Preparing for China, tips

In the previous blog I spoke about going to China to teach English as a foreign language. Now I would like to tell you about some things I think would help you when arriving in China.

The first thing is that not many people speak English and even fewer people in the smaller cities. You can sometimes walk around for hours and not hear a word of English.

I would recommend having a printed version of the airport layout and directions on where to go when you arrive. If you are taking a connecting flight to another city be sure to print out the map and directions for the transfer flights - just so you are very clear on where to go and what to do.

Make sure your phone is open for international roaming and that you have a working Visa or Master Card with you. I had a problem with my mobile device which for some reason didn't want to connect even though the roaming was activated. That morning the Wifi at the airport was not working and I had a slight panic attack. I had to let the person who was going to pick us up at our final destination know that our flight was delayed.

Print out or have screen shots of words and important sentences you would need to communicate to people in their language in case nobody speaks English. This is something that I wish I had prepared for! Ideas: "I don't speak...(language, in this case Mandarin)" "What is the Wifi password?" "where is the bathroom/toilet?" "Could I use your phone/internet to contact my family?" Anything that you think could be useful in a situation where nobody can understand you or your body language. Even better, take some language lessons to be even better prepared.

Print out maps and addresses of the places you would be visiting or staying at to show to the taxi drivers. Google maps does not work in China. All things Google are blocked there. Apple maps works just fine provided you have an internet connection.

Get an offline translating app, even if you have to pay a little bit of money for it and make sure to also download the mandarin keyboard on your phone so that people can actually type on your phone to translate it back into your language.

Get yourself a comfortable back pack, something with good support and a waist strap as sometimes you will need to stand in immigration lines for up to 3 hours. The waist strap really helps by taking some of the weight off your shoulders. The last thing you want is something that digs into your shoulders after 15 hours of travelling and putting extra strain on your back. The investment into a good back pack would be worth it and you'll thank me later!

There are many other things you could add to this list but I'm sure you'll know what they are. I always research a lot before doing something and these are things I wish I did and knew before leaving for China.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this list and what you would do differently or add to this list. If you have anything specific you would like me to speak about in future blogs please leave me a comment and I'll be sure to look at it - The whole thing behind this blog is to get people involved and to interact.

Next I will speak about some of my first experiences and thoughts of China. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you in the next blog, stay tuned...