trains, flights and sights sell out or jam. The Labour Day break in early May is a smaller version of the same. The Lunar New Year shutdown is also the heart of the country’s biggest festival, covered in our guide to Chinese New Year traditions.
- North (Beijing, Xi’an, Datong): continental, with cold dry winters and hot humid summers. Spring and autumn are ideal.
- South and east (Shanghai, Guilin, Hong Kong): humid subtropical, hot wet summers and mild winters, with a summer typhoon risk on the coast.
- West and high country (Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan): cool and high, best from late spring to early autumn.
Where to Go on a First Trip
The classic first route links Beijing, Xi’an and a southern landscape, and almost everyone starts with the headline sights before branching out.
Beijing holds the Forbidden City, the 720,000 square-metre palace that housed twenty-four emperors across the Ming and Qing dynasties for nearly five centuries, and the closest restored stretches of the Great Wall, at Mutianyu and Jinshanling. The wall as a whole runs more than 21,000 kilometres across the north in its Ming-era and earlier forms. Xi’an, a short bullet-train hop away, guards the Terracotta Army, the 8,000 life-sized figures unearthed by farmers digging a well in 1974, along with an intact city wall you can cycle.
For landscape, the karst towers of Guilin and Yangshuo along the Li River are the image most associated with China, best seen from a bamboo raft. Chengdu pairs giant pandas with the fierce heat of Sichuan cooking, Zhangjiajie raises the sandstone pillars that inspired the floating mountains in film, and Hangzhou wraps its tea hills around the calm of West Lake. Shanghai supplies the modern counterpoint, a skyline of glass towers facing the colonial Bund across the river.
Eating Across the Eight Cuisines
Chinese food at home bears little resemblance to the takeaway version abroad, and the country recognises eight great regional cuisines, each with its own logic. Ordering well means knowing roughly where you are on that map.
- Sichuan: bold, oily and numbing with chilli and Sichuan pepper, the home of mapo tofu and hotpot.
- Cantonese: light and fresh, built on seafood, roast meats and the small plates of dim sum.
- Shandong: the northern tradition of braises, seafood and wheat buns.
- Jiangsu and Zhejiang: delicate, slightly sweet river-country cooking around Shanghai and Hangzhou.
- Hunan: drier and hotter than Sichuan, heavy on smoked and cured meat.
The most rewarding eating is rarely in a formal restaurant. Night markets in nearly every city line up stalls of grilled skewers, dumplings and regional snacks, from Beijing’s Peking duck and Xi’an’s hand-pulled biangbiang noodles to the soup dumplings of Shanghai, eaten cheaply alongside locals. A pot of local tea usually arrives with the meal, a custom explored in our look at Chinese tea culture.
Where to Sleep and the Registration Rule
One rule catches first-timers off guard: every foreign visitor must register their address with the local police within 24 hours of arriving. Hotels handle this automatically at check-in and print a small registration slip, so keep it, but the duty falls on you if you stay anywhere else.
If you book a private apartment, an Airbnb or a friend’s home, you are expected to register in person at the neighbourhood police station, the paichusuo, with your passport. A handful of smaller-city hotels still turn foreigners away over licensing, a practice the authorities have pushed back on since 2024 but which has not vanished, so confirm that a hotel takes foreign guests before you rely on it. Carry your passport to every check-in.
Money, Costs and Etiquette
China spans every budget. A careful traveller using trains, hostels and street food can manage on modest daily spending, while four and five-star hotels with private guides push costs toward Western levels. The currency is the yuan, also called renminbi.
Tipping is not customary and can confuse staff, so skip it outside high-end international hotels. Bargaining belongs only in tourist markets, never in shops or for food. Public toilets often mean a squat pan and no paper, so carry tissues, and tap water is not safe to drink, so stick to bottled or boiled water and the hot-water dispensers found on every train and in every hotel. Many major sights now scan your passport or face at the gate, so always have your documents on you.
Suggested First-Trip Itineraries
These routes build on each other, so a longer trip simply adds legs to the classic week.
- One week: Beijing for three days, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen, the Temple of Heaven and the Mutianyu wall, then a fast train to Xi’an for two days for the Terracotta Army and the city wall.
- Two weeks: add Guilin and Yangshuo for the karst rivers, plus Chengdu for pandas and Sichuan food.
- Three weeks: add Hangzhou and West Lake, Zhangjiajie for the pillar peaks, and Shanghai or Hong Kong to end on the modern coast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a visa to visit China?
Often not. Passport holders from around fifty countries, including most of Europe, Australia, Japan and South Korea, can enter visa-free for up to 30 days. Others, such as United States citizens, can use the separate 240-hour transit scheme if travelling onward to a third country, or apply for a tourist visa. Check the National Immigration Administration list before booking.
Can I use Google and WhatsApp in China?
No. Google services, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube are blocked by the national firewall. Install a VPN before you arrive, or use an international eSIM whose data routes through your home network, and rely on local apps such as Amap for maps and DiDi for taxis.
How do tourists pay without cash?
Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before the trip and link an international card such as Visa or Mastercard, which both apps now accept. Almost everything is paid by scanning a code. Carry some yuan in cash as a backup, since merchants are required to accept it and rural vendors may prefer it.
Is China safe for tourists?
Yes. Violent crime against visitors is very rare and cities feel safe at night, with petty theft the main concern in crowds. The bigger challenges are practical ones, the language barrier, the firewall and the payment apps, rather than danger.
When is the best time to visit China?
Spring, from April to May, and autumn, from September to October, give the most comfortable weather in most regions. Avoid the National Day week in early October and the Lunar New Year period in late January or February, when the whole country travels at once.
Do I have to register with the police?
Yes, within 24 hours of arrival. Hotels do it for you at check-in. If you stay in a private home or rental, register yourself at the local police station with your passport.
Sources and Further Reading
- National Immigration Administration of China – the official source for visa-free country lists, transit rules and ports of entry
- China Railway 12306 – the official high-speed rail booking platform and timetables
- China Consular Service Network – visa categories, mutual-exemption agreements and entry requirements
- Ministry of Culture and Tourism – national tourism information and sight management
- The State Council of China – announcements on visa, payment and entry-policy changes
- Chinese Visa Application Service Centre – tourist-visa procedures for travellers outside the visa-free schemes