Practical guides for travelling, eating and speaking in China — the stuff that's hard to Google well: payments, apps, menus, and the Mandarin that actually gets used. Researched, tested, and dated so you know it's current.
Your credit card won't work at the restaurant. Here's the 10-minute setup to do before you fly — linking your Visa/Mastercard, the real fees and limits, and the fixes when something fails.
Uber doesn't work in China. Didi does — with your home number and a foreign card, no Chinese SIM needed. The setup to do before you fly, the eSIM trap that catches people, and what to do when your card gets declined.
A roaming eSIM, a local SIM and a VPN solve three different problems — and buying the wrong one leaves you offline. What changed after April 2026, why hotel Wi-Fi breaks your eSIM, and the pre-flight checklist.
Register on 12306 and verify your passport weeks early — you can't buy anything until it clears. Booking windows, why foreign cards get declined, seat classes and prices, and the gate cut-off that strands people.
Ele.me doesn't exist any more — it's Taobao Shangou. Meituan takes foreign cards; the other one doesn't. The hotel-address trap, what happens when the driver calls, and the eight phrases you actually need.
"Leave food to be polite" is obsolete — there's a law. Slurping is a Japanese rule. Tipping isn't offensive, just absent. What actually holds at a Chinese table in 2026, plus twelve phrases worth knowing.