Ed Sander (艾德)’s Post

TRAVEL IN CHINA HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER In the past 30 days, I have visited 8 cities, travelled over 3500 km on high-speed trains, walked an estimated 500 km and stayed in everything from international hotels to Chinese apartments. For my work (field research for China Digital Retail Report and study tour planning for ChinaTechTrip) I normally stick to the same cities: Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai and occasionally Shenzhen, Chongqing and Xi’an. I know these cities well, have local public transport cards and tend to stay in the same accommodation. This time, half of my time was spent exploring a new province. I only had 5 provinces left I haven’t been to and have visited more than 130 cities and towns all over Greater China. Shandong was one province where I had never gotten off the train until now. It was probably also the first time since Covid I travelled by myself in ‘new territory’, meaning I could not rely on prior knowledge and experience. I speak and read Mandarin Chinese enough to get by for practical things, but am nowhere near fluent. To give you an idea: Chinese people normally understand me, but I often don’t understand them because they use unfamiliar words. These past few weeks have taught me a few things about how travel has become much easier than before COVID. Here are a few takeaways: ▶️ I mostly use WeChat, and the mini programs now have a machine translation option, making them much easier to use, even though the translations are far from perfect. Getting a Didi and selecting food after scanning the table QR code have become so much easier because of this. ▶️ When I need to stick to Chinese apps and I don’t know enough characters to figure things out, screen translation on the mobile phone solves the challenge. And in the offline world, Google Lens is a real help. ▶️ When someone calls me, and I can't figure out what they are saying, I tell them to send me a message in the concerned app, so I can screen translate it. We normally figure things out this way. ▶️ When arriving at a chaotic train station without a metro, getting a Didi can be a hassle, so I just stick to getting a taxi at the taxi stand to quickly get to the hotels. But after that, it’s just Didi and local transport, which I prefer over taxis. ▶️ In new cities, I used Alipay to create public transport QR codes. This was a lifesaver because it allowed me to use the metro and bus everywhere I went. ▶️ Ordering food on the Meituan food app and using Meituan Instashopping has become so much easier than trying to figure out where to get certain food or products in the ‘offline world’. Most hotels now have a delivery robot that even brings it up to the room. And when the courier calls, I know what to say to him. ▶️ Same for the apps of Meituan Xiaoxiang, Dingdong Maicai, Hema, etc. When I have a fridge in the apartment, I normally order and stock up for a few days. Travelling around China has never been easier as long as you know the right processes and tools.