Without knowing Chinese, tourists can still travel independently and fully experience China if they have enough information and careful preparation.
Reader Trinh Hang (40 years old, Hanoi) shares her experience of traveling to China without knowing Chinese, after her trip in June.
Without knowing a single Chinese character and never having been to China, we still had more than 10 days of independent travel full of wonderful experiences. It turns out independent travel in China is not as difficult as we thought, if we prepare carefully and are not afraid to ask the locals. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Detailed planning and scheduling
No matter where we go, we always make a detailed plan. For our trip to China, we spent more time and effort than any previous trip to plan the itinerary, because if we arrived in a place where we could not use Google and other support tools in English or Vietnamese, it would be very difficult to manage.
Your itinerary should include the following information: Places you want to go to, address (clearly write the name and address in 4 types of characters: Chinese characters, English name, Vietnamese name, and pinyin). When you use navigation software, buy tickets, or register, you will enter pinyin into the keyboard, then Chinese characters will appear on the screen. You just need to compare the Chinese characters on the screen with the Chinese characters in the itinerary, if they match, that is the correct address you need to go to. When you need to ask for directions, Chinese people will look at the Chinese characters to show you, they will not understand if you give an English address. Thus, without Chinese characters and pinyin, tourists will hardly be able to find or ask for directions, nor will they be able to use apps on their phones (which are only in Chinese). In addition, you should save photos of all locations to your phone.
Opening and closing hours, ticket sales hours, ticket sales methods and ticket prices: many places in China only sell tickets or reservations via apps, some places also sell paper tickets. Many places require reservations at least one day in advance, if visitors do not find out in advance, they may not be able to enter the place they want to visit. Most museums and monuments are closed on Mondays; opening hours vary by season, so check the website in advance.
Distance and method of transportation: research the relative locations of places in advance to arrange a reasonable route so that the time, distance and cost are the lowest. Most tourist destinations have their own websites and have suggestions for public transportation for visitors. You just need to copy those suggestions into your schedule to catch the right train or bus. Street signs, information boards at stations, on all trains, subways and most buses are in English so they are easy to see.
Contact information in case of need: Vietnamese embassy, consulate in China, emergency phone numbers of each city (medical, police, fire department), phone numbers of relatives, places you will go (hotel, landlord, airline, train company).
Install and get familiar with Chinese apps
China has developed a very strong system of applications for communication, travel, and shopping. Without installing these applications, it is very difficult for tourists to travel independently. For example, to find directions, even if you somehow find a way to access Google, the suggested routes and means of transport are not as accurate as the Baidu application. To contact, book, and buy tickets, in many cases you can only use the Wechat software. Therefore, Baidu and Wechat are two basic applications that every tourist should install in their phone when traveling independently to China.
You should buy a Chinese sim card to access the internet, only when you have a phone number can you register an account and log in to Wechat. As soon as you buy the sim, ask the support staff to activate Wechat, because this software requires a user who has been active for more than 6 months to introduce you so you can activate your account.
Once you have installed and used Baidu and Wechat, finding directions, choosing public transportation, communicating, and booking are all simple. Baidu is only available in Chinese, while Wechat is available in many languages, including Vietnamese.
Pre-installed translation software
With the most popular translation software, Google Translate, you can download the simplified Chinese set to your phone, so even if you are in China and cannot access Google or the internet, you can still use your phone to communicate with Chinese people by translating from Vietnamese to Chinese. This is also the most popular way for tourists to communicate with local residents throughout the journey.
Chinese people are very friendly, helpful, patient, and almost everyone has a smartphone. Many are willing to spend 10-15 minutes or more to help. Of the hundreds of people we met in China, not many spoke English, but most were willing to communicate with foreigners and help until they got a result. One trick is that the shorter the question, the more effective the translation software will be, instead of typing a long sentence like "Sir, please tell me the way to the Forbidden City?" you can just type "Please tell me the way to the Forbidden City".
Book and buy tickets in advance
Tourists should book accommodation before coming to China to avoid being passive. Accommodation services in China are quite diverse and have many prices, from hotels, homestays to apartments, commonly from a few hundred thousand to a few million per night. You can book a room on websites such as Trip.com, Booking.com, Agoda.com. Almost all accommodation facilities have phone numbers and Wechat IDs, you should save this information to contact them most conveniently, especially via Wechat. Most hosts are always ready to support all local tourist information, send photos, send locations, send suggestions to you, even though that is not their job.
For inner-city travel, you don’t need to buy train and bus tickets in advance because they are always available. But if you need to travel between different provinces, you should buy train tickets in advance and buy them as early as possible. Many trains and buses can fill up quite quickly.
Bring enough cash and passport
Nowadays, Chinese people hardly use cash, most of them use their phones and pay with apps like Alipay, Wechat. However, it will be difficult for tourists to use the app because they do not have a Chinese bank account linked to the app. Not many places have card swiping machines, so international credit cards may not work.
Prepare enough cash, both bills and coins. A small note is that on the bus there is no assistant driver to collect the fare, only the driver, and usually the driver does not prepare cash to give change. So if you want to take the bus, prepare small change, the most convenient is 1 Yuan because bus fares in China usually range from 1 to 3 Yuan (3,000-10,000 VND). When you get on the bus, you just need to drop the correct amount of money into the fare machine and you can start your journey.
In most tourist attractions in China, you will need to show your passport upon entry. Therefore, always carry your passport and keep it safe. Keep your daily luggage as light as possible, do not bring dangerous items (knives, lighters, chemicals) because all subway stations, trains and most tourist attractions have baggage scanners as well as security checks.
Tourism services in China are rich and professional, the environment is clean and safe, the Chinese people are mostly friendly, enthusiastic and dedicated. Therefore, you can completely start your own trip, just need to prepare a little and be ready for new experiences.
According to vnexpress.net
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