People's Republic of China

Understand

China was one of the great civilizations of the ancient world, and for many centuries stood out as a leading nation with technologies that the West was not able to match until the early modern period. Paper, gunpowder and the compass are examples of Chinese inventions that are still widely used today. As the dominant power in the region for much of its history, China exported much of its culture to neighboring Vietnam, Korea and Japan, and Chinese influences can still be seen in the cultures of these countries. Chinese civilization has endured millennia of tumultuous upheaval and revolutions, golden ages and periods of anarchy. Through the economic boom initiated by the reforms since the 1980s, China has returned to its place as a major political and economic world power, buoyed by its large and industrious population. The depth and complexity of the Chinese civilization, with its rich heritage, has fascinated Westerners such as Marco Polo and Gottfried Leibniz in centuries past, and will continue to excite — and bewilder — the traveller today. In Chinese, China is zhōng guó, literally "central state" but often translated more poetically as "Middle Kingdom". People from everywhere else are called wàiguórén (外国人, "outside country people"), or colloquially lǎowài, "old outsider" with "old" in the sense of venerable or respected (in practice, these terms mostly refer to white people or Westerners, and almost never to any foreigner of Chinese descent).

History See Imperial China for more information on pre-revolutionary China.

Ancient China According to legend, the origin of the Chinese civilization can be traced to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (三皇五帝), though they are regarded as mythical figures by most modern historians. The recorded history of Chinese civ

Getting there

Immigration

China has exceptionally complicated visa requirements. If you are planning to use visa-free entry or transit without a visa, read up carefully and make sure you fulfill all the requirements, or risk being denied entry. If you're applying for a visa, make sure all your documentation is in order before applying for your visa, or risk being denied if even one required document is missing. That said, the Chinese government has been rapidly liberalizing its visa requirements. Hong Kong and Macau have their own visa requirements; see those articles for details. When entering or departing mainland China, citizens of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are required to use the Chinese citizen lanes and not the foreigner lanes at immigration. From 15 November 2025, foreigners may submit a digital arrival card online prior to arrival in place of the paper arrival card. Once completed, you will be issued a QR code that you should download onto your smart phone in case the immigration officer asks to see it. The paper arrival card is still available for now. Foreigners are required to register their place of lodging with the local police. In general your hotel should do this for you, but if you're staying somewhere unusual (such as with friends), you might have to do it yourself. Make sure the registration gets done, at least in the first place you stay after entering China, as failing to do it can cause problems getting a Chinese visa in the future.

Customs Each visitor aged 18 and over is entitled to a duty-free allowance of up to 1.5 L of alcoholic beverages, and up to 400 cigarettes, 20 cigars or 500 g of tobacco. The allowance is halved if you enter Mainland China through Hong Kong and Macau. For other goods, there is a duty-free relief of ¥2,000 for foreigners and ¥

Getting around

Google Maps does not work in China, and tends to have patchy coverage and data quality even if accessed via VPN. Moreover, China uses its own coordinate system for security reasons, which sometimes causes problems when using foreign map apps. The most common direction-finding app used by the Chinese themselves is Baidu Maps, though it is only available in Chinese. Amap (高德地图 gaode ditu) is a very convenient app available for both, Android and Apple devices. It is useful for navigating on foot or by car and also lists available public transportation options (bus and subway), including the price. Also available in English. It covers all of China and is useful even in seemingly rural places, though sometimes certain routes are only found on Baidu maps, so it's worth having both. Apple Maps uses Amap's data and is reliable, though it lacks certain features that the others offer. Alternative methods include other map apps based on OpenStreetMap data or renting a local GPS. More information at GPS navigation. Names of long streets are often given a middle word indicating the part of the street: north (北 běi), south (南 nán), east (东 dōng), west (西 xī), or central (中 zhōng). For example, White Horse Street or Báimǎ Lù (白马路) may be split up into Báimǎ Běilù (白马北路 "White Horse North Street"), Báimǎ Nánlù (白马南路 "White Horse South Street"), and Báimǎ Zhōnglù (白马中路 "White Horse Central Street"). In