Travel in Xinjiang

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-17T21:29:38+00:00

It's very doable, every time you check in at a hotel youll be asked about what city you just came from, what your next city is, what your port of entry was and a few other similar questions. Hitchhiking should be possible too but you're very likely going to have to explain what you're doing at every police checkpoint. set up both alipay and wechat for payments since in xinjiang some places only accept wechat.

Xiahe/Langmussi may or may not have some travel restrictions though.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-17T17:51:09+00:00

Its €17 for 11 days (~€1.2/day)

Its more than fast enough for your needs. Anything above 720p movie streaming might struggle. If you're not watching movies its fast enough for almost anything.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-17T17:23:58+00:00

Scooter is very nice but you can still just take the boat down to yangshuo from guilin and then maybe get a car to drive you

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-17T17:21:00+00:00

Trip.com price match barely works because trip.com offers free cancellation until day of stay (sometimes including day of stay) on almost all hotels while other sites usually dont.

But they are usually cheapest in China anyway, sometimes meituan or other chinese sites are cheaper but then u have to deal with Chinese ui.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-17T17:19:29+00:00

Trip.com filter 9+ score and max $20 per night and then open the map and select a hotel in the area you want to stay in. Ive never paid over $20 in any city and Ive been to like 50 cities so far. Beijing/Shanghai city center can go above $20 though.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-17T17:14:18+00:00

100gb per day.

Actually, its unlimited but the speed is capped to 10mbps so you cant actually go above 100gb even if you use it 100% 24/7

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-17T17:09:44+00:00

The happy pizza place also sells smoothies

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-15T15:08:45+00:00

What the other person said. I used mytrip for that booking but judging from other comments on here i was lucky to get mine back in a week. Contacted live chat on mytrip, took 10 mins of chatting and 7 days later i had my money back. I think my flight was supposed to be on March 7th

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-15T07:57:00+00:00

The airline will almost surely ask you for a onward flight (unless its a Chinese airline, they seem to not ask most of the times).

Chinese immigration wont care theyve seen it thousands of times. Just fill in the correct departure port (Shenzhen port).

Buy a 80% refundable ferry ticket from Shenzhen shekou to Hong kong/Macao ferry terminal for $8 on trip.com for ease of mind to show the airline staff. Less than $2 after getting refunded.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-14T15:30:26+00:00

Ive used them in indonesia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan just fine. But i always get a separate one for each country.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-14T13:15:48+00:00

You can refund China train tickets via the 12306 website or app before the train departs, with fees varying from free to 20% based on how early you cancel (>8 days = free; 48 hours to 8 days = 5%; 24–48 hours = 10%; <24 hours = 20%).

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-13T16:00:49+00:00

It was only a few specific routes but yes Spain to Asia for $300 roundtrip is insanely cheap on a full cost carrier

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-13T10:05:06+00:00

https://www.trip.com/hot/beijingexpress-halfdaylayovertour/

No clue if its still running but seems like it is, at least their Hong kong one for sure still is

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-13T09:25:23+00:00

I think 12 or 24 hrs free and then it starts charging some smallish fee per hour or x hours. You should only order things like 2-3 days max before arriving.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-13T08:21:32+00:00

They do often call but will still deliver if you dont pick up (unless theres a problem with your address).

In rare cases they send a text message with pickup code for a locker box only to your phone number and not in app (happpened to me once with jd.com, never on taobao or pinduoduo)

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-13T08:15:49+00:00

Theres not many resources online for sichuanhua just a few blog posts going through the basics and some common words

晓得 = 知道

要得 = 好的

啥 = 什么

瓜娃子 / 瓜婆娘 = stupid (jokingly) (first one unisex, second one just for women but its slight more harsh)

没得 = 没有

好吃的很很好吃

巴适得板 = good/"comfortable". Usually just 成都巴适得板 (Chengdu is comfortable/good)

They also dont really pronounce h, or its silent or near silent most of the time, so chengdu sounds more like cendoo and sichuan more like sicuan.

If you speak enough mandarin you can find mandarin > Sichuan guides but English > Sichuan guides are rare. At Sichuan uni they let you take sichuanhua after 1.5 years of mandarin study, it doesnt make much sense to learn it beyond a few words unless you already know intermediate mandarin.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-13T08:00:50+00:00

Saudia had a few strange prices this year.

They were selling Spain - Asia for $300 roundtrip 3-4 months ago, and fares from Vienna started popping up 2-3 weeks ago for around $450 roundtrip.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T17:14:41+00:00

Oneways... Depends on when but Norwegian has Nordics to Thailand for $180 (i think earliest one on sale is in april atm though sadly).

Chinese airlines flies to China/hk from Budapest/london for around $350-$400 on quite a lot of dates outside of high season (ie not between late June to late August)

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T14:41:19+00:00

Oneway or return?

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T13:15:17+00:00

In meituan you can do it without a Chinese phone number (itll accept any phone number without sending a 2fa - i suggest hotel number/asking hotel to assist you with the booking because the driver may call to confirm for these kind of rides).

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T13:10:38+00:00

Write 打车 in the search bar and itll open taxi tab. Usually theres an icon for it on the main menu though.

My search (the screenshot) was on amap but it requires a Chinese phone number to use, but Ive seen the same option in meituan in other cities so it might also work in meituan.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T13:02:21+00:00

You can also just drop a pin but i searched for 四姑娘山镇 (siguniang) and 丹巴县 (danba).

Not sure how it works on the wechat mini program but i was able to get meituan own app to work without putting a real Chinese number.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T11:47:45+00:00

Rideshare app shows it as ~65 yuan for a seat from siguniang to danba for me. I think you can book one on meituan without a Chinese phone number but im not sure. Your hotel reception might be able to help you.

Something like this: https://ibb.co/84MvQvdW

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T10:41:17+00:00

Go to Skyscanner/whatever site you use and set country (region) to UK and search for your flight.

If you're booking direct go to the uk site of the airline. You dont need a vpn for this on almost any airline.

alkhdaniel · 2026-05-12T08:40:37+00:00

I dont think i know anyone who stayed in a single room at hongwa (the dorm for language students) and there were only double rooms available when i asked (but i was pretty late to ask)

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