A week in China - Where/What?

[SYD]

What's everyone's advice about the water from Chinese taps?

I think "don't drink" is fairly evident (almost anywhere in the world anyway), except after boiling, but would you brush your teeth in tap water, and should you actively avoid mouthing or swallowing water in the shower?

General advice is don’t drink the tap water. Hotel rooms we stayed at provided bottle water. Lots of bottle water. I used that to rinse etc.

 

[anat0l]

Well, pretty much set up.

I'm going to leave my CPAP power bank at the concierge of a Hong Kong hotel which we will be staying at when we leave China (Holiday Inn Golden Mile). This will allow me to use my power bank and thus my CPAP for my CX long haul flights between Hong Kong and Australia. (Just pray for a spare seat next to me so that I have a bit more space to put the machine on)

Set up Alipay and Wechat Pay.

I have a data eSIM with Holafly for data in China. We'll see how well it stands up, but apparently the reviews are good. My Tangerine eSIM will not work at all in China anyway, unless I add a roaming pack (can't even receive SMS without a roaming pack).

 

[SYD]

I have a data eSIM with Holafly for data in China. We'll see how well it stands up, but apparently the reviews are good.

It’ll work fine.

My Tangerine eSIM will not work at all in China anyway, unless I add a roaming pack (can't even receive SMS without a roaming pack).

Not familiar with Tangerine, but if it connects to a network when you arrive in China, it should be able to receive SMS - hopefully.

Edit: check if there’s a setting in app to activate “roaming” - hopefully that’s enough to receive txt for free.

If it doesn’t, you might find some speed bumps using some websites and apps (including AliPay and WeChat) if that’s your phone number linked to those.

 

[moa999]

Not familiar with Tangerine

Tangerine is a Telstra MVNO so should be able to receive incoming SMS's without issue (and calls on VoWifi or VoLTE/5G) with no roaming paid for (but allowed on phone)
Woolworths + an eSim has worked fine for me before

 

[SYD]

Tangerine is a Telstra MVNO so should be able to receive incoming SMS ls without issue (and calls on VoWifi or VoLTE/5G).
Woolworths + an eSim has worked fine for me before

See my edited comment above.

There’s usually a block on all roaming unless pre-activated on most services!

 

[elanshin]

What's everyone's advice about the water from Chinese taps?

I think "don't drink" is fairly evident (almost anywhere in the world anyway), except after boiling, but would you brush your teeth in tap water, and should you actively avoid mouthing or swallowing water in the shower?

Brushing teeth and general should be fine especially in the major cities. Water treatment has improved significantly but as for trusting it to drink from tap - i don't think anyone is doing that just yet.