China Advice

[SYD]

Make sure you have a card that is not a Mastercard as these often don’t work in China.

28° MC worked most of the time but when it doesn’t it’s a pain. Goes into a death spiral wanting a OTP code via SMS but by the time you get it and enter it, it’s sent you another code and wants that code…

Anyway, having a back up fee free VISA card resolves that.

If you have an iPhone you can get transit passes for you wallet, I just use the Alipay barcode.

Discussed above and well worth finding them in the AliPay app. Sooo convenient.

 

[JustSlash]

We recently visited Guangzhou for a two-week holiday and, to my surprise, didn’t use a single note or coin. I was worried about only exchanging ¥300 RMB in cash, but it turns out Guangzhou is almost completely cashless. Most places and even small shops accept Alipay or WeChat Pay.

I only had Alipay set up (28 degree and Amex), as my WeChat Pay wouldn’t register for payments (not sure why), but I had no issues paying or using DiDi through Alipay. Everything being cashless also meant you don’t really realize how much you’ve spent until you check the bills

I used Telstra roaming at $10 a day and it worked perfectly, full access to Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Another very handy app we used was Meituan (the yellow app within WeChat). A friend helped translate it to English, and it was incredibly useful for reservations, food delivery, and thousands of services.

Overall, I think OP will be fine, you’re already well prepared.

 

[burneracc]

Surprised other peoples roaming works fine; I remember my intl apps broke when I switched roaming on to make a phone call (Optus). Funnily enough the HK eSIM tip was actually from my Chinese born colleagues at work that visit frequently, but if roaming works then I don’t fault using it!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Surprised other peoples roaming works fine; I remember my intl apps broke when I switched roaming on to make a phone call (Optus). Funnily enough the HK eSIM tip was actually from my Chinese born colleagues at work that visit frequently, but if roaming works then I don’t fault using it!

Apart from the cost of roaming

I used a china (ex-HKG) e-sim, purchased through Klook. Worked out to less than $1 a day. I have amaysim to receive incoming texts (CC verifications and the like) and bought an international add on pack in case in needed to make outbound calls.