We make China boringly easy
China Travel OS is an independent, English-language toolkit built for Western travellers who have never used a QR code to pay for a coffee. No hype, no dragons, no "mysterious East" framing — just the exact setup order that works.
What we do
We document the four systems that decide whether your first 48 hours in China go smoothly: payments (Alipay and WeChat Pay with a foreign card), connectivity (eSIM, roaming, VPN), navigation (Amap, Apple Maps, Didi, metro) and rail (booking high-speed trains with a passport).
Every workflow here is written as a checklist you can complete at home, and every tool on the site runs in your browser. We do not ask for an account, an email address or a passport number.
How we work
- Test before we publish. A setup step only appears here if we have run it on a real device with a real foreign card.
- Write for the worst case. Assume a dead phone, a declined card and no VPN — then design the plan around it.
- Date every claim. Chinese app interfaces and visa policies change fast; we review the site quarterly and show the review date in the footer.
- Stay independent. Affiliate revenue never changes the order of our recommendations, and we say so on every page that carries a link.
Who is behind it
A small team of travel writers, product designers and engineers who split their time between Europe, North America and mainland China. We are not a travel agency and we do not sell tours or tickets — we sell nothing but clarity.
Editorial policy
We do not accept payment for coverage. If a provider sends us a product, we say so. If a service stops working, we remove it. Corrections are published openly and dated.
Get in touch
Found something out of date, or want to suggest a guide? Visit our contact page.