Wanna see a new country without breaking the bank? China has you covered! This post goes over how to travel cheap in China, with lots of tips and insight from my years of living here as an expat.
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For many of us who have the “travel bug”, our biggest obstacle to our jet-setting desires is money. The worst part is: when traveling to a new country, we often overpay, simply because we didn’t know what to expect.
If you’re planning to visit China, this post will give you some helpful insight and expectations about various aspects of your trip.
The goal is to inform you so that you can make plans which will help you to save, without cutting on your experiences. Thankfully, that’s pretty easy to do in China!
Without further ado, let’s jump right in!
How To Travel Cheap In China: Hotel Tips
I would say the biggest way to save money is by staying at budget-friendly hotels.
Thankfully, there is no shortage of these in China! While hostels aren’t as common here, it doesn’t really affect too much, as there are TONS of hotel options under $50 USD per day, some as cheap as $10 per day.
The biggest warning here is that with lower-cost hotels, there’s a higher risk that they can’t accept foreigners. This isn’t a personal thing, it’s just that some hotels in China don’t have the licensing to register foreign guests.
I always book my hotels on trip.com. However, even though this app is for foreign visitors, sometimes the hotels on the app can’t accept foreigners. For this reason, ALWAYS contact the hotel ahead of time to make sure!
I’ve had a few instances where I showed up to my hotel, only to get turned away at the counter due to a no-foreigners policy. Thankfully, I’ve always been refunded in these situations.
Plenty of budget hotels in larger cities do accept foreigners, though! Thanks to them, I’m usually able to keep my visits to new places in China cheap.
Sure, budget hotels aren’t the fanciest, and they usually have some quirks or less-than-great aspects. To me, these are small things when I’m traveling on a budget.
Keeping Food Costs Low While Traveling in China
If you’re on a budget but want to have your mind blown by a vibrant new cuisine…welcome to China.
A big bowl of the best hand-sliced beef noodles you’ll ever have in your life will cost just $3 USD at your friendly neighborhood noodle spot.
There are restaurants practically EVERYWHERE in China. As you get more into the heart of big cities, you’ll find a mixture of high-end dining and hole-in-the-wall local favorites, happily coexisting and equally bustling.
It’s probably one of China’s most amazing features. No matter how rich a city is, locals will still want their favorite cheap foods made by some elderly person with deep wrinkles and an even deeper culinary expertise.
As an expat here, I can testify to the many times I’ve slipped into a sticky restaurant booth under flickering neon signs, ordered a favorite dish, and thought as I get a whiff of the fragrant steams: “is this therapy or what?”
Seriously. Sure, the high-end restaurants make for nice photos and usually a great service experience. But if you want to travel cheap in China, stick with the local favorites. Your belly (and your wallet) will stay quite full.
Transportation: Keeping It Cheap WHile Traveling in China
Assuming you’re visiting China’s more popular cities, like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and so on, public transportation ought to be quite convenient, and super cheap!
China’s subway system is top-notch. Its buses are quite convenient, as well. Grab a SIM card for your phone, and you’ll be able to navigate practically any city’s public transportation using just your phone’s basic map app.
For me in Beijing, getting from one side of the city to the other via subway will cost no more than $1.5 USD (it would take about 2 hours, Beijing is a huge city). Other cities’ subways are similarly priced, from my experience.
Buses are even cheaper, but the downside is that they can get stuck in traffic, unlike subways. Plus, even without traffic, they just take longer.
There are also taxis, which can be hailed on the roadside or called through apps like Didi or Amap. For bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai, an hour cab ride will cost $10-25 USD, depending on traffic and time of day.
In smaller cities, like Chengdu, that same cab ride will cost about $7 USD. For Americans, these rates are fantastic, so you may find it feasible to get around via cab while in China.
However, if you’re downtown, I highly recommend just taking the subway. It’s cheaper, and sometimes even faster depending on traffic. Plus all signs and announcements are translated, so it’s easy to navigate.
Smaller Cities
China is like any other country in this regard: the bigger the city, the more you pay to be there.
When my fiancé and I went to Enshi, a very small town in Hubei Province, we were shocked at how cheap everything was. A five-star hotel cost us just $50 USD per day, including an amazing breakfast!
However, that same amount of money will get us just a basic hotel in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
If you want to make your trip more cost-effective, plan to visit smaller cities, more off the grid, and maybe just spend a few days in a city like Beijing for cultural tourism.
Honestly, my favorite places in China have always been the smaller cities. They are less “westernized”, so you really get to feel ancient China better. In my opinion, the “real” cultural experiences are the smaller cities.
Enshi, Harbin, and Hohhot are just a few smaller cities that I loved visiting. They were so culturally rich, and I spent about half the amount of money that I would have spent to be in Beijing or Shanghai.
This is probably one of the biggest risk/reward tips for how to travel cheap in China. It may take some more planning to visit the smaller cities, but you’ll get a super unique experience. Plus, you’ll save a lot of cash.
Moving between Cities
If you’re planning to visit multiple cities while in China, this section is for you.
Should you fly from one city to another? What about China’s infamous bullet trains?
Here’s the scoop: trains are definitely cheaper than airplanes, and personally, I’d take a bullet train over a flight any day. Even China’s non-bullet trains are quite cozy, in my opinion.
Another plus of trains vs. planes: trains have no liquid limitations, and no baggage limitations (as far as I know). This means that you can not only bring more than airlines allow, but also bring your wine and drink it too!
The downside to trains? Time, and booking.
Yes, they take longer. If you want to settle in with a book and watch the countryside go by, honestly you may not mind the extra time. I usually don’t.
Booking can be complicated for foreigners, however. For Chinese locals, they can use their citizen ID cards to buy tickets on WeChat, Alipay, and pretty much any other app.
For foreigners, up until recent years, we could only purchase tickets AT the train station (a pain). But in recent years, trip.com has started supporting train ticket purchases in China.
As far as I know, they’re the only foreign-friendly app that does this.
This feature was actually the reason why I started buying through trip.com. You can’t imagine how excited I was to book my very first train tickets in China without having to go to the station.
BARGAIN For Souvenirs!!!!!!!!!
We’ve covered food, hotels, transportation, and some other tips. The last (but NOT least): ALWAYS bargain for souvenirs!
Coming from the US, I couldn’t imagine how bargaining in China works. I mean, someone asking me to pay $25 for a t-shirt that’s worth $20? Sure, it happens. I’ll be ready, and I’ll work my way to what I think is fair.
But here, they overcharge on STEROIDS. It’s common for uninformed tourists to pay more than three times the actual price of the item .
Example: you ask how much a t-shirt is. The vendor says ¥250 RMB (about $35 USD). You think: “Hm, $35 for a t-shirt isn’t too bad. But I should bargain.” So you counter-offer ¥200. After some negotiations you win the deal.
You feel pretty great: you got him to come down a whole ¥50 RMB!! But what if I told you that the t-shirt is only worth ¥50? Just about $8 USD? That’ll spoil your victory pretty quickly.
Is this a true story? Yep. (Thankfully not mine!)
Always negotiate. Remember that everything is cheaper in China, so don’t calculate in terms of dollars in your head. Always offer no more than 1/3 of their original asking price, especially if shopping at tourist areas.
If possible, ask a Chinese tourist nearby how much they paid for the item they just bought before you buy your own. This is usually a very safe way to play.
So that about covers the basics of how to travel cheap in China! By following these tips, you’re sure to have a great trip without breaking the bank. Still have questions? Drop them in the comments, I’m happy to help!
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