A week in China - Where/What?

[Flashback]

Re: Google Maps - is it fine for planning/noting where things are outside of China? It's only once you're in China that it is scrambled?

I'm looking at The Park Hotel (Radisson), which seems a decent price inc. breakfast and good location and will work nicely with my Radisson VIP status, which of course I earned for free with no stays; so may as well make use of it as the non-chain options in this instance don't seem to offer much more of a saving once you factor in breakfast, location etc.

 

[SYD]

Re: Google Maps - is it fine for planning/noting where things are outside of China? It's only once you're in China that it is scrambled?

I had difficulty using it to plan some things from Oz - both Google and Apple, although Apple works better on the ground.

Trying to get public transport info was hit and miss.

If you’re using roaming data (eSIM or Oz telco) in China, Google stuff generally works but forget trying to use any over wifi.

 

[moa999]

fine for planning/noting where things are outside of China? It's only once you're in China that it is scrambled?

Yes and no. It's way out of date for many things including public transit lines.
But can provide an ok overview.

Just don't try switching between map view and satellite view.

 

[Flashback]

Yes and no. It's way out of date for many things including public transit lines.
But can provide an ok overview.

Just don't try switching between map view and satellite view.

Thanks, that'll be sufficient for planning purposes then.

 

[moa999]

But equally I'd try downloading AMaps, switch it to English and try and get used to it.

 

[elanshin]

A bit of an update.

We flew into Chongqing today... and a bit of a mixed bag overall.

First of all, I have a feeling that WeChat Pay and Alipay with a foreign card will not work when paying for some public transportation. I say, a feeling, because more than likely I've missed something or missed doing something.

I tried to use it to pay for the Cityflyer bus (the A series services between HK and HKIA), and the bus driver said using my "pay vendor" QR code will not work. I have to use "transfer" instead, but this is also wrong because transfer is for sending money to another account holder (e.g. via phone number), not necessarily a merchant. On WeChat I found there is a "mini app" called Transportation. Even though I verified my WeChat account via passport and so on, when I tried to use the Transportation mini-app, it would not accept my foreign debit card (only HK or Mainland China bank-based accounts). In the end, I only had HKD 50 on me (most drivers won't have any change), so the driver accepted that and forgave the other HKD 20 that we owed.

A similar kind of thing happened when we arrived in Chongqing and were purchasing tickets for the metro. The machines only accept cash or QR code payment. When I tried to use Alipay or WeChat Pay, they present a barcode to scan, which I used the Scan function on both apps to do so. It then allowed me to confirm the amount to pay, but when I did this, both apps said that it would not accept foreign cards.

In the end, with my broken Mandarin and a bit of Translate in between, we only managed to buy metro tickets by convincing someone to pay for our tickets (only CNY 10 altogether) using their WeChat/Alipay, then we gave them a CNY 100 bill and they WeChat transferred back CNY 90 to me. So now I have a WeChat Balance of CNY 90. Not many people at all seem to be able to help in breaking a large bill (probably no surprise given the ubiquity of Alipay and WeChat Pay).

Tip - if you are withdrawing yuan or exchanging yuan (cash bills), make a small purchase before you leave the airport to break a CNY 100 into some smaller bills (to be honest, probably a good idea with any currency). Ticket machines may not accept CNY 100 bills (the Chongqing Metro ones don't). Also try to ensure that CNY 100 bills are some of the newest, because some places will not accept older CNY 100 bills as they can't confidently accept that they may not be counterfeits (it's not that they believe they are counterfeits, but they can't be assured it isn't). Most reputable forex places outside of China and I would assume ATMs would nearly always dispense current-use, genuine bills.

Translate is a bit funny. While it probably works relatively well, it took three attempts at speech-to-text for a waitress at our hotspot restaurant to tell me that the condiments were available to take over there. The camera function (while not live all the time) was relatively good at translating the menu, however. I was thinking of paying the hotpot meal using Alipay or WeChat, but before I could contemplate and agonise over whether they could scan my barcode rather than I scan theirs with the possible result the same as when we were stuck buying Chongqing metro tickets previously, Dad said just pay in cash. That's when we realised that some places were hesitant to take older CNY 100 bills rather than newer ones.

I'm still being admonished for my lack of adept Mandarin.

First try paying for something on Alipay (or WeChat pay). Anything small like a drink from a vending machine to verify your cards linked correctly.

For transport on Alipay, hit transport, change city to Chongqing. Hit get card and you should now have a digital QR code card that will work.

Note you'll probably have to do it for the different cities.

 

[elanshin]

Re: Google Maps - is it fine for planning/noting where things are outside of China? It's only once you're in China that it is scrambled?

I'm looking at The Park Hotel (Radisson), which seems a decent price inc. breakfast and good location and will work nicely with my Radisson VIP status, which of course I earned for free with no stays; so may as well make use of it as the non-chain options in this instance don't seem to offer much more of a saving once you factor in breakfast, location etc.

Nope its just fully scrambled- it gives a very very rough approximation. Do not rely on it at all. You could be a km away from the actual location. I found the same hotel listed twice in GMaps 800m apart in Shanghai once. I remember someone else here got sent to the middle of nowhere (residential/industrial area) from a Qantas Hotel (Expedia) Map which is likely powered by google and was nowhere near the actual hotel.

You could ask the hotel what the best travel option are and get them to give you the address in Chinese as well (maybe in pingyin too) if you're not confident. Didi (uber) is super cheap so don't rule out taking longer trips. 62km from Guangzhou Airport to my hotel in the city costed me something like $14 AUD on Didi (although the pick-up zone was a bit more confusing). Even on full taxi it was estimated at $30ish iirc.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

I've found with taxis that WeChat Pay often doesn't work because it's considered a P2P payment and they won't let those happen from a foreign card. Thankfully AliPay has had no such problems.

 

[Flashback]

Hopefully you have verified your ID in Alipay, as this enhances the services you can use significantly. It under my account, identity information.

To use the metro you need a virtual card in Alipay, go to transportation, select the city, it will then show the card you can use on the bus/metro, accept the card, and then you will have a QR code that works at the gate/barrier of the metro.

View attachment 454703View attachment 454704

I cannot work out how to get to the Metro/Bus/etc. like you're seeing to pre-load the Shanghai one on. I've tried Transport, Travel, etc. mini-apps. It only seems to give me more trip.com booking portal style focused things.

The AliPay metro cards worked seamlessly for us recently (Beijing and Shanghai). Easy to set up and use. Defaulted to my UBank DC (whereas other spend went to 28° MC).

Never got around to “verifying” our AP accounts. From memory, it’s something like US$5000 transaction limit / US$50k pa before you’re forced to verify?

Didn’t bother we WeChat at all.

It's showing as 15,000 CNY (total) for me as being the point you need to verify.

 

[Flashback]

All good, you need to change the city it auto detects - then it'll work as expected.

 

[markis10]

Yes, unless you are in the correct city some work is needed to prepare!

 

[Flashback]

Is Ctrip still worth using for bookings, setting to Hong Kong as the region to get China prices rather than non-CN prices? If so, just domestic flights (and hotels?) still, or is it no better than just using trip.com?

 

[elanshin]

Also for those travelling to multiple cities, you'll need to activate a card for a different city. Your Shanghai one won't work in Hangzhou or Beijing etc.

 

[Flashback]

Amap is super frustrating to use. Keeps randomly kicking you out to a login screen, but it only accepts phone numbers from Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong.

This whole trip planning process is pretty frustrating actually, it's taking 10x longer than it normally would!

I'm still trying to work out what hotel to stay at in Suzhou. PACE HOTEL Suzhou Guanqian Branch looks like it's a reasonable price to location ratio, centrally enough located to all of the sites mentioned below plus the station coming in, where I'll need to dump my bag before heading out for the day.

It looks like taxis (DiDi I guess) are cheap'ish for getting around anyway and might be easier than the Metro for visiting Tiger Hill pagoda, Panmen Scenic Area, Shantang Street, Pingjiang Road and going for some noodles at Tongdexing.

 

[anat0l]

First try paying for something on Alipay (or WeChat pay). Anything small like a drink from a vending machine to verify your cards linked correctly.

I've used Alipay and WeChat today to pay for a few small items - drinks from convenience stores and a bar. They were all fine scanning my "pay vendor" barcode (paid a couple using my WeChat balance).

I wonder what happens in WeChat if you pay using Balance but the amount is insufficient to completely settle the debt - does the overflow come from your next available method of payment automatically?

For transport on Alipay, hit transport, change city to Chongqing. Hit get card and you should now have a digital QR code card that will work.

Note you'll probably have to do it for the different cities.

...and I've done this with the Chongqing Metro, working perfectly on Alipay. Tried to do the same on WeChat but not quite working it out, particularly as everything is in Chinese (and I haven't sat down to work it all out).

Of course, the only time this backfires is when your phone runs out of charge.

 

[anat0l]

Amap is super frustrating to use. Keeps randomly kicking you out to a login screen, but it only accepts phone numbers from Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong.

Haven't really tried Amap, but I did install it.

Been using Baidu maps. Still semi-frustrating as I copy the Chinese from other app searches into Baidu (or I type out the Pinyin), but at least the information is reliable and I can make out a decent portion of the information. Also decent for transport planning (since Google, amongst other ways being incapacitated, cannot do so).

I realise this does not help anyone at all if one has no idea how to understand Chinese.

 

[SYD]

Of course, the only time this backfires is when your phone runs out of charge.

I’ve got into the habit of manually turning on “Low power” mode when I know I’ll be out all day. Does wonders for extending battery duration away from a charge.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Amap is super frustrating to use. Keeps randomly kicking you out to a login screen, but it only accepts phone numbers from Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong.

This whole trip planning process is pretty frustrating actually, it's taking 10x longer than it normally would!

I'm still trying to work out what hotel to stay at in Suzhou. PACE HOTEL Suzhou Guanqian Branch looks like it's a reasonable price to location ratio, centrally enough located to all of the sites mentioned below plus the station coming in, where I'll need to dump my bag before heading out for the day.

It looks like taxis (DiDi I guess) are cheap'ish for getting around anyway and might be easier than the Metro for visiting Tiger Hill pagoda, Panmen Scenic Area, Shantang Street, Pingjiang Road and going for some noodles at Tongdexing.

By the time there’s two of you, didi can *almost* be classified as better value for money, cutting out the need to find a metro station and muck around.

Didi is so cheap we didn’t take the metro in shanghai unless we fell over the station entrance and the line happened to take us exactly where we needed to go.

 

[Flashback]

By the time there’s two of you, didi can *almost* be classified as better value for money, cutting out the need to find a metro station and muck around.

Didi is so cheap we didn’t take the metro in shanghai unless we fell over the station entrance and the line happened to take us exactly where we needed to go.

Unfortunately me, myself and I will only be splitting the cost between the one of us

 

[SYD]

Unfortunately me, myself and I will only be splitting the cost between the one of us

The metro is $0.65 a trip.