If you're ever thinking about travelling to the wonderful country of China, whether it be for business or personal, there are a few things you should consider. As you know, travelling to another country can be scary and frightening because you don't fully know the land and its rules so you have to tread carefully on every action that you take.
Must-Haves in China
In China, whether you are in a provincial area or in a city area it will all remain the same. You will most likely need the same things as China has a very centralized system for almost all their needs.
Alipay
You will find that navigating China using just cash is a very hard thing to do. Assuming you don't know the language, it's very hard to communicate with the natives. With Alipay, there's a lot of things you can do like call a cab to get you from point A to point B to paying virtually with the means of a QR code. It will be very difficult to live in China without Alipay as it really does make everything easier. It also has a built-in photo translation that you can use if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to know what a signage or poster is saying.
Translation App
As I mentioned above, communication will be a very important part of travelling in another country and in China, not all natives are good at speaking or listening in English. This is where the translation app will come in. It may not be perfect translation but at least you can get a simple message through.
Different Clothes for Different Climates
December in China is very cold, especially in provinces like Yantai where it can reach negative degrees Celcius. So it's very important that when travelling to China you bring clothes for both cold and warm environments. But when you're just staying in a warm area like Shenzhen, where it rarely snows, it's better to just bring clothes for that climate.
Security is Your Friend
You will notice when walking around China is that you will see CCTV cameras everywhere and those are not just for show. If you ever lost something like a phone or a wallet, you can usually go to the nearest security office to check the cameras and more likely than not, they will be able to track down where you left it or who took it.
Conclusion
Whether it's by communicating or just understanding signages in China, communication is a very important part of travelling. With the Alipay app and translation app you will be able to easily communicate and navigate to wherever you need to go. And by identifying the security cameras as an asset to you, you will be able to safely recover any lost items. And with that the last thing you need to consider is the climate of the province that you will be travelling to.