Preparations before traveling to CHN#
The Network situation in CHN is thoroughly different from others. The most knowing one is the existance of Great FireWall.
So, some network preparations have to be done before going to CHN mainland.
Maintain the access to the global internet#
Since the existance of GFW, it is impossible to visit https://www.google.com normally in China without any technique.
There are several methods listed following:
Have a roaming SIM/eSIM card#
This is the only legal way to access global network freely in CHN.
The easiest way is using the roaming service provided by your Mobile ISP in Canada while the roaming may charges a lot about 5$/day I guess.
Another method is have an esim subscription for travellers. You could get some recommends from https://esimdb.com. 3GiB per day would be a propriate traffic amount and $1 to $1.5 per
GB would be a normal price.
Have some proxies#
Though it is not legal to Chinese citizens, foreign visitors are allowed to do that with the acquiescence of the authority.
However, most proxy software have been banned in or unable to establish connection with the overseas server in China Mainland.
Payment methods#
Most offline merchants accept the Debit/Credit card through VISA/MasterCard. But some services only accept e-payment methods such as Alipay or Wechat, like bike renting, taxi booking or ele.me food express.
If your local e-payment provider has cooperated with Alipay HK+ platform, you might be able to enjoy the seamless purchase experience in China.
E-Maps#
The China geology coordinate system is thoroughly different to the Global One. To have a better navigation experience, a Chinese Map software is must.
Though google maps is available to use as long as you are able to visit https://www.google.com, it lacks some important info such as bus, metro even the traffic status.
I recommend to use the Amap in China. You could click the following link to check whether it is available to you.
Taxi Booking#
Just check the DIDI Rider in advance!
Public transport#
If you have registered the Alipay or Wechat, you could use the Transport QrCode provided within the app to take bus or metro even the Maglev.
Otherwise, buying onetime ticket at any metro station is also welcome but not quite convenient since the vendor machine sometimes only accept the coins.
Cash Exchange#
Actually, I do not recommend to exchange more than 200￥ cash.
Some Extra Info about Proxy tools#
Compared with using eSIM in China, purchasing a proxy tool seems to be much cheaper and flexible.
However, the GFW has been upgraded a lot that most VPN protocols are unable to work in China Mainland. We have to use some much more stronger protocol to bypass the firewall.
First, almost all VPN clients based on OpenVPN, Wireguard, IKeV2 protocol are much more unlikely to work in China Mainland.
Those modified VPN Clients based on Shadowsocks and OpenVPN are easily to be banned in most occasions but some times do work. (Such as Astrill VPN and Panda VPN)
I don't recommend to bought any VPN client before landing.
Experience the net behind jail, you would find the freedom is too precious and fragile to lose.
Some Extra info about Roaming Service#
To most foreign traveler, they are unable to obtain a chinese sim card with 100+GiB mobile traffic.
To keep in touch with the global internet, they would turn to MiFi renting service. While in China, MiFi devices are unable to reach the theoreticle speed, usually at about 20 Mbps at crowded space since they're mainly 4G devices.
The cost of MiFi service is also unfair due to the price contains not only the mobile traffic but the device renting. If you 'd like to have a MIFI device with roaming service, the price would be even higher.
Thus, I recommend to bought an eSIM roaming card to keep in touch with the Global network. It's much cheaper, much stable and easier to use since it works just as a sim card.