Summary

Travelling through China for 15 days with guide and group, covering more than 4,500 km on the way, leaves us with a broad, but definitely not in-depth view of the country. What we have seen was very impressive (see previous posts). The people were very welcoming and curious, some even asking us to take photos with them or their children (this occasionally also had happened in other Asian countries previously – typically in the more rural areas). The places we saw and visited were perfectly clean, no littering along river shores, tidy trains and train stations and orderly, inviting city centres with plenty of electric cars and scooters. Buying things was also incredibly efficient using the Alipay app, even on local markets. In terms of staying connected to the world we had both experiences, with an eSim bought prior to the trip we were always connected to the rest of the world with one phone, while the other relied on hotel wi-fi which kept access behind the great firewall and hence there was no Google or WhatsApp. Having had a bit of time to reflect on the trip, doing the write-ups, going through the photos and thinking about it all, further confirmed our first conclusion and advise to friends, if you haven’t been, go and visit China (for a lot of countries there is a up to 15 days visa free period). For your first trip a guided group tour might be ideal, but once you were there and got your feed wet, individual travel should also be doable without too much of a hassle (we at least are planning to try it in the foreseeable future). 

Travel days
15

Mode of transport
Public bus, Private bus,
Minivan, Bullet train, River raft,
Metro, Taxi,
Chairlift, Toboggan,
Airplane,
Bicycle,
a lot of escalators and travelators
… and by foot (a lot) … again 

Types of accommodation
Hotels: 15 nights
Airplane: 1 nights

Temperature
Lowest temperature at night:
high teens

Highest temperature by day:
above thirty

Rainy day(s)
1 day

Our China colour palette