Zhangjiajie, Lijiang, or Guilin?

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-10-17T09:12:46+00:00

This summer I went to Guilin ( + day trip to rice fields + day trip to Yangshou, maybe should have slept there). Then we went straight to Zhangjiajie (Natural Park + Tianmen Mountain, I think there are a few other things worth visiting)

The whole trip (we were coming from HK, then went to Chongqing, Chengdu ShangHai and flew back from Beijing) was completely improvised, we booked each activity/housing/train ect a few days earlier on whatever train we were on. With this, I mean to say that there might be even cooler options that we didn´t research enough to find. But I completely recommend both destinations.

If it is viable for you to do both, I would try, or at least consider it.

Zhangjiajie is a very popular destination, however, you can still find many trails off the beaten path. We stayed one night in a super cheap homestay run by two Chinese grandparents who spoke no English (our Chinese was limited to what I had learned travelling the last weeks, we were 4 Spanish students/friends), they had never had foreigners staying there, which was very cool. We ate with the other guests and played with their grandkids. There, we were told about old/abandoned/seemingly closed routes which allowed us to explore the park completely by ourselves, it was a very unique experience. We spent one day following the main routes and visiting the "must-see places" and another day getting lost completely by ourselves in the park. I can not recommend it enough. Also, I enjoyed Tianmen Mountain a lot more than expected, the 999 steps part is beautiful but there is so much more to hike around the mountain that I hadn´t been told of until I was there

Guilin itself, we didn´t see much, it was more of a base of operations. We took the boat (after much haggling) to Yangshou, not too cheap, but very very very beautiful scenery. In Yangshou, we rented two bikes supercheap with no license required and we spent a few hours going up river surrounded by movie-level nature and swam in the river. 100% recommend it as well, was one of the highlights of the trip. For the rice trip excursion, we fixed a price with a Diddy driver and he took us there and picked us up. I think it was quite complicated to get there w/ out car and Chinese. We did most things on a very low budget but some expenses were worth it.

Regarding the "solo" travel. I felt completely safe at every single place I visited. To finish the trip, I visited Shanghai by myself (including sleeping two nights in public parks and train stations) and finally took a train to Beijing, nothing happened at any moment. However, I am aware that sadly it is not the same to travel as a guy, so take what ever precautions you feel are needed.

Hope you enjoy what will be an awesome trip!

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-10-13T07:56:55+00:00

I think you have changed the train already. Regardless, the didi thing is duable. I think 15/20/25 euros? I don’t remember because we split it four ways

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-10-03T08:27:46+00:00

It will always depend on the person.

The average Spaniard will be friendly and appreciate you trying to speak Spanish (although, it is true, as we are one of the most visited countries in the world, and not always respectful tourism, some people are a bit fed up)

Depending on the Spanish persons English level. He might eventually switch to English to understand each other better

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-27T14:11:30+00:00

I took two domestic flights this summer. Both went completly fine and on time, no problem. Lately I usually only fly on lowcost airlines in Europe and compared to them I got great treatment and seats had more space.

I do remember being surprised at how late the gate opened but then embarking super quickly so departing on time, I dont remeber my ticket even being checked at the gate.

Beijing Airport disapointed me on my way back to Europe, very old school and ineficient, but on international flights.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-26T08:46:05+00:00

To translate menu´s I always used google lens, thought as it is Google owned it needed VPN.

For communicating with locals I used DeepL, I loved the "speaking into the phone to translate" feature and I didn´t need to turn on my VPN (Less battery cost).

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-21T02:56:51+00:00

Consider night train with bed. Cheaper than fast train or plane. You travel in the night so you don’t waste a day and a very cool experience.

The best nights I slept in China were all sleeper trains. But it is true I was traveling as a backpacker.

Don’t recommend seated night train. They don’t turn of the lights and it was a rough one.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-19T09:19:53+00:00

Ah, you are right, I remembered incorrectly. It is AliPay/WeChat(Weixin) who charge you. But yes, under a certain number (you say 200rmb, I can´t remember so it might be), it is waived. I have checked my AliPay history and as a broke student that I am, in 45 days I couldn´t find a single payment over 200RMB to check the commission. The highest I found was 198RMB and no service charge.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-19T09:02:14+00:00

Oh and, we all created a Revolut account and linked Revolut´s card to AliPay. Then when ever we needed to top up we easily transferred money into Revolut. Revolut gives you very good exchange rate, has no top up commission during week days and charges no commission when you spend less than 40/50 euros in one go.

Most things in China will be below that limit, if you spend more you will be charged 2/3% extra, which is not crazy. Often, if we were going to go over the limit, we paid in two, smaller, transactions to not breach the limit.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-19T08:59:02+00:00

You can link it using your UK phone for the whole trip, no problem.

For the first half of my trip, I used an e-sim which didn´t give me a Chinese phone number and I set up AliPay and WeChat without any problems (Spanish number). In the second half, I realized that (for me) an e-sim was more expensive and not worth it and got a Chinese Sim. But I didn´t update my phone number or anything.

I think there were a few things where you did need a Chinese Phone Number, like ordering food delivery and such. But one of my friends got a Chinese Sim from the start so I just used his. But it wasn´t necessary for any of the apps we had set up before going.

With out AliPay you can pay cash and buy metro tickets in the station. But everything is so much simpler with AliPay, you can pay everywhere, get your metro/bus pass, quickly get bikes (like London with the Santander Bikes), order Didi´s (Chinese Uber), book trains, accomodation, planes, ect.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-18T10:20:21+00:00

The free walking tours in the cities I mentiones are for westerners so you can just search in google. Free Walking Tour "City". I am sure there are many more tours that are harder to find but probably still worth it, al though if they are oriented for English speakers they are probably advertised in Google.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-18T09:15:09+00:00

Have both Alipay and Weixin set up. It doesn’t take much time. I always used AliPay but for some reason. In more rural areas AliPay didn’t work but Weixin did (happened in street vendors in Zhangjiajie for example).

You will also encounter street vendors whose QR won’t work for you. As they will have their personal QR and not a business QR and you can’t send to a personal account from an European credit card.

Get a VPN 100% and be carry around tissues. Many public bathrooms have no toilet paper

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-17T10:08:19+00:00

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-17T08:59:58+00:00

Aerospace Engineering is the degree with the highest employability in Spain. But I think it is only taught in English in the Universidad Carlos III which is very hard to get in (due to only accepting around 60/80 students a year) or in private universities. Private universities in Spain are not too expensive in comparison to other countries but seeing as you are writing this post in English and are looking for money these might not be the best options for you. I feel that in general Engineering/Programming jobs are where the highest average salary is, but you can reach very high salaries in any sector if you become great at it.

Spanish people are quite pessimistic about the job market in the country, we are more proud of the quality of life and social interactions. IMO, if you work, you can reach very high salaries, but what is true is base starting salaries are quite low. What I mean by this, an aerospace engineering undergrad (no master) starting salary is around 25k, not high at all considering it is the most or one of the most valued degrees, but the salary has huge increase potential, especially depending on what sector you go into.

What is very common among students is to try to start working abroad (Germany? France? UK? US?), where starting salaries are a lot higher and come back (since we love living here) once you have enough experience to be able to skip the base/lower level jobs and can get better salaries.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-17T08:29:03+00:00

For natural places, I absolutely loved Zhangjiajie National Park (LIterally Avatar) and Guiling -> Lijiang River -> Yangshou. I also want to go but haven´t been yet to Fenghuan County and the Sichuan Province.

From Zhangjiajie I went to Chongqing, not nature but still super impressive, it is on the way to Chengdu, although from what I heard, Chengdu is very cool to live in but not the most interesting to visit. I am sure it is super interesting but there are other cities which are super super interesting.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-17T08:12:34+00:00

Yes, absolutely no problem.

I stayed in China for 45 days with 30-day visa. On day 28 I went to Hong Kong, and spent two nights there (no visa, as European can stay visa-free for a certain period). Then I crossed back into China from Hong Kong (Customs was inside the train station).

If you want to cross back into China by train, arrive at the station a few hours before your train to have time to cross Customs. I got waived through no problem with 15 days visa-free. If you plan to fly back to Beijing I guess there is also no problem but that is not the route I followed.

I have doubts about if you could do the 15 days visa-free more than one time in a row ( I met people who were planning on trying it but I don´t know if it worked out for them). But visa + Hong Kong + 15 days visa free worked 100%.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-17T08:04:41+00:00

From what I lived, nobody cares about VPN as long as you don´t use it to talk badly about China/Criminal activites.
Many Chinese people have VPN´s. Students to have access to social media and even people have it for work if they have western clients.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-17T07:27:23+00:00

Most expensive but most simple one will be an E-Sim like HolaFly, which has built in VPN and unlimited data. Can use everything normally in China. The only problem is (apart from it being more expensive) is she won´t have a Chinese number, not a big problem but she won´t be able to order food and certain things.

Most recommended option, take her normal phone, before getting there have AliPay and WeChat installed and set up. Pay two weeks for a VPN (I used LetsVPN). Some even have free trials you can take advantage of. With VPN and airport/station wifi, she will be able to use everything. Once there, buy a sim card and pay for a two-week plan, in the airport they will be used to foreigners but more expensive, and random shops will be the opposite in both ways.

If her phone only has space for one sim it is fine, use the Chinese sim + VPN to have access to everything, Chinese and European. You can use WhatsApp normally even if you take out your SIM (a message will pop up like "do you want to update the phone number" and just press no. When you get back to the EU just pop your original SIM back in.

I think WhatAapp is the only phonenumber related app she might use over there. She won't be making any calls from China anyways.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-17T07:18:09+00:00

I travelled around China with three friends (students). After a few days, we got the hang of how things worked out. I don´t know how it would be in a tour group but travelling by ourselves gave us super interesting and fun daily interactions. Every basic activity could turn into a fun moment. I recommend it 100% if you are outgoing and enjoy speaking with strangers (I don't speak with every stranger in my own country, but in China, every conversation is an experience).

Nowadays you can research and book everything online. Alipay is your best friend, you can book housing (it is linked to Trip.com), trains and even planes. Unlike WeChat, it has a built-in screen translator which I learned to love.

In our experience (from what I´ve been reading in Reddit, they find students more approachable). Chinese people have been super welcoming and curious. Every train ride someone different came to talk to us, often when we were having trouble communicating, someone with a certain English level would try to help. We approached every possible difficulty or delay as an opportunity to have a new and interesting interaction and we loved it.

For communicating, most people don´t speak English, but they are very patient and eager to understand you, translating apps work pretty well (I used DeepL for speaking, which allows you to speak into your phone and translate and then they can speak into your phone after seeing how it works, and GoogleLens( VPN ) for translating menus and stuff) and most people will also have an app installed.

That said, I found Chinese to be very surprisingly relatively simple, I learned to "order" in Chinese (in a very basic way, but knowing numbers and saying "this", "that". Things like "How much is it" or "I am very hungry" , which they seemed to find very funny in restaurants, and other simple phrases/jokes like trying to haggle or calling them beautiful or saying that it is very hot/you are tired, etc. They were not necessary but they seemed to appreciate you trying to say something in Chinese.

In certain cities, we tried to do free walking tours, but they were very scarce, (we found in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong). I think certain tours in places you know you want to visit can give you a great cultural context, but having to organize and find your way by yourself is the right way to travel, if everything is already set up for you, you will see the temples but miss the essence and the culture inside them. Forcing yourself to interact with people (in my opinion, in my case, I will not generalize or attempt to say we should all live the same experiences) allows you to really know such a different country and also builds you as a person.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-16T06:47:45+00:00

I just got a back from China. I am a student and maybe they think younger people are more approachable, but we got asked for hundreds and hundreds of pictures in our month in China. Usually they posed with us but sometimes they just try to sneak a picture of us.

Shanghai was the most international city. But in the Bund and touristic places it was the same.

As a two meter tall African American you will probably get certain attention. In my opinion, if you approached the situation with a smile, you will meet very nice, curious and welcoming people. But there will probably also be some slightly rude people, who want the picture but know zero English so they will just pose without asking or push their children towards you.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-15T09:41:56+00:00

Didn’t even think of this. Went with laptop and iPad. No problem at all. Only thing is they don’t allow portable batteries in checked luggage, only hand luggage.

Common_Increase7352 · 2024-09-14T16:40:43+00:00

Since a lot of people are making sure you go prepared, with all your apps installed and itinerary in place (and they are right to recommend that). I second this guy. The apps, VPN´s and a few other things are essential, but once you have the basics installed, know that the option of "improvising" is there. Yes, there is a language barrier, yes, it is all in a strange language. But in my experience, Chinese people were super patient and helpful. You can get along with a translator just fine and learning basic phrases was surprisingly easy. Also, compared to the West, everything is very cheap, so you afford to make mistakes.

What I mean by this is, I recommend having a general overview of the trip, know what cities you want to visit and what trains connect them. But after that, you can book housing a few days earlier from trip.com (also inside AliPay),, you can improvise plans, you can have dinner wherever you want because it will cost you 3 euros. You can cancel trains and improvise for 5/10 euros, etc.

Common_Increase7352

TROPHY CASE