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Essential Apps and tools

1. Access: Sims & VPNs
   
2. Payments: Alipay & WeChat
3. Navigation: A-map & Baidu
4. Transportation: Didi, Trip, Railway12306, & Alipay 
5. Accommodations: Trip.com

Extras

1. Food Delivery: Meituan takeout
2. Coupons: Meituan
3. Luggage forwarding and delivery: Jindong
4. Ride-sharing: Shunfengche
   

Etiquette and observatons

1. Dining
2. Noise Levels

Transportation

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ride-hailing

DiDi (滴滴）

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There are sooo many ways to hail a car (even on map applications, as mentioned above) but to keep things simple (unless you want to challenge yourself), DiDi is the way to go and often affordable enough as a top choice over public transport. 

The English version has noticeably fewer features than its Chinese counterpart, including the very useful “hitch-hiking” option that can include options which are half the price. More of that in a later section. 

DiDi is available as a “mini-app” both within WeChat and Alipay, but you can download it separately as well. 

How-to

1. Enter the DiDi mini-app via WeChat or Alipay.
   
   
2. You’ll need a phone number. A mainland number is better, but you can also enter an international one. A verification code is required, so make sure to do this while you have access to SMS when registering.
   
   
3. You can now hail a car! It’s very intuitive, but make sure to enter clear addresses for both the starting and ending points rather than relying on the pinned location, especially if there’s a language barrier.
   
   
4. You’ll see a few options with different prices. Just pick the one(s) within your budget. 
   
   
5. You might need the last four digits of your phone number for your driver when you enter the car. Have that handy especially if you haven’t memorized your new Chinese number.

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domestic flights

Trip.com

Trip.com is great for booking domestic travel. Chinese domestic airlines generally have clunky websites (locals usually book via mini apps with much better UX). 

You might not be able to check in and choose your seat online unless you access the mini-apps though; I haven’t found that to be a big deal. Airport counters have usually been pretty efficient. 

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High-speed rail

Railway12306 & Trip.com

Railway 12306 is the go-to train booking (both high-speed and hard seats) app. You’d need enter your passport info to register for an account, so try to get set up before departure or well-ahead of your travel dates. Tickets might run out on popular routes, so also take a browse ahead of time.

Note that when traveling long distances, high-speed rail tickets might sometimes be more expensive than airfare.

You can buy train tickets on Trip.com as well. I personally have not tried it, but it appears to have the basic functionalities within reasonable price ranges. 

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Metro

Alipay (支付宝）

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This is one of my favourite features of Alipay—you can easily take public transport between all cities in China right from within Alipay.

How-to

1. Tap the “transport” tab on the homepage. If you have your location services turned on, it should already show your current city. You can also select locations manually.
   
   
2. Tap “get now” to either obtain a metro or bus pass. If you haven’t entered your passport info when you registered for Alipay, you’ll need to do so now.
   
   
3. You’ll receive a QR code to enter and exit the metro or buses. Accompany this with A-map and you’ll take public transit like a pro. 

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intercity buses

WeChat & Alipay

Inter-city buses are a little more complicated and often require purchases through mini-apps, which requires a bit of local knowledge on which companies to use, pick-up and drop-off points, etc. I’d ask a hotel staff to help with this, or see if any of the above options are possible first. 






 

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