Academic visit in China (3/3)

Created in February 10, 2025

2025   ·   china   travel   visit   ·   chinalife

You are almost ready…

The day has finally come, and after a long trip and maybe some sleep deficit, you’re disembarking to head to the border and proceed to immigration. Now, only a stamp on your passport separates you from entering China and, soon enough, you will need to navigate your way in the city to start your academic activities. You wonder with apprehension and excitement what is to come, but fear not! I have yet to share a few last pieces of advice that may help you.

In part three of the “Academic visit in China” guide, we will review the process at border control and the few basics to start your trip serenely once arrived. For simplicity of exposition, I assume that you are entering China through one of the country’s major international airports. I imagine the process to be relatively similar when crossing the border by boat, train, or car. If you missed or forgot about the first two parts of the guide, you can check them out in Continue the Guide. You can also print and review your TODO list to guarantee you missed nothing.

Arrival and immigration

If this is your first time in China, you’ll need to get your fingerprints done at one of the counters in the airport on arrival. You cannot miss it, it is generally located just before immigration. If you don’t see any and are not invited by the staff to go to such counters, your fingerprints may be taken when you will face the border agent.

🚫 Don’t do drugs!

As for many Asian countries, carrying drugs or even just testing positive for drug consumption can get you in extremely severe trouble. It includes marijuana. So, if marijuana is legal back in your home country and you are consuming it frequently, you should make sure to have no residuals on your clothes and luggage. You should also stop your consumption early before your trip to have no residual in your blood.

Importantly, you will need to fill an arrival card before entering China, which you will hand to the border agent. The card is generally yellow or blue and distributed on the plane or, if not, also available at the airport on arrival. The card asks for basic information such as name, passport number, visa number, flight number, expected date of departure, etc. Some of the demanded information is worse preparing in advance:

  • You will have to tick the reason of stay amongst various choices. Those include “Visiting/Business”, “Tourism”, “Transit”, “Visiting Relatives”, “Employment”, or “Study”. It may not appear with the exact same formulations when you fill out the card yourself. Tick what is the most relevant to your situation. If, for instance, you are coming for an academic workshop or conference, I would tick “Visiting/Business”. If none of the choices in the list seem adequate, you might tick “Others” if proposed. If you are coming with an F visa or under a visa exemption, it is a terrible idea to tick “Study” or “Employment”! You should hold a study or working visa to be authorized to do these activities in China.
  • You will need to provide your address of stay. If you intend to not stay at the same place, you may only write the address of the first hotel. Beware that it is generally a good idea to have this information prepared in advance and accessible offline. Specifically, you might not be able to easily check your hotel’s address online when it will be time to fill the card; see Internet in China.
  • You may be asked to provide the reception unit or contacts in China, if any. In the case of an academic exchange, it refers to the entity or person who gave you the invitation letter. Write the name of the institute, university, company, or person who invited you and their address. As for the previous bullet point, ensure that you have this information accessible offline.

The border agent might ask you for further documents to validate the information declared on the arrival card. It includes the documents listed in Visa exemption. For this reason, have them printed and keep them easily reachable in your bag or carry-on luggage.

✅ Have a pen in your carry-on luggage

There aren’t many pens available at the airport to complete the arrival card. If you don’t want to wait and reach the queue as quickly as possible, bring a pen in your carry-on and fill out the card in advance while on the plane.

Next, you will need to go through customs. As an academic visitor, unless you bring chemicals, metals, or advanced hardware, you are unlikely to carry goods requiring a declaration. Just get informed about food product bans that can occur due to animal disease outbreaks before departure, and apply common sense to the rest. You can check out the official Customs Clearance Guidelines if you look for more information.

You can find a nice guide about the arrival at the airport on the Ruqin China Travel webpage.

I passed the border, and now what?

First things first, congratulations! After all the paperwork, the long travel, and the queuing at the border, you’re finally in China and the most tedious part is behind you. What is left is to enjoy the trip!

However, before rushing to your peers and starting the research work, there might be a little few things you might want to consider…

Chinese SIM

If you need a Chinese phone number and internet data, the easiest way is certainly to sort yourself at one of the Chinese SIM stores in the airport on arrival. Beware that standard data plans from Chinese SIM you can buy at the airport come with the limitations of the Chinese internet on Western services. Hence, before choosing this option, I highly recommend you to read my section Internet in China.

A Chinese phone number is essential for someone staying long-term in China. You need one to open a bank account, rent, or enjoy certain services and mobile apps. It is, in my opinion, far less critical for someone coming for a short-term visit. If you already have a data plan through one of the solutions developed in Internet in China, the main need for getting a phone number would be to call and send SMS to your colleagues in China. However, if you have WeChat set up and running, you can already do these things; we review how to Set up WeChat in part 2 of this guide. Don’t hesitate to ask the people who invited you for advice. They might actually need you to have a local phone number for specific tasks or activities requiring it.

If you are in China for a short trip, you likely don't need a Chinese phone number. Be sure however to have plenty of data.

If you need a Chinese SIM and there are no SIM card stores at the airport, or you are arriving late (or early) and the stores are not open, you can still visit one of the leading Chinese mobile phone operators in town; for instance, China Mobile, China Unicom, or China Telecom.

Get some cash

As explained in Alipay, most payments are now digital, but the vast majority of businesses still accept cash. For your convenience, you definitely want to use one of these phone-app-based payment methods. I recommended using Alipay which offers the most foreigner-friendly interface. Yet, I would also strongly encourage keeping some cash on you just in case, as a fallback. For instance, there might be instances where your Alipay payment will fail, and you will be glad to carry some cash to avoid an uncomfortable situation.

You can easily get some Chinese currency at the airports, either before taking off or after landing. The fees and exchange rates might not be good, but if you already set up Alipay and linked a bank card to it, you only need a small amount of cash. If you are traveling solo, I recommend constantly keeping 400RMB, which should easily cover most taxi/restaurant/attraction ticket bills for which you unexpectedly cannot use the app.

✅ Withdraw cash from ATM in town

You can withdraw cash from most ATMs with your foreign bank card while in town. Note that some Chinese banks might apply a small fee. Generally, the display language on the ATM can be turned to English. If you fail to withdraw, retry using an ATM from another bank. If it fails again, contact your bank, your card might have been blocked or is unauthorized to do international transactions.

Transportation

If you must go from the airport to your hotel by yourself, you should not worry, it is generally very easy. In most major cities in mainland China (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, etc.), you will have two main advantageous and affordable choices: subway or cab. Of course, if you go to a smaller city, you might not have the subway option.

⚠️ Have a working map app prepared

We explained in Internet in China that Google Maps is blocked. For this reason, I strongly recommend having  Amap installed and set in English to check the possible routes to your hotel. Of course, as long as you have the address of your accommodation, you can still ask the airport or subway staffs for help.

Taxi

To take a taxi, you should go to the airport’s official taxi line. It is often well-indicated and easy to find. It is where the official and licensed taxi drivers are. Once you have spotted the taxi pick up line, just queue in the line with the other travelers and, at your turn, you’ll be affected to a driver. Every major Chinese airport has a taxi line, so don’t follow anyone proposing their service at the arrival hall; it might be a scam. Maybe, by precaution, make sure that the taxi driver uses the meter; any excuse not to use it should be a red flag.

Beware that you cannot pay the taxi driver with a credit card. The best is to use Alipay. The process is simple. After the ride, when it is time to pay, the taxi driver will show you a QR code. Scan it with Alipay, enter the amount, and validate the transaction with your secret code. You can watch the video tutorial Payment and Menu to learn how to pay with Alipay. As a fallback, always have cash if the Alipay transaction fails for some reason. It is better to have at least a few smaller bills if possible since, with the emergence of numerical payment, the driver might not have what it needs to give you the change.

Suppose the airport doesn’t have an official taxi line. In that case, your best option is to use a Chinese taxi-hailing app such as Didi, which is conveniently integrated as a mini-app inside Alipay. So, if you completed the Alipay set up described in part two of this guide, you should already have it. It works mostly like Uber and has the advantage of providing you with an estimate of the fare. You can learn how to use Alipay to hail a taxi in the video tutorial Public transport, bikes, and taxis.

You can also find further guidance about taxis in China on the Ruqin China Travel website.

⚠️ When in doubt, use a taxi-hailing app

Outside of airports and train stations, your chance of successfully hailing a taxi directly while walking the pavement is reduced. Instead, everybody uses taxi-hailing apps such as Didi (integrated into Alipay), which provides you with a safe and efficient service. In case you cannot use the app, I would strongly advise against accepting the service of anybody outside official taxi lines, particularly nearby main tourist areas or smaller train stations. The service offered are often scammy…

Subway

Most major Chinese airports are conveniently connected to the city’s subway network. Finding the station at the airport is easy. For a solo traveler, the subway is usually cheaper than the taxi. To be noted that the taxi itself is very affordable compared with Europe or North America. When traveling in small groups (i.e., three to four persons), the taxi may come out cheaper per head. To pay for the subway service, you mostly have three options:

  • You can use the Alipay app (personal favorite). It is very convenient if you already have Alipay set up for payment by following part two of this guide. In addition, it has the advantage of working with buses and is widely implemented and useable in all major Chinese cities. You can find a good tutorial to set up your Alipay for taking public transport on The Beijinger website and you can learn more about how to use Alipay with public transports by watching the video tutorial Public transport, bikes, and taxi.
  • Contactless card payment. In some cities, it is now possible to swipe your credit card at the barriers to enter the subway. Swipe again when you exit the subway. The method is relatively new, and is not implemented everywhere.
  • Buy a ticket at the counter. You can get a “standard” physical subway ticket by using one of the ticket machines. Unfortunately, I have experienced some of these machines in Beijing to require a Chinese ID and, so, being unusable for foreigners. If this is the case, you can still buy a ticket at a staffed counter. You just need to tell the subway agent your destination station and pay in cash or with a mobile app.

Note that you also have other options: some cities have public transport passes sold at the airport, you could use WeChat (less convenient than Alipay for this purpose in my opinion), or other dedicated subway apps.

If you are confused and don’t know how to use the subway, go to the service center of the airport or ask a subway agent at the station; someone can definitely help you out.

✅ If you need to claim expenses for metro travel

Depending on your research institutes, getting the metro travel refunded may be a pain… If you use Alipay, all you have is the history of your transactions in the form of in-app DIGITAL receipts. You could get a Chinese invoice for those expenses in .pdf files, but for some reason the option is not available in the English version of the app. Forget about any receipt if you use contactless payment; all you have is the card payment that should appear on your bank account’s personal space. Your best bet is to buy your ticket at the staffed ticket counter and explicitly ask for a printed receipt.

Note that the ticket price varies according to the distance. If you use Alipay or a contactless card payment, it is automatically deducted when you exit the subway or bus. If you buy a ticket at a counter, you must specify your destination carefully and pay the ticket upfront. For instance, you can expect to pay 3-4-5RMB for one travel on the standard lines of the Beijing subway. The airport express lines are more expensive.

⚠️ Nothing sharp in the subway and water bottles

Your bags and luggage have to go through a detector each time you take the subway. In particular, knives are not allowed in, so forget about traveling with your Swiss Army knife in the luggage! Note also that water bottles are usually tested separately at the entrance of the subway, so they must be taken out of your  bags.

Hotel

Many hotels in major Chinese cities can be booked through Western services such as Booking.com or Trip.com. You can also use Alipay to book your hotel; you can check out the video tutorial Plane, train, and hotel to learn how to do so. If you use a Chinese service to book your hotel or someone is booking the hotel for you, ensure that the hotel can accept foreigners. Don’t worry. It is not because certain businesses despise foreigners, but rather because they don’t know the procedure to register you.

Every hotel must proceed to your registration when you check in, which is basically about declaring to the local police station that you are staying at their place. You have nothing to do in advance; just hand your passport to the hotel agent during the check-in when requested. Once done, the agent will give you back your passport.

🚫 In case you’re not staying in a hotel

If your accommodation is sorted by your host Chinese university or institution, or if you are staying at a relative or friend’s place, you and your host should reach the nearest police station to register within 24 hours of your arrival. Failing to comply with this rule will expose you and your host to trouble… Depending on the city you are staying in, this can  sometimes be done online. Note that hotels proceed to the registration without you having to do anything.

Acknowledgment

Many thanks to Max Fasi for fact-checking this guide and providing me with corrections!

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