China international travel advice

Landscape view of China

China 🇨🇳

China is part of Asia with main city at Beijing. Its Developing country with a population of 1B people. The main currency is Yuan Renminbi. The languages spoken are Chinese. the People's Republic of China is the formal name of China It is adviced to Exercise normal safety precautions Get useful information like travel advice, temperatures, rainfall, socket plugs, languages spoken, SIM cards, ATM, currencies, road rules and emergency numbers.
👍 Developing   🌤️ ~-8.63 °C   🌧 ~10.22 mm  👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 1B people

Visa Details
Travel Freedom
Visa Policy
Embassies
Advice

⚠️ Travel advice

Exercise normal safety precautions

We've reviewed our travel advice for China. We haven't changed our level of advice: Exercise normal safety precautions in China overall.  Higher levels apply in Tibet and Xinjiang.

issued date: October 3, 2019

Weather

🌤️ Temperature

🌧 Rainfall

General

🔌 Sockets

China uses 220V, 50Hz with sockets and plugs Type A, Type C and Type I.

🌐 Languages

The languages that are typically spoken are Chinese

Money

💱 Currencies Used

China uses the Chinese yuan (symbol: ¥), code CNY.Banknotes come in denominations of 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 yuan and 50, 20 and 10 fens. Yuan is subdivided into 100 fens. Coins come in denominations of 1 yuan and 50, 10, 5, 2 and 1 fens.

💳 Cards

Accepted only within large businesses Credit cards are only accepted within China from large businesses & hotels. Visa, MasterCard, Maestro and UnionPay are the most widely accepted. Discover and American Express are less common. Diners Club is pretty rare. JCB and RuPay are unknown.Note that even if you have appropriate card type, international credit cards (issued outside China) have low acceptance within merchants.

🏧 ATMs

Automatic teller machines are common in China. You can usually find them in both large & small cities.You do not need a chip & PIN card to use an ATM — your standard magnetic card will work fine.

💁‍♂️ Tipping

Do not tip Almost no one in China asks for tips. It is not expected nor obligatory to give a tip. Receipts might sometimes include a service charge.

Calling

📡 Internet

Internet speed in China is on average 4.1 Mbps. Majority of the websites (including Google, YouTube and Facebook) are blocked in China meaning you will need to use special software called VPN to access those blocked sites. Read more to get the most popular ones.

📱 Phones

You can buy a SIM card for about ¥54.06, which includes 1 GB of data plan. You can choose from 3 telecoms: China Mobile (????), China Telecom (????) or China Unicom (????). China uses GSM mobile networks GSM 900 and GSM 1800. If you don't want to buy SIM card in China upon arrival, make sure to check the roaming charges with your telecom provider before your departure so there are no surprises when you return home.

📞 Calling

To call China, dial +, then 86 (the country code for China), then the area code (without the initial 0) and the local number. For local calls within China, start with the area code (with the initial 0). In the case above area code is 10 .

Driving

🛣️ Road rules

In China you drive on the right side. Most cars have manual transmission (stick). Unless otherwise posted, the speed limits for cars and motorcycles are as follows: 100-120 km/h (62-74 mph) on motorways, 100-120 km/h (62-74 mph) on expressways, 30-60 km/h (18-37 mph) in all built-up areas and 60-80 km/h (37-49 mph) on undivided highways. Right turn on red lights is allowed unless a sign explicitly forbids it. It is illegal to drive with blood alcohol content higher than 0.02%.

🆘 Emergency

Universal

112

Police

102

Ambulance

103

Fire department

101

Nearby countries
Landscape view of Bhutan}

Bhutan

Landscape view of Hong Kong}

Hong Kong

Landscape view of Macau}

Macau

Landscape view of Mongolia}

Mongolia

Landscape view of Myanmar}

Myanmar

Last updated: January 1, 2020