Your countdown to China

Many passports get 30 days visa-free; others can use 240-hour transit with an onward ticket to a third country.

Some budget hotels in China cannot register foreign guests. Booking sites such as Trip.com show which ones can.

Trains open 15 days ahead on 12306. The Mutianyu Great Wall opens 15 days ahead, the Chengdu Panda Base and Chengdu Museum 14 days.

The Forbidden City releases at 20:00, the National Museum at 17:00 and Tiananmen Square at 12:00, all China time (UTC+8). Set alarms in your own time zone.

Link your Visa or Mastercard and finish the passport verification now. It can take a day, and almost everything in China is paid by QR code.

Maps, ride-hailing, trains and translation. Download them at home: some are hard to get from inside China.

A roaming eSIM from home keeps Google, WhatsApp and Instagram working. A local SIM does not.

Check that the passport number on every ticket matches your passport exactly, and screenshot the QR codes.

Taxi drivers rarely read English. Keep your hotel name and address in Chinese characters ready to show.

So the first Alipay payment or ATM withdrawal in China is not blocked as fraud.

Download the Chinese language pack in your translation app so it works without signal.

Domestic flights in China only accept power banks with the Chinese 3C safety mark. Others are confiscated at security.

Around ¥500 in small notes for the rare place that will not take your card through Alipay.

Buy a bottle of water with Alipay at the airport. If it fails, you are still somewhere with ATMs and help desks.

Airport trains are cheap and signed in English. Use the official taxi rank, never drivers who approach you.

The hotel registers you with the police automatically. If you stay with friends, you must register at the local police station within 24 hours.