China requires more preparation than most places and delivers more than most places: Beijing, Xi'an, and the thing about the internet
Mika Soren
China requires more preparation than any country I’ve traveled to.
The VPN for internet access. The translation apps. The Chinese social credit and payment systems that take time to navigate as a foreigner. The sheer scale of the country and the density of the cities. The food ordering in places where nobody speaks English and the menus are QR codes that point to Chinese-only interfaces.
None of this is a deterrent. It’s information. Prepared people have a completely different experience from unprepared people in China more than almost anywhere.
I went prepared. It was extraordinary.
The internet situation
This is the first thing to address because it affects everything else.
The Great Firewall of China blocks Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and most Western websites and apps you depend on. This includes Google Maps.
Download before you arrive: An offline VPN (set it up and test it before you land; connecting to a VPN from inside China to get the VPN is circular), maps for your specific regions on maps.me (better than Google Maps for China anyway), translation apps with offline Chinese dictionaries, any music or entertainment you want.
What works without a VPN: WeChat (essential), Baidu Maps (in Chinese but navigable), Didi (the Chinese Uber, works well), Alipay and WeChat Pay for payments. The payment systems take some setup for foreigners (you can now link international cards to WeChat Pay, which opened in 2023).
Beijing: the scale of ambition
Beijing is a city built at imperial scale and then rebuilt again at Communist scale and then again at economic-superpower scale. The layers are visible everywhere: the Forbidden City in the middle, the Maoist boulevards radiating out, the ring roads, the new districts spreading toward the horizon.
The Forbidden City (Palace Museum). 180 acres, 980 buildings, 8,700 rooms, 500 years of Chinese imperial history.
This is not a hyperbole. It is actually enormous and actually contains that many buildings. You can spend two days here. Most people spend three hours and feel they’ve been respectful. Allocate more. The southern courtyards are where everyone goes; the northern section and the flanking buildings are where you go to see the collection and have space.
Book ahead online. The daily visitor limit is 80,000 people and it sells out.
The hutongs. The narrow alleyways of the old Beijing that survived the Mao-era demolitions (many didn’t): grey brick courtyard houses (siheyuan), the neighbourhood temples, the street food vendors. The Nanluoguxiang area and Wudaoying Hutong are the touristy ones; the hutongs around the Drum and Bell Towers are more residential and quieter. Rent a bicycle and ride through them.
The Summer Palace. The imperial retreat northwest of the city: the Long Corridor (728 metres of painted wooden gallery), Kunming Lake, Longevity Hill with the Temple of Buddhist Virtue at the summit. A full afternoon.
The Great Wall at Mutianyu. The tourist-accessible section with the cable car and toboggan run (the toboggan run is exactly what it sounds like and is completely correct). But the reason to go to Mutianyu rather than Badaling (the most visited section, usually overcrowded) is the restored wall running along ridgelines with fewer people. Go on a weekday.
I went in November: snow flurries on the Wall, the watchtowers appearing and disappearing in the mist, the mountains going blue in every direction. No regrets.
Eating in Beijing: Beijing roast duck (Peking duck): order it at Dadong or Quanjude, be led through the carving ceremony, wrap the crispy skin and duck meat in thin pancakes with hoisin sauce and scallion. Jianbing (savoury crepe with egg, crispy wonton, sauce, and coriander, made in under a minute by street vendors, the best breakfast in Beijing). The baozi (steamed buns) from the dumpling shops near the hutongs. The hotpot at a local restaurant in the evening.
Xi’an: the Terracotta Army and the Muslim Quarter
Xi’an is the city where the Silk Road began (the Chinese end), and its history as a capital of imperial China predates Beijing by many centuries.
The Terracotta Army. A 15-minute drive east of the city. The three vaults containing the buried army of the First Emperor of China (Qin Shi Huang, d. 210 BCE): 8,000 warriors, 130 chariots, 600 horses, no two faces the same. Vault 1 is the famous one: the rows of warriors in formation in an enormous aircraft hangar of a structure.
The scale is the thing. Go in the morning. Hire a guide; the context transforms what you see.
The Emperor’s tomb itself is the unexcavated mound nearby, surrounded by a park. The army is just the beginning of the site; the main tomb has never been opened.
The Muslim Quarter (Huimin Jie). Xi’an has had a large Muslim community (the Hui people) for over a thousand years, descended from Silk Road traders. The Muslim Quarter is a narrow streets neighbourhood with the Great Mosque (one of the largest and most beautiful in China, Chinese-Islamic architectural fusion) and the street food stalls that make it one of the best food streets in China.
Rou jia mo (the “Chinese hamburger”: spiced slow-braised pork or lamb in a baked flatbread) is the thing to eat here. Biáng biáng noodles (the character is famously complex, the noodles are flat and wide and served with a spicy sauce): a bowl at a table with plastic stools, with the tourist throng outside.
The City Walls. Xi’an’s Ming dynasty city walls are the most complete ancient city walls in China: 14km circuit, 12 metres wide, accessible by bicycle (rentable at the gates). Cycling the wall at sunset with the old city below and the modern city extending beyond: the scale of the transformation from one era to the next.
Practical things
The VPN, again. Set it up before you arrive. NordVPN and ExpressVPN work in China but performance varies. Have a backup option. Test both before you travel.
WeChat is essential. Even if you don’t use it at home, set up a WeChat account before you go. It’s used for everything: payments, communication, QR code menus, hotel check-in notifications.
The translation app. Google Translate works offline with the camera function for Chinese text if you download the language pack beforehand. This is how you read menus. This is essential.
Long-distance trains. The Chinese high-speed rail network is extraordinary: Beijing to Xi’an (1,200km) takes 4.5 hours. Book through Trip.com (the booking system that works for foreigners). The G-trains (high-speed) are fast and comfortable; the Z-trains (overnight sleepers) are good for longer distances.
Coverage in Chinese cities is excellent, one of the best mobile networks in the world. Rural areas can have less coverage but cities along the railway corridors are well served. The eSIM and mobile situation has specific considerations in China; I’ve put together a detailed guide to connectivity in China with current options and the VPN situation.
China requires preparation.
It rewards it completely.
Go with the VPN ready, WeChat set up, and the offline maps downloaded.
The rest takes care of itself.
More from the region
Heading to China? Sort your eSIM first.
I've compared the main providers, checked the real pricing, and put together a guide on the best eSIM options for China.
Best eSIM for China →