About China First Timer
Practical, checked information for a first trip to mainland China, from a local who has watched visitors hit the same walls for years.
China First Timer is for people planning, or already on, their first trip to mainland China. China is easier to visit than ever, with visa-free entry for dozens of countries, but it still works differently from almost everywhere else: phones replace wallets, many familiar apps don’t connect, and the big sights want your passport number a week ahead. Each of those is a wall, and every one has a way around it.
What’s here
- Essential guides: the walls in the order you meet them, from the visa question to ordering dinner.
- City guides: free overviews of Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an and Chengdu.
- Tools: a visa checker, a sight booking finder, a pre-trip checklist and emergency help.
- Ask AI: an assistant that answers your questions from these pages and shows its sources.
- The Day Zero books: the full guide for each city, in fifteen languages.
Who writes it
Kevin Gu was born in 1977 in Anqing, in China’s Anhui province, where he grew up, and has since worked in Chengdu, Fuzhou, Suzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai. He now lives in Jiaxing, in Zhejiang province. He is a shareware developer and a freelance writer.
The site grew out of a local’s knowledge and experience of the country, and was written with the help of online information and AI tools. Facts are checked against official sources where they exist, and every page shows when it was last checked.
Keeping it right
Entry rules, booking systems and payment limits change often. Each page that depends on them says so, and links to the official source. If you find something out of date, please tell us so it can be fixed for the next traveler.