Entry requirements | Organizing your trip | Visiting | Eating | Paying | Speaking

Entry requirements

Passport and visa service

Visit the official site of the Government of China for conditions of entering the country and for obtaining a Visa.

Diplomatic representations

Visit the Government of China website to find out the addresses of Consulates or Embassies of the People's Republic of China abroad.

For more information:

UK Border Agency

All passport information of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Passports and visas information on Direct.gov.uk

To apply for a passport online

Ask the Embassy of China in United Kingdom

Visit the website.

All Foreign Embassies in Britain

We can find the visa and vaccination conditions required for your trip.

Organizing your trip

Means of transport recommended in town

Recommendation

Moving about in the city is mostly by taxis; there are a lot of them (60,000 in Beijing) and they are quite inexpensive. The size of the cities makes walking around difficult. The cities are very congested, so it is better to plan and leave early for an appointment. Beijing has 5 metro lines while Shanghai has 9 of them. Magnetic charge cards for the metro are very useful since they can be used to pay taxis also. They can be charged at all the metro station ticket counters and at the local grocery stores. Buses are plenty and cheap, but uncomfortable since they are often jam-packed.
Very important: Keep addresses of places where you want to go written in Chinese since the pronunciation does not often correspond to the transcription in Pinyin.

Maps of urban networks

Maporama
University of Texas Library on line
Mapblast

Means of transport recommended in the rest of the country

Recommendation

Bus: is the primary means of transport between cities.
Train: Generally in good condition although links are usually slow (for example: Canton-Beijing: 36 hours)
Airplane: Domestic companies have a low rate of accidents. The schedules are generally adhered to although the airports have reached their saturation levels.

 

Visit the China Vista website for further advice on the means of transport in China.

Rail companies

Ministry of Railways (website in Chinese)

Plan your journey to China

Domestic Airlines

British Airways
Virgin Atlantic

Low cost solutions

Flybe
Ryanair
EasyJet
British Midland Airways
Thomsonfly
Find more on Whichbudget.com

Cheap flights search engine

Asap.co.uk
Fly.co.uk
Flightcomparison.co.uk
Idealo.co.uk

All air route information

Consult the website Oag.com

Traveling by yourself

Recommendation

The state of the road network, which is rapidly developing, is overall satisfactory on the major roads although they are poorly marked. Driving in China is risky. It is better to rent a car with a driver or to hire a driver if you buy a car.

Road maps

Find an itinerary

Google Maps

We can buy a road map or a city map of your destination for you.

Visiting

Different forms of tourism

Historical

Modern China has not quite obliterated ancient China as yet but ancient China is only surviving with difficulty.

Cultural

Museums, temples, etc.

Nature

In the west, Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, large stretches of land

Religious

Several Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian temples .

Thermal

No spas in the European sense

Beach

The Hainan island, Sanya, the city of Qingdao in the Shandong province.

Winter sports

Not well developed.

Outdoor activities

Few

Shopping

Big department stores and shopping malls are being built all over the country. Western brands are established in the main Chinese cities. Markets such as Xiushui street and the antique market Panjiayuan in Beijing are good places to buy souvenirs.

Tourism organizations

China National Tourist Office (CNTO)
Weather

Eating

Food specialties

Chinese cuisine is one of the richest and most refined cuisines in the world. There are four regional varieties:
- Beijing and Shandong cuisine gives a lot of importance to steamed noodles and the specialties are Peking duck and Beggar's chicken (wrapped in lotus leaves and cooked over the embers for a whole day);
- Cantonese and Chaozhou cuisine is the most famous Chinese cuisine abroad. It.favors steam cooking, boiled or sautéed preparations and among its specialties are the dim-sum (small, steamed or fried dishes), snake soup, dog, rat or owl stew;
- Eastern Chinese cuisine specializes in spare ribs, seafood and soups;
- The Sichuan cuisine is said to have 4,000 dishes, among which gonbao jiding (chicken fried with peanuts and chilli peppers), mapo doufu (pork with tofu and onions), guoba roupian (puffed rice served with pork in its gravy).
Shanghai cuisine in which the cuisines of North and South China meet, is quite sweet. The most popular dishes are xiaolongbao.

Drinks

Beer (píjiÇ”) is very common in China and is served everywhere. The most popular label is Tsingtao. Chinese beers are light and generally have an alcohol content of 3%-4%. Their price is from 2.5 to 4 CNY in stores, 6 CNY to 20 CNY in restaurants, about 20 CNY in a regular bar and 30 CNY to 60 CNY in the trendiest bars.
Red wine is common and reasonably priced at 15 CNY in stores and about 100-150 CNY in trendy bars. Great Wall, Chang Yu and Dynasty are the major labels with wines at different prices.
BáijiÇ” , The Chinese people often translate baijiu (Lit. "white alcohol") as "white wine", but this sorghum spirit has 40-60% alcohol.

Dietary restrictions

Culinary restrictions vary from one religion to another.

Paying

Domestic currency

Chinese Yuan (Renminbi)

ISO Code

CNY

To obtain domestic currency

You cannot buy Yuan/Renmingbi outside China. The best method is to withdraw cash with an international card at the local ATMs.

Possible means of payment

American Express, Diners Club, Eurocard/MasterCard and Visa in the authorized establishments in the main cities. The availability of ATMs is often limited.

Exchange rate on

ATMs

To find out the locations of ATMs in China, just click on the name of your credit card: Visa, Mastercard or American Express.

Use our "Currency Converter" to know the current exchange rate of other currencies.

Speaking

Official language

In China, the national language is Mandarin. However, it is to be noted that there are many different dialects and variants of it.

Other languages spoken

There are more than a hundred dialects. You can differentiate Mandarin in the north and Cantonese in the south of the country. The official language coexists with the other languages of the autonomous regions (Mongolian, Uyghur, Korean, Tibetan...).

Business language

When the foreigners do not speak Chinese, business discussions are generally held in English. The Chinese do not speak English as well as they read or write it.

Getting some knowledge

Free translation tools

China Information - Chinese-French Dictionary
Babel Fish Translation - Text Translation

We can do the translation of your commercial documents for you.

We can do the translation of the statutory and administrative documents for you after having identified them.

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Last updates: September 2010