I donât travel to China often, but when I was there several years ago, there also seemed to be some kind of strict taxi checking at the airport. I was flying through Shanghai, I think, and needed to stay one night in an airport hotel. I took a taxi from the airport to the nearby hotel, and as I recall, there was a brightly-lit, gated police checkpoint before the taxi could leave the airport, they asked where we were going, and a photo was taken of the car and maybe the occupants as well. I seem to vaguely recall that the police may have even directed a question at me to make sure the taxi driverâs stated destination was the same as my stated destination. Not sure if all of this is normal, or if there was some heightened security at that time.
There was also some fuss at the hotel check-out the following morning, in that you had to present some piece of paper at the front desk that they had given you on the previous night, or else they wouldnât let you check out. Fortunately I had kept the paper and I could check out, but I saw that another traveler had already discarded that paper (whatever it was) and they wouldnât let him check out. âPapers, please.â
I went to China recently, stayed at a few different hotels and it was pretty quick to check in and out and nothing special needed apart from passport. Though I only stayed at western brands like Marriott, Ritz, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points etc. I stayed at a friendâs place for part of the trip and didnât register. At Marriott brands I used the self checkout box.
On many past trips I stayed with a friend or relative for 2-4 weeks and never registered and nothing came of it. I still have a 10 year visa (2nd time getting approved). I donât think they care unless you get in trouble and they can use it against you.
Shanghai has an online website for foreigners to self register now.
Yes you do, though in practice people donât follow it strictly. I donât even follow it while on a tourist visa. Just donât get in trouble since itâs probably the first thing cops will check.
âAccording to the Exit and Entry Administration Law of the Peopleâs Republic of China, all foreigners in China are required to register their place of residence or temporary accommodation with the local police within 24 hours of arrival at the address. This applies to all foreign nationals in China, as well as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents, whether you are in China for a short-term visit, such as for tourism or business, or living in China long-term for work, study, or family.â
Yes, but itâs more laced than with âreal foreignersâ. You can go to any hotel and check in, they will note down your details. Had a problem once since she booked in a cheaper hotel in Shanghai, but they couldnât register me as a foreigner while she was ok, they had to call a police car to register me manually⌠And they agreed to do that after a lot of shouting
Start bleaching your fur in large splotches until those splotches turn white. Leave eyes, ears and legs black. Leave a large black stripe on back that extends to forelegs.
Letâs be real there are no undiscovered places in China. But there must still be a lot of really cool places to visit. That valley sure looks amazing. Are there actual wild animals left in China
The hassle factor has increased even though itâs easier to get around these days by train and airplane. Itâs also not cheap paying for their visas.
Been thinking about going to Yunnan with family but itâs so vast not sure where to start.
Most Chinese live fairly close to their eastern coast. Anything northwest, Tibet, and such has very low population density. The actual inhabitable area of china isnât very large. I think there was a line drawn diagonally across china and 90 percent of the population lives to the east of that line.
Thereâs a lot of nature in inner Mongolia for example. Then thereâs the haliluija mountains from avatar. That is based on a real place in china.
Does anyone know what would happen if one didnât register and were found out?
That happened to me about ten years ago in China - I stayed in a âhotelâ which wasnât actually a hotel but more like an AirBnb type of thing, but young me thought I wouldnât need to register with the police.
Well, there were some issues with a foreigner in the city and the police started doing random inspections and they âcaughtâ me without the necessary registration paper in my passport. In the end, I had to pay a fine (EDIT: Looked it up: It was 500 RMB) and sign a âconfessionâ that I didnât know that I needed to register. The âhotelâ owner was also fined eventually from what I heard.
Now I am thinking about visiting China next year (with the recently announced visa-free travel) wondering if that might cause any issues even though lots of time has passed since thenâŚ
Visiting China is a pain now as a foreigner tourist.
Need to go through special foreigner passport inspections for things as simple as going into parks. So forget about leaving your passport at home.
WeChat is mostly closed off for foreigners, with limited use of foreign cards for select merchants. Cant transfer or hold money in WeChat without a local bank account.
Canât use Dianping. The first thing people do at a restaurant is usually order on dianping for half the price. Itâs like the google maps review of china, even Apple Maps sources reviews and links to dianping. And when you as a tourist click on a link youâre presented with a blocking sign in page that says no foreigners and canât even read the reviews for the restaurant.
