Practical answers for your first time in Beijing.
Written by a local, and checked when things change. I publish slowly — each guide is complete before it goes up.
These are about Beijing specifically, not China in general. If a guide isn’t here yet, it’s because I haven’t checked it carefully enough to put my name on it — not because it’s stuck in a queue. The list is short on purpose. It grows when I’m certain, not when a calendar says to.
Live now 
Money
How to pay in Beijing — without a Chinese bank account
The exact setup, in the order to do it. No cash brick, no Chinese bank account.
Before you go
If it goes wrong: the 5 things that trip up first-timers
Phone won’t connect, card declined, address only in Chinese — the moments that stump people, each already sorted.
What I’m writing next
- Connectivity The eSIM and the apps that actually work in Beijing writing now
- Getting around Airport to city: every option, priced and timed writing now
- Tickets Booking the Forbidden City & Great Wall without a Chinese phone number researching
- Food Ordering when you don’t read Chinese: the apps and the phrases researching
- Neighborhoods Where to base yourself for a first visit researching