Visiting China isn't as hard as you might think it is. If you can manage Paris by yourself without speaking French, you can manage Beijing without Mandarin. Tens of thousands of visitors travel in China independently each year, making arrangements as they go and without more than a guidebook and phrase book to help them. You can certainly arrange various levels of assistance, either on arrival or from home, but you can also travel just as freely as you would elsewhere, perhaps using agents to get your tickets and picking up the odd day tour.
But whether you plan to travel at random, with a pre-booked route, or with a fully escorted tour, it's vital that you read this guide carefully in order to understand how the way you travel, even in many other developing nations, doesn't apply here. Much supposed wisdom on China travel is far from wise, and what's good advice in the rest of the world is often the worst advice in China. Without absorbing what's below, some of the rest of this guide may seem inscrutable.
So put down your preconceptions, and read on . . .
Online Traveler's Toolbox
ATM Locators: Visa ATM Locator (www.visa.com) gives locations of PLUS ATMs worldwide; MasterCard ATM Locator (www.mastercard.com) provides locations of Cirrus ATMs worldwide.
Online Chinese Tools (www.mandarintools.com) has dictionaries for Mac and Windows users, Chinese calendars for conversions between the solar and lunar calendars (on which most Chinese festivals are based), and more.
China Pulse (www.chinapulse.com/wifi) provides listings of restaurants, cafes, and hotels in Beijing that have wireless Internet access. Choose "Browse Hotspot Listings" and click on the entries to find out what network is available, and whether there's a charge involved.
The Oriental-List is a noncommercial mailing list dedicated solely to the discussion of travel in China. This spam-free list, moderated to stay on-topic, offers swift answers to just about any China travel question not already dealt with in these pages. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to subscribe-oriental-list@datasinica.com.
Travel Warnings are available at: http://travel.state.gov, www.fco.gov.uk/travel, www.voyage.gc.ca, and www.smartraveller.gov.au.
Universal Currency Converter (www.xe.com/ucc) posts the latest exchange rates of any currency against the YRMB.
Weatherbase (www.weatherbase.com) gives month-by-month averages for temperature and rainfall for individual cities in China.
Xianzai.com (www.xianzai.com) provides free entertainment listings for Beijing and other Chinese cities, as well as special offers from China for hotels and air tickets.
Zhongwen.com (www.zhongwen.com), an online dictionary, looks up English and Chinese and provides explanations of Chinese etymology using a system of family trees.
