China: Una vez llegado al país

Means of Transport Recommended in Town

Recommendation

Moving about in the city is mostly by taxis; there are a lot of them (60,000 in Beijing) and they are quite inexpensive. The size of the cities makes walking around difficult. The cities are very congested, so it is better to plan and leave early for an appointment. Beijing has 5 metro lines while Shanghai has 9 of them. Magnetic charge cards for the metro are very useful since they can be used to pay taxis also. They can be charged at all the metro station ticket counters and at the local grocery stores. Buses are plenty and cheap, but uncomfortable since they are often jam-packed.
Very important: Keep addresses of places where you want to go written in Chinese since the pronunciation does not often correspond to the transcription in Pinyin.

Maps of Urban Networks

Maporama
University of Texas Library on line
Mapblast

Urban Transport Agencies

Beijing Metro
Shanghai Shentong Metro Company

Taxi Companies

Haibo Taxi
Shanghai JinLing Taxi Service Co Ltd

Transportation From Airport to City Centre:

Airport	Distance	Taxi	Bus	Train	Car Rental
Shanghai-Honggiao (SHA)	16 km / 10 miles	CNY 60-100/25-40 min	CNY 3 / 35-40 min	-	Available
Beijing-Capital (PEK)	28 km / 17 miles	CNY 135 / 30-40 min	CNY 16 / 45 min	-	Available

Means of Transport Recommended in the Rest of the Country

Recommendation

Bus: is the primary means of transport between cities.
Train: Generally in good condition although links are usually slow (for example: Canton-Beijing: 36 hours)
Airplane: Domestic companies have a low rate of accidents. The schedules are generally adhered to although the airports have reached their saturation levels.

Visit the China Vista website for further advice on the means of transport in China.

Rail Companies

Ministry of Railways (website in Chinese)

Airlines

You Can Consult the List of Airlines Banned Within the EU. Look Also at the rating of the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Traveling By Yourself

Recommendation

The state of the road network, which is rapidly developing, is overall satisfactory on the major roads although they are poorly marked. Driving in China is risky. It is better to rent a car with a driver or to hire a driver if you buy a car.

Driver's License

It is possible for foreigners living in China to obtain a Chinese driver's license.
If you have a driving license of a foreign country, you have to just take the written part of the driver's test (the equivalent of the rules of the road) to obtain the Chinese driver's license.

Conditions For Renting a Vehicle

Foreigners not holding a Chinese driver's license cannot rent a car. It is however possible to rent a car with a driver. Rental agencies and travel agencies provide this type of service.

Rental Agencies

Alibabuy.com World
Website of the Avis car rental agency in China
Shanghai Car service
Shanghai Longhui leasehold

Find an Itinerary

Google Maps

Traffic Conditions Online

Webcam China

Parking Facilities

The country has limited space to build parking lots. This problem will grow with the increase in the number of cars as the standard of living improves.

Rules of the Road

Minimum Driving Age

18 years

Side of the Road For Driving

Right

Speed Limits

30 km/h (19 mph) in single-lane city roads
100 km/h (62 mph) in express streets of the city
120 km/h (75 mph) on expressways

Safety Belts

Compulsory

Permitted Amount of Alcohol in the Blood

0

Categories of Restaurant

 

• Fast food

Sandwich, Hamburger

• Western restaurants

European, Asian, American cuisine

• Chinese restaurant

Chinese, regional cuisine

Price Indications

Food Specialties

Chinese cuisine is one of the richest and most refined cuisines in the world. There are four regional varieties:
- Beijing and Shandong cuisine gives a lot of importance to steamed noodles and the specialties are Peking duck and Beggar's chicken (wrapped in lotus leaves and cooked over the embers for a whole day);
- Cantonese and Chaozhou cuisine is the most famous Chinese cuisine abroad. It.favors steam cooking, boiled or sautéed preparations and among its specialties are the dim-sum (small, steamed or fried dishes), snake soup, dog, rat or owl stew;
- Eastern Chinese cuisine specializes in spare ribs, seafood and soups;
- The Sichuan cuisine is said to have 4,000 dishes, among which gonbao jiding (chicken fried with peanuts and chilli peppers), mapo doufu (pork with tofu and onions), guoba roupian (puffed rice served with pork in its gravy).
Shanghai cuisine in which the cuisines of North and South China meet, is quite sweet. The most popular dishes are xiaolongbao.

Drinks

Beer (píjiÇ”) is very common in China and is served everywhere. The most popular label is Tsingtao. Chinese beers are light and generally have an alcohol content of 3%-4%. Their price is from 2.5 to 4 CNY in stores, 6 CNY to 20 CNY in restaurants, about 20 CNY in a regular bar and 30 CNY to 60 CNY in the trendiest bars.
Red wine is common and reasonably priced at 15 CNY in stores and about 100-150 CNY in trendy bars. Great Wall, Chang Yu and Dynasty are the major labels with wines at different prices.
BáijiÇ” , The Chinese people often translate baijiu (Lit. "white alcohol") as "white wine", but this sorghum spirit has 40-60% alcohol.

Dietary Restrictions

Culinary restrictions vary from one religion to another.

Table Manners

The guest is always seated facing the door, never with his back to the door. Allow the Chinese to seat you since they will show you where to sit.
It is a usual practice to serve you local specialties and to flood the table with a variety of dishes. In return, they will appreciate it if you taste all the dishes, show interest and above all appreciate the dishes.
It is common to talk about one's travel in China and abroad and also about family before starting to talk business. A meal offers a friendly atmosphere to not only talk business but to build a good relationship.

Quality of Communications

Good

Telephone Codes

To Make a Call From China, Dial 00
To Make a Call to in China, Dial +86

Number of Digits of National Telephone Numbers

10

Mobile Telephone Standards

GSM; CDMA

National Mobile Phone Operators

China Unicom ; China Mobile

Availability of Internet

Internet Suffix

.cn

Access in Public Places

Easily accessible in big cities and small towns.

Access in Hotels

Almost all hotels have internet access.