City Guides

First 72-hour city guides for China, focused on arrival basics, transport, payments, neighborhoods, and practical local setup.

These city guides are for the first 72 hours, not for perfect sightseeing. The job is not to list attractions. The job is to make arrival boring: airport or station, mobile data, payment, hotel address, first ride, first night, first local route, and the city-specific mistakes that can ruin a tired first day.

City page rule: every city guide should answer what to prepare before arrival, what to do in the first two hours, what to check on the first night, what to make reliable on the first full day, and what local failure points foreigners usually miss.

Published Guides

What every city page covers

  • Before arrival: airport or station name, phone data, hotel Chinese address, payment test plan, and route screenshots.
  • First two hours: what to do before leaving the terminal, station, or border area; which transport option is simplest when tired.
  • First night: hotel check-in, payment test, saved map pin, pickup point, and front desk backup.
  • First full day: metro, DiDi (滴滴, Didi), cash/card backup, train station checks, and local app adjustments.
  • City-specific failure points: the local names, codes, stations, airports, ports, and route confusions that matter more than restaurant lists.

Why this is not a normal city guide

A normal travel guide tells you where to eat and what to see. This guide tells you what to do when your flight lands, your payment has not been tested, your driver cannot find you, the hotel name has three similar branches, or you are not sure which station your train leaves from.

Planned Guides

  • Guangzhou First 72 Hours: airport, Canton Fair/business travel setup, metro, and railway station confusion.
  • Hangzhou First 72 Hours: airport, rail, West Lake area versus business districts, and first-day route planning.
  • Chengdu First 72 Hours: airport, metro, railway stations, food ordering, spice level, and hotel setup.