How we check facts
Where the facts on China First Timer come from, how often they are re-checked, how the AI assistant uses them, and how to report a mistake.
China changes its entry rules, booking systems and payment options often, and an out-of-date answer can cost a traveler a missed train or a refused boarding. This page explains how the facts on this site are found, checked and kept current.
Where facts come from
- Official sources first. Entry rules come from the National Immigration Administration and China’s embassies; booking rules from each sight’s own website or mini program; train rules from Railway 12306; metro and airport rules from the operators. Pages link to the official source where one exists.
- Checked records. Booking rules for the big sights are kept in a separate research base, where each claim is recorded with its source and the date it was verified. A verified claim replaces the site’s own text when the site is built.
- Other sources. Where no official source exists (taxi fares, how long a queue is), we use recent reports from reputable travel sites and say “about” or give a range. When sources disagree, we say so rather than pick one.
How long a fact stays checked
- Every page shows when it was last checked. Sight pages show the date each booking rule was verified.
- A page that hasn’t been checked for 180 days is marked “due for a re-check” until it has been.
- Facts that appear on many pages (how long 12306 takes to verify a passport, the visa-free transit hours) are kept in one place, so they change everywhere at once.
- A weekly check compares pages with each other and with the site’s records, and lists statements that disagree, for a person to resolve.
- City guides that have not been checked against verified records yet stay unpublished drafts.
The AI assistant
Ask AI answers only from the pages of this site (and, for readers of the Day Zero books, the book’s text), and every answer lists the pages it used, with the date each was checked. It is told to say when the site doesn’t cover a question rather than guess. Answers are graded automatically and only reused for the same question when they grade well; questions the site can’t answer well are collected so the missing page can be written, and the most-asked answers are reviewed by a person before they join the FAQ. It can still be wrong: for anything important, check the page it cites or the official source.
The guides themselves were written with the help of online sources and AI tools, and edited and checked as described above. Translations were made with the help of AI tools.
Mistakes and changes
- Every guide, tool and sight page has a box to report something out of date. Reports go straight to the editor.
- Changes to China’s rules, and to this site, are listed on What changed, with an RSS feed.
Money
The site is paid for by the Day Zero books and by partner links (eSIMs, hotels, tours). Partner links are marked: if you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It doesn’t change what we recommend.
Who is behind it
China First Timer is written by Kevin Gu. See About for who he is and why the site exists.