Why China
Scale is the subject: the Great Wall, the terracotta army, the Forbidden City, the terraced rice fields of Yunnan and the peaks of Zhangjiajie belong to the same country, separated by thousands of kilometres that a train swallows overnight.
The megacities — Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu — show a present that Europe does not have: payment by facial recognition, delivery in ten minutes, metros with twenty lines. It is disorienting in a way that has nothing to do with heritage.
Getting around
The high-speed network is the most extensive in the world and replaces flying on most routes: Beijing–Shanghai in four and a half hours. Tickets are booked online with a passport number, and the passport serves as the boarding document.
In the city, the metro is ubiquitous, signed in English, and the ride-hailing apps work in English. The security checks at the entrance to every station are systematic and quick.
Money
The country runs on QR codes: payments go through two mobile apps, and many businesses no longer have a till to give change. Those apps now accept foreign bank cards, and they have to be installed and linked before departure — it is the most important preparation of the trip.
Keep cash all the same: refusing it is illegal, and it helps out where the card link fails.
Before you go
A large part of the Western internet is inaccessible: search engines, maps, messaging, social networks, email services. Whatever has to work is prepared before arrival — maps downloaded offline, an offline translator, the addresses of your accommodation written down in Chinese characters.
Mobile payment requires a phone number that receives the codes: keeping your home line on roaming rather than switching to a local SIM avoids breaking the authentication.
Addresses are given in characters, not in Latin transcription: showing them on a screen to a driver is the method that works.