By Daniel Norstedt
Hong Kong procedures are familiar to Westerners: credit cards are widely accepted, and hotel reservations are easily made. Some say that English is widely spoken in Hong Kong, but that is a bit of an exaggeration. Hong Kongers do not expect foreigners to speak Cantonese, and if the first person approached does not speak English, English speakers are easy to find. Mainland conventions such as Alipay and WeChat payment systems do not work in Hong Kong (not entirely true I paid two taxi drivers one by WeChat and the other Alipay – Wayne).
A visit to the Chinese Mainland requires more preparation. I can travel easily there with a basic knowledge of Mandarin, but it would be a challenge if I did not know any of the language.
I used a major USA Internet carrier for data connections in the mainland. Travel articles advise, “Buy a Chinese sim card,” but I did not find that easy.
Cash (the renminbi) is still accepted in mainland but electronic payment, through Alipay or WeChat is much more common. I backed up both systems with USA credit cards. Chase worked the best. Alipay is used for small purchases and WeChat pay will support larger ones.
I found making hotel reservations through large services such as Booking.com not as useful in mainland as in the west. Hotels asked me to pay the first night’s bill to hold the reservation, but Booking.com had no procedure for processing this, and I had not yet connected with either payment system. (You can try ctrip.com for booking local hotels, airlines and high-speed rail given if you have set up WeChat or Alipay payment – Wayne) It is best to establish Alipay and WeChat pay accounts prior to going to mainland, if possible.
There is a ride service called didi which is like Uber of Lyft. A friend arranged the one ride I had via didi. I did not ascend to independence using didi. (If you do have WeChat and Alipay with payment set up, I would suggest that you try using didi app, though you may need some help from a Chinese friend to help with the booking – Wayne)
Train and subway apps in China are very efficient, as are the services. I bought train tickets through Trip.com and this worked very well. If staying in a city for more than a day or two, buying the subway app is a good idea because it saves the inconvenience of paying for one ticket at a time.
For navigating walking or public transportation around mainland cities I used the AMap app which is very accurate. It is much better than what we can use in the USA.
For those with no Mandarin knowledge, a guide is probably the best choice for visiting mainland. I am not skilled in finding guides. (Hotel staff should always be a source of help – Wayne)
