Getting Around China

China’s high-speed network is the largest in the world, and on routes up to about 1,200 km it beats flying door to door: stations are central or on a metro line, security takes minutes, and there are no weather delays. Trains are lettered by type. G trains run up to 350 km/h, D trains up to 250 km/h (and include overnight sleeper D trains on some routes), C trains are short intercity shuttles, and Z, T and K trains are older, slower, cheaper conventional services, often overnight.

Prices vary with demand since China Railway introduced flexible fares in 2024, so the same seat costs more on Friday evenings and holidays. Key big-city stations: Beijing South (Shanghai and Tianjin), Beijing West (Xi’an and the south), Shanghai Hongqiao (most high-speed trains), Guangzhou South, and Xi’an North. Large cities have several stations far apart, so check which one your ticket names. Classic first-timer routes are Beijing to Xi’an for the Terracotta Army, Shanghai to Hangzhou and Suzhou, and Guilin to Yangshuo for the Li River karsts; our China itineraries chain them together.

You can book on the official Railway 12306 app or website, which has an English version, or through Trip.com, which is easier for foreigners and has English customer service. On 12306 you register with your passport details, the account is verified (sometimes within minutes, sometimes overnight), and you can pay with Alipay, WeChat Pay or an international card. Tickets go on sale up to 15 days ahead and sell out on busy routes around holidays, so book as soon as your dates are firm; Trip.com accepts bookings earlier and buys them for you when sales open, usually for a small service fee.

There is no paper ticket. Your booking is linked to your passport number, and at the station you scan your passport at the automatic gate (many major stations now read foreign passports) or show it to staff at the manual gate. Station staff can also print a reimbursement voucher if you need a receipt.

Allow 30 to 45 minutes at big stations. You go through a passport check at the entrance, airport-style bag security (no lighters over a set limit, no knives), then wait in the hall until your train is called at the gate shown on the departure board. Boarding closes about five minutes before departure and the doors close on time.

Classes: second class is 3+2 seating with good legroom and is what most locals use; first class is 2+2 and about 1.6 times the price; business class is lie-flat, 1+2, and about three times the price. On overnight trains, soft sleeper is a four-berth compartment and hard sleeper an open six-berth bay. Every seat has a power socket on newer trains, and hot water is free on board.

Flying makes sense for long hops: Beijing or Shanghai to Chengdu, Kunming, Guilin, Sanya, Lhasa or Kashgar. The big three airlines are Air China (Beijing), China Eastern (Shanghai) and China Southern (Guangzhou), alongside Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and the budget carrier Spring Airlines. One-way economy fares on trunk routes run from about 500 to 1,500 yuan (US$75 to 225), with deep discounts booked in advance outside holiday periods. Book on the airlines’ own sites or Trip.com with the same name and passport number you will show at the airport.

Two rules catch foreigners. Since June 2025, power banks without the Chinese 3C (CCC) certification mark are banned on domestic flights and are confiscated at security, as are power banks with unreadable labels; buy a 3C-marked one locally if yours is not. And allow at least 90 minutes before a domestic flight: security is thorough and flight delays are more common than on the trains.

Airport links: the Beijing Capital Airport Express to Dongzhimen costs 25 yuan, the Daxing Airport Express about 35 yuan, and Shanghai’s maglev runs 30 km from Pudong to Longyang Road in about 8 minutes for 50 yuan, or take Metro Line 2 for under 10 yuan.

More than 40 Chinese cities have a metro, and Beijing’s and Shanghai’s are among the longest in the world. Signs and announcements are in Chinese and English, lines are numbered and colour-coded, and fares run from 3 yuan up to 10 to 15 yuan by distance. Every station has bag security at the entrance.

How to pay, from easiest:

• Alipay or WeChat transport QR code: open the app, search for the city’s metro code (Alipay’s Transport section covers most cities), activate it once, then scan in and out. It charges the linked foreign card.
• Contactless bank card: Shanghai Metro and an increasing number of Beijing stations accept tap-in with a foreign Visa or Mastercard at marked gates.
• Single-journey tickets: machines have English menus; newer ones take QR payment and older ones only cash.

Rush hours (7:30 to 9:30 and 17:30 to 19:30) are crushing on central lines. Metros generally run from about 5:30 or 6:00 until 22:30 to 23:30, so check the last train if you are out late. City buses cost 1 to 2 yuan and take the same QR codes, but stop names are often only in Chinese.

DiDi is the app to have. It has an English interface, accepts foreign cards and is also available as a mini program inside Alipay, and it auto-translates messages with the driver. Enter your destination in Pinyin or English (or paste the Chinese name for accuracy), check the pickup point carefully at big stations and airports, and the car arrives with its plate shown in the app. Fares are low: a 10 km city ride is usually 25 to 45 yuan (US$4 to 7).

Street taxis use meters, with a flag fall of about 13 to 16 yuan in big cities. Few drivers speak English, so have your hotel’s name and address in Chinese characters ready on your phone. Refuse anyone at an airport or station who approaches you inside the terminal; use the official taxi queue or DiDi.

Self-driving is impractical for most visitors. China does not recognise the International Driving Permit, so you need a temporary Chinese driving permit (issued at some airports and city vehicle-management offices after a short process) or a full Chinese licence. Most visitors who need a car, for example in rural Yunnan or Xinjiang, hire one with a driver through a hotel or agency.

Long-distance coaches still matter for mountain areas and smaller towns: Jiuzhaigou, Huangshan, Zhangjiajie’s national park gates, Tiger Leaping Gorge from Lijiang, and the villages around Dali. Fares are cheap, roughly 20 to 40 yuan per 100 km. Buy tickets at the bus station counter with your passport (online sales usually need a Chinese ID) and check the departure station, as cities often have several.

Boats are mostly sightseeing: the Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo, Yangtze River cruises from Chongqing through the Three Gorges, and ferries to Hainan, Putuoshan and the Zhoushan islands. Ferries between Hong Kong, Macau and the Pearl River Delta are fast and frequent, and the bridge buses from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macau take about 45 minutes.

China runs on QR-code payment, and since 2024 both big apps work properly for foreigners:

• Alipay: download the app, register with your home phone number, link a Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners or Discover card, and verify your passport in the app. Payments under 200 yuan carry no fee; above 200 yuan there is a 3% fee on the foreign-card charge. Per-payment and annual limits are high enough for normal travel (around US$5,000 per payment).
• WeChat Pay: inside WeChat, open Me, Services, Wallet, add a foreign card and verify your identity. The same 200-yuan threshold and 3% fee apply. WeChat sign-up sometimes needs an existing user to verify you, so set it up at home.
• Cash: carry 500 to 1,000 yuan in small notes for rural buses, markets and the odd vendor whose QR code will not take foreign-linked payments. Merchants are legally required to accept cash, but some struggle to give change for a 100-yuan note. Bank of China, ICBC and China Construction Bank ATMs work most reliably with foreign cards.
• Cards: Visa and Mastercard are accepted at big hotels, airports, malls and international chains, and on 12306, but rarely at small restaurants or shops.

Set up both apps before you fly and make one small payment to confirm it works; your bank may block the first charge as suspicious.

Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Gmail are blocked in mainland China. A roaming plan or a travel eSIM routes data through servers outside China, so those apps keep working without a VPN; a local Chinese SIM (sold at airports with your passport) does not. Using a VPN is common among visitors but not guaranteed to work, so download offline maps and translation packs before you arrive.

For directions, use Amap (Gaode), which has an English interface, or Apple Maps, which uses Amap data inside China and is accurate. Google Maps’ Chinese street data is badly out of date. Metro and DiDi apps both handle Pinyin search.

Chinese New Year (17 February 2026 and 6 February 2027) and the October Golden Week (1 to 7 October) are the busiest travel periods on earth: trains sell out within minutes of release, flights triple in price and major sights hit their daily caps. Avoid long-distance travel in the week either side of New Year and during Golden Week, or book the moment tickets open 15 days ahead. The May Day holiday (1 to 5 May) and summer school holidays (July and August) are busy but manageable. Our best time to visit China guide covers the holiday calendar.